#1195: Ruling on Installmental Payments

As-salaamu alaikum

Question

Yaa Sheikh. How is family? Please, is easy -buy for Phone halal in Islam? If this had been answered, just refer me. Thanks

ANSWER:

Wa Alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh

Alhamdulillāh.

What is apparent from the Question is that it relates to Installment payments.

As for Installmental Payments, the majority of the Fuqahā from the Various Schools considered it permissible and ok Provided the conditions are clearly stipulated, known and agreed by both parties.

Evidence for this is the Hadīth recorded by Imām Al-Bukhārī that Ā’ishā radiyallāhu’anha said: Barīrah came to me and said: “I drew up a contract of manumission with my master stating that I would pay nine waqiyah, one waqiyah each year.”

Thus in the Sharī’ah there is no difference between being in debt and paying it at once and being in debt and paying it installmentally provided both parties are agreed to the terms of it.

If it is said, the matter of Installmental Payments encompass paying higher than if the payment is made at once and earlier. We say, the majority of the Fuqahā from the four Schools consider this permissible though some disagreed.

‘Alā’uddīn Al-Kāsānī Al-Hanafī rahimahullāh said in Badā’ī As-Sanā’i:

“The Price may be increased as a result of delay”

This form of transaction is known as Al-Bay’u Bi At-Taqsīt.

If it is said what is the difference between this and the Transaction of Ribā?

We say: This Transaction is based on an agreement that is made by both parties and it is part of the Halāl Transaction that Allāh mentioned in the Qur’ān when He said:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا تَدَايَنتُمْ بِدَيْنٍ إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى فَاكْتُبُوهُ {البقرة:282}

“O You who Believe when you transact with one another in Credit to an appointed term, then record it”

As for Ribā, it is Wealth borrowed out in exchange for more of it in a later time. And a form of investment in other people’s business where the investor is not willing to share in the risks of the business owner but to only benefit from the rewards of it. They are not the same.

When it has become clear that Payment in Installments is permissible, then you should realise that the condition mentioned by the Fuqahā in permitting this transaction is clarity of terms and agreement by both parties and provided the item under purchase is one about which transaction is permissible in the first place.

We ask Allāh for Tawfīq and Sadād

Āmīn Jazakumullāhu Khayran

Bārakallāhu Fīkum

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