Home mortgage in western countries : buying a house on standard credit at a Swiss bank with interest

Fatawa Question

Dear Dr. Monzer, Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh, We are a Muslim family with one son living in Switzerland and only one of us is working. We are renting an apartment just fulfilling our needs since we are married (since 6 years). As the neighborhood and surroundings have strongly degraded and deteriorated, we would need to move. When starting looking for a new apartment, we have unfortunately realized that the rents for similar apartment have increased at least 32 %. Once all the monthly bills are paid, and considering a new rent (if we would have moved), there is only a little left for savings or something unforeseen. We also do not have any property. By renting an apartment, we would never be able to save enough money to acquire a property for family security. If we would have to pay the new rent, we could possibly also buy an equivalent apartment with approximately similar monthly costs. Unfortunately and after a long search, we could not find in Switzerland an Islamic bank to provide us with the needed money to buy an apartment. Therefore, our question is: would it be in our case permissible to take a standard credit at a Swiss bank with interests ? As we know Riba is forbidden and Haraam, we are trying since a while to have a clear answer to our question by asking different Islamic sources about our case. Your response might be our last resort next to the Istikhara prayers we intend to do in parallel. We would really appreciate your response at your earliest convenience. Jazakum Allah Khayran.

Fatwa

Click hereto view more

Publication Date

2007-06-25

Main Subjects

Economics & Business Administration
Islamic Studies

No. of Pages

1

Data Type

Fatawa

Language

English

Record ID

BIM-785690

• APA
• MLA
• AMA