Q: The situation is as follows:
A person crashed a car of the owner by hitting a railing. The owners insurance was cancelled. The person drove off as no police report was needed. The owner of the car is saying you can either pay $1000 for the car and keep it or pay for the damages because the person is not able to get it renewed with his insurance. The owner had been paying $200 a month for it for about 4-5 years. The person is buying the car from the owner and taking it to another city. In the other city he will get the car safetied in its current condition and get insurance on it. He will then claim the car so that insurance can pay for the damage to fix the car. All the while he will be paying $150-200 for the car monthly in insurance. Is this correct for someone to do or is it haraam for someone to do that? One other point is he can pay insurance the full yearly amount upfront which is around $2400, and he may get 2-3 grand back for the car which they may treat as a write off.
A: Insurance has the elements of gambling and interest. Further there is an element of fraud and deception in the method you have proposed.
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)