Benefitting from the wealth of a father who deals in riba

 

I am a young Muslim man and praise be to Allaah my father has some money. He heard a fatwa of Shaykh Tantaawi saying that it is permissible to take bank interest, and he put his money in the bank and started to take the interest. I am convinced that this interest is haraam, and I have tried a lot to convince him to give up this notion, but without success. 


Is there any sin on me, my brothers and my mother? I asked my father to promise not to spend on us from the money that comes from the interest. What do we have to do? If this money is spent on us, what should we do? Allaah has blessed me with work in Saudi and my father paid my travel costs, and I do not know whether this money is from the interest or not. Is the money I get from this work haraam or not? I hope you can advise me.

Praise be to Allaah.
 

 

There is no
sin on the children of one who deals in riba even if he spends purely
riba-derived money on their food, clothes or travel, if they have no other
way of earning a living. They have to advise their father in the manner
which they think will be most effective. If it is easy to find other means
of earning a living, or they do not need that money for the essentials of
living, then they have to do without it. 

Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: 

If the
father’s earnings are haraam, then it is essential to advise him.  Either
you can advise him yourselves, if you are able to do that, or you can seek
the help of scholars who can convince him or of his friends who may be able
to convince him to avoid these haraam earnings. But if that is not possible
then you may benefit from it as much as is necessary, and there is no sin on
you in this case, but you should not take more than you need because of
doubts as to whether it is permissible to benefit from one whose earnings
are haraam. 

(Fataawa
Islamiyyah, 3/452). 

If a father who deals in
riba dies, his heirs must get rid of the riba-based money by returning it to
its owners if they are known. Otherwise they should get rid of it by
spending it in charity, whether that is given individuals or to
institutions. If it is too difficult for them to find out exactly how much
of their father’s wealth is riba-based, they should divide it in half,
taking one half and distributing the other half.  

Shaykh
al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah was asked about a man who dealt in riba, and who left
behind wealth and a son who knew his father’s situation – was the wealth
permissible for the son as inheritance or not? 

He replied:
with regard to the amount that the son knows is riba-based, he should get
rid of it, either by returning it to its owners if possible, and he should
not give it in charity. The rest is not haraam for him. With regard to the
amount concerning which there is doubt, it is mustahabb for him not to take
it unless it is needed to pay off a debt or to spend on dependents. If the
father died when engaging in riba-based transactions that are allowed by
some fuqaha’, it is permissible for the heir to benefit from them. If the
halaal and haraam are mixed and the extent of each is unknown, it should be
divided into two halves. 

(Majmoo’
al-Fataawa, 29/307).

 And Allaah knows best.