ANSWERED: Insurance Companies- Halal or Haram??

[phoenix]

Assalamalikum,
Ok, can some one help me with this? i have been trying to find a fatwa to know if Insurance is halal, but so far although i have a lot of many answers but none of them answer me well. If anyone knows about what I am talking about or can direct me to some site or book on the topic, i'd feel so obliged. the question is this:
In saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, most of the Insurance companies claim that the insurance that they do is the halal kind and people who work in these companies claim that their salaries are also Halal no matter if the company is a foreign company or what. what I am saying is, if, say, there is a french company that insures for example marine goods and shipments and since this means that whatever they are insuring is on global scale so how can this company claim that they dont deal in interest or whatever. I am not asking if insurance is halal, i am asking if a person who works in an insurance company earns a Halal Salary.
Also another question, these people who work in such companies also go around to bring in business and the way they work is that when they bring in business for a company, they get a commission. Is this commission Halal? you may say, that they are working for it and hence what they earn they get but then go back to the question that the money is coming from an insurance company so back to question one!

HELP!!

P.S hope i didnt confuse you... 'cause i am.

[Saleel]

:salam:

:insh: I'm going to move this to the Islam Q&A forum.

:jazak:

:salam:

[salman]

sallamu Alaikum

http://www.sunnipath.com/resources/Questions/qa00002682.aspx

I think you should validate whether or not the Insurance company has any elements of interest or Qimar (chance, luck). There are Muslims companies out there which offer viable solutions.

[Omar_Farouk]

:salam:

I found this on askimam.com but is very short:

http://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=10580

[phoenix]

JazakAllahu Khayr for the comments. By the links that you both have left, it seems that working in an Insurance company is Haram. what is astonishing is that companies in Saudi Arabia claim that the kind of Insurance that they do is Halal. i wonder how far it is true.

A few years ago i had read an article in which it was said that the best way to find out if what you earn is Halal or haram is to try to see if you are happy with what you earn. if nothing bad befalls you like family problems or if you are happy and content with life then that means that what you earn is Halal. If on the other hand, you find that you're life is plagued with problems and unexplainable situations then that means that somewhere the income that you enjoy is not right.

i dont kow how far this Fatwa holds true because it has been five years now and so far i have not found any reference to that and by now i have lost that newspaper cutting too.

[eat-halal guy]

:salam:


If the companies are offering truly Halal insurance products (as some do in the Muslim world, I think), then there would be no problem in earning money from there (in the form of a salary or a commission).

As for large multinationals offering Halal products, maybe if they have local subsidaries that deal only with (or mostly with) Halal products, then it would be okay....I don't know. Maybe someone else can answer that. :confused:


Al Balagh:


If most of the activities of a business are haram, a Muslim should not take up the work for that business.


Unless the major part (at least 51%) of the company is haram it is not prohibited to draw salary for permissible services rendered to that company.


http://www.albalagh.net/qa/accountant_interest.shtml




This might help:

http://www.darululoomkhi.edu.pk/fiqh/Contemporary%20Fatawa/Economy/insuranceofcars.htm


Allah knows best.

[eat-halal guy]

Most (if not all) types of conventional insurance are Haram. However, there is an Islamic alternative called takaful. Please see http://www.takaful.com.sa/m1sub1.asp and http://www.takaful.com.sg/main.htm for more info.

To compliment the quotes in the previous post on Halal employment:


SunniPath:


As a principle, it should be remembered that, the permissibility or impermissibility of employment in a particular firm or company basically depends on two things:


1) The nature of the job must be lawful (halal), meaning if the work entails something that is prohibited in Shariah, such as posing for nude picture-taking, serving alcohol or recording and calculating interest transactions, etc, then this type of work will be unlawful.


The reason for its prohibition is that, the work itself has been prohibited in Shariah, and due to this, even if the salary was paid from a Halal source, the work will still remain unlawful.


2) The salary or income that one receives must also be from a Halal source. If the work in itself is lawful (halal), but the salary is paid from unlawful and impure money, such as stolen or interest money, it will still be unlawful to accept that job.


Based on the above, if your job does not entail anything unlawful (even though the firm may be involved in unlawful transactions), and secondly and more importantly, the salary you receive is not from unlawful wealth, then your job will be Halal. If the salary is paid from a mixture of Halal and Haram wealth, consideration will be given to what is the majority.



http://www.sunnipath.com/resources/Questions/qa00003643.aspx


Allah knows best.