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Taking interest in non-Muslim lands? 

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

It has been mentioned in previous Q&As that it is haram to take or give interest, but is it not the opinion of Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Shaybani as stated by Imam Sarakhsi in al-Sayr al-kabir wa sharhuhu, that it is permissible to take interest from non-Muslims in enemy lands? Therefore why follow what non-Mujtahid scholars of today say when our Mujtahid Imams are saying otherwise?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

1. The reality of non-Muslim lands, and Muslims living there, is fundamentally different from the reality the fuqaha discussed.

2. The top fuqaha of our times are agreed about the impermissibility of giving or taking interest in non-Muslim lands, for many reasons. The duty of the non-scholar is to follow the recognized scholars of their time; they do not have the choice of ‘digging up’ favorable rulings from the books, because such rulings may not reflect the time-and-space realities of their context.

See attached answer(s).

Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani

This answer was indexed from Qibla.com, which used to have a repository of Islamic Q&A answered by various scholars. The website is no longer in existence. It has now been transformed into a learning portal with paid Islamic course offering under the brand of Kiflayn.

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