Takaful : Gharar in insurance
Fatawa Question
Assalamu 'alaikum Dr. Kahf, I pray this message finds you in good health and ever-increasing Iman ! I've glanced over the various insurance-related Fatawa on your website-JazakAllah Khair. Recently, I read a response to the assertion that insurance contracts are free of Gharar due to the statistical data they use to ascertain the probability of various eventualities : "urging the permissibility of insurance, one Muslim modernist has written that the very precise statistical data possessed by insurance companies concerning the probabilities of various eventualities makes what they are selling determinately known (Ma'lum). This argument fails when one realizes that statistical data from a group of events yields figures that, properly speaking, are a description of the group as a whole, and are only analogically applied to the individual events within it. When generalized to similar groups of events in the future, such probabilities yield commercially useful knowledge about the likelihood of a particular outcome for these future groups. But they cannot and do not tell what the outcome will be for any particular member of the group, in this case the particular insurance policy. Thus, a "17 percent probability" that circumstances will enable one to collect such and such an amount on a policy is a mere description of the whole group of previous policy holders in similar circumstances, which does not tell whether one will collect the amount or not. One may collect a certain amount or may not collect it, which is precisely the Gharar that is impermissible." (Nuh Ha Mim Keller, "Reliance of the Traveler") would you kindly comment on the above ? JazakAllah Khairan ! Wasalam, Farooq
Fatwa
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Publication Date
2011-07-29
Main Subjects
Economy and Commerce
Islamic Studies
Topics
No. of Pages
2
Data Type
Fatawa
Language
English
Record ID
BIM-729460
American Psychological Association (APA)
Qahf, Mundhir. 2011-07-29. Takaful : Gharar in insurance. .
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-729460
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Qahf, Mundhir. Takaful : Gharar in insurance. 2011-07-29.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-729460
American Medical Association (AMA)
Qahf, Mundhir. 2011-07-29. Takaful : Gharar in insurance.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-729460