Zakah on retirement funds and accounts : are Islamic banks chatging higher rates ?

Fatawa Question

[Question One] : Alsalm Alekom Wa Rahmato Allah Wa Barakatoh I am a Moslem living in London and want to buy a house. I understand that there is a Fatwa by Dr Karadawi to allow non Islamic mortgage if the hose is to be used for living in to for trading. but I have been told that Sheikh Karadawi restricted this only to the absolute emergency where there is no Islamic mortgage. There are four banks offering Islamic mortgage in London, but they are more expensive than non Islamic mortgage. Also I contacted them and what they told me was that they acctually borrow money from the Bank of England to buy the house in their name and rent it out to the client and that the rent is based on a profit margin above ther bank of England base rate or above Libor (London Interbank offered rate). So in reality they are a middle man between the client and a normal non Islamic bank. the take a non Islamic loan and charge the client for the interest rate plus an additional profit for themselves. As I see the situation now, the Islamic banks are more expensive than normal banks. And they actually purchase the money from the market i.e. non Islamic loans and charge an extra fee. Plese advise, what should I do. Thank you [Question Two] : Thank you very much for having the time to reply to my query but I wanted to inquire thoroughly about my personal situation. what I understood from some scholars is that fatwa Alsheikh AlKaradawy doesn't apply to Muslims who live in England as there are about four Islamic bodies that do Islamic home mortgage. the point is after checking with them I found out that they are charging higher rates than other conventional mortgage suppliers. to give you average figures so you can understand the situation, having a mortgage with HSBC Amanah will make me pay 547000 sterling pound for the house purchased at 282500 with me keeping some cash in the bank for my personal use. However, if I paid that cash that I am intending to keep, as an offset type of conventional mortgage I will be paying the total price of the house of less than 370,000 pounds with a difference of about 170000 plus, from the Islamic mortgage. as well as reducing the payment term. me and my wife donot want to go for something that has a Shobhaa in sharia. we are afraid of haram and Ribba as we cannot afford a war from Allah and the prophet. we need a Fatwa Is it halal to take normal mortgage if the Islamic ones are of a huge difference than the normal ones or is it not, as long as Islamic ones exist even if they are much more expensive Barak Allah Feek Wa Jazak Allah Khair

Fatwa

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Publication Date

2007-11-10

Main Subjects

Economics & Business Administration
Islamic Studies

No. of Pages

3

Data Type

Fatawa

Language

English

Record ID

BIM-786689

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