Training to be a chartered accountant may involve witnessing Riba
26-5-2011 | IslamWeb
Question:
AsalamoAlikum Dear Brothers/Sisters I have a very Important question for which I need help. I am an Accounting and Finance Student. I am sure the reader would be aware of the dismal situation of world's economic system especially when it comes to widespread use of interest. I am sure Giving and Taking of Riba - interest is haram as well as witnessing it. I am in a postion to pursue one of the best possible accounting credential - Chartered Accountancy. The qualification can allow me to fight the virus of interest, work with Muslims on true finance and economic system governed by the shariah, and confront falsehood as a whole more effectively. However, before I can achieve such qualification I will have to spend around 3 years as a trainee under a speicalised firm. The training is just to teach you stuff practically. During the training the firm might ask me to witness transactions involving interest. I am sure that is haram but my intention to get that qualification which will provide me with a powerful platform which I can use for doing Jihad against falsehood system. Surely if a chartered accountant himself/hereself speaks against the system then his words would have huge wight. We as trainees under the firm can be considered as practical learners. Its permissilbe to learn interest related stuff from books - would the ruling be different for practical learning?. The pay the firm pays to trainees is a very small percentage of what the normal fully employed person gets. My question is very straighforward. I want to become a Chartered Accountant inshallah and use the platform against the system of falsehood but before I proceed I need the permission from Shariah. If you are a Chartered Accountant then you have huge say in the society. The crack a CA can cause in the falshood system can be very effective inshallah. Kindly do not refer to answer to similar question. I want to do something big for my Allah and His religion. May Allah reward you all
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
First of all, your intention is good and your objective is a noble one, and whoever intends to do good and he actually does it, Allaah will write it for him tenfold, and whoever intends to do good and he does not do it, Allaah will write it for him a full good deed as stated in an authentic Hadeeth.
In fact, studying financial transactions is permissible; rather, the Muslim nation needs this kind of career and other careers that are beneficial to it especially by those who are very concerned about its problems.
So, during your training, if you are requested to witness a real contract that involves Riba (interest and/or usury), then you must refuse doing so because it is forbidden to witness any contract that involves Riba. However, a wise and witty Muslim does not lack the means to refuse that.
Nevertheless, if you witness that contract, it is a sin for which you have to repent to Allaah but that does not prevent you from joining the studies and benefitting from it and calling to Islam through that field because what you expect of witnessing a Riba contract and the like is only a probability and not something certain to happen as you mentioned.
Allaah Knows best.