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Is the fixed return on investment certificates and savings deposits riba?

Ideas Today

هل عائد شهادات الاستثمار وودائع التوفير ذات الربح المحدد ربا؟

A modern question that arose with banks, savings funds and investment certificates paying a return fixed in advance. Ahmad Shalabi treats it in al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami and holds the return permissible, reporting the same from scholars of al-Azhar and the Islamic Research Academy, and noting that some researchers hold it forbidden.

Depth

At a glance

Contested: This record includes matters on which scholars differ. The speaker's views are labelled as his, and other views are marked where no cited source yet exists.

Trade and finance

Summary

A modern question: money placed in bank and post-office savings funds, or used to buy investment certificates, earns its owners a profit fixed in advance; is that profit forbidden riba or lawful? Ahmad Shalabi treats it in al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami, noting that Muslims dealing in this way number in the hundreds of millions, so the subject must be studied carefully and repeatedly. 1

The views

Shalabi on the disagreement

Shalabi holds that disagreement where there is no text is natural, citing Zayd ibn Thabit (may God be pleased with him)'s reasoning on the mother's inheritance, that the plurality of schools is a blessing that should not turn into conflict, and that asking everyone to agree on one ruling is asking the impossible. 8 9 He says Islam "is not run by academies" as some religions are; Islamic thought welcomes consensus where possible but gives the deeply learned Muslim the right to independent reasoning, for which he cites the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal. 9 He describes categorical prohibition as disrespectful of others' views and quotes Shaykh Abd Allah al-Mashadd that a Muslim may choose either view without blame. 3 These are the author's views; the museum reports them as his and does not choose between the positions.

Opinions on the question

The question: The ruling on a return fixed in advance on money deposited in banks, savings funds and investment certificates.

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni: the prohibiting view, as Shalabi reports itMain reference

Shalabi notes that some researchers hold this dealing forbidden, and quotes Shaykh Abd Allah al-Mashadd that some researchers consider it forbidden and others lawful; among the reasons of those inclined to prohibition he cites that the money earned profit without work, or without risk. 2 3 This view is not given here from its holders' own books or from the resolutions of fiqh academies that adopted it (needs_source).
More opinions (1)

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni: the permitting view, Shalabi's and those he citesMain reference

Shalabi holds that the Qur'an, the commentators, the hadiths and the jurists tie riba to loans, that contracts and conditions are permissible in principle unless a text forbids them, compares the return with partnership profit and with the rent of houses and land, and suggests it may compensate for the collapse of the currency. 4 2 5 He reports the permissive view from Abd al-Rahman Isa; from Ali al-Khafif, who held dealing with the savings fund not usurious because the depositor can withdraw his money at will; from a study presented by Ali al-Khafif and Yasin Suwaylim at the Islamic Research Academy conference in Cairo in 1972; from Abd al-Mun'im al-Nimr; and from the Academy's committee for juristic research at al-Azhar, where in meetings of April and May 1976 most representatives of the four schools decided that the profits of the National Bank's investment certificates are not riba, since exploitation and the chance of loss are absent, some of them holding them a lawful partnership. 6 7 He cites passages of Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim and Muhammad Abduh on removing hardship and tying riba to its purpose. 5

Connections

Explore the connections

Subject of
al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Economics in Islamic Thought)

People and things also explored

Usury (riba)· Ahmad Shalabi (historian)· al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Economics in Islamic Thought)· Al-Madina Souq, Aleppo· Bazaar of Tabriz· Khan el-Khalili· Al-Hamidiyah Souq· Souq Waqif

Sources

  1. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.123
  2. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.140
  3. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.141
  4. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.13
  5. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.142
  6. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.144
  7. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.145
  8. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.124
  9. Ahmad Shalabi, al-Iqtisad fi al-Fikr al-Islami (Mawsu'at al-Hadara al-Islamiyya 4, 10th ed., 1993) , p.125
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Is the fixed return on investment certificates and savings deposits riba?”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/questions/shahadat-al-istithmar/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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Usury (riba)