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Shaykh Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdul Ḥamīd az-Zuʿkurī -may Allah preserve him- was asked the following question:
📝 QUESTION:
He (questioner) says, “There are two applications that have come in the market, one of them called “Tabby” and the other “Tamara”, such that if you delay the payment, the debt will be increased, otherwise they will give you the thing without (additional) payment.
📩 ANSWER:
It was said that they canceled this decision. Rather, we responded by prohibiting it when this condition was in place, then they canceled it, so there is no harm in dealing with them1 -in shā Allāh-.
Answered on:
Thursday, 18th Ramaḍān 1445H
Source:
Shaykh Sulaymān bin Salīmullāh ar-Ruḥaylī -may Allāh grant him success- mentioned with regards to the BNPL companies in Saudi Arabia:
A jurisprudential perspective on lending companies like Tamara that dropped the condition of late fines2. Does that make their transactions permissible?
The answer is that this is not a preference on the part of these companies, but rather this is a (islamically) legal binding on them. Then they are forced to do this because the new system of transactions in Saudi Arabia, which began to be implemented a few days ago, contains an article that says that every additional condition imposed on the borrower upon contract or upon payment shall be invalid.
Praise be to Allāh for the blessing of this country.
This is good, but some of them changed that to what they called an administrative fees at the time of the contract, and there is no administrative fee in the loan. This is ribā (usury). (A loan should not be confused with a Murabaḥah3 sale)
Thus, if the contract is free from the late penalty and from administrative fees, it is permissible between the lender and the borrower.
But it remains that the lender benefits in terms of what he takes from the seller, not from the borrower (end customer). Is this under the heading of a loan that produces a benefit, thereby making the transaction forbidden in the first place?
The answer is that if the seller increases the price of the item over the buyer for the sake of these fees and charges it to the buyer, then this is usury and is forbidden for both the lender and the borrower.
But if the borrower does not bear anything, and this benefit to the lender is not from the borrower, then the transaction is permissible for the borrower.
As for the lender, the least that can be said about this is that there is strong suspicion. For if it were not for this interest, he would not have lent, meaning that he is lending with the intention of profit and increase, and this is not permissible.
The bottom line is that for the borrower there is no usury in this case, and for the lender the least is that there is strong suspicion.
– Posted on the Shaykh’s x feed on 7th Jumada Al-Akhirah, 1445H (20/12/2023)
Translator’s Footnotes:
- This is applicable only in case of Saudi Arabia as can be seen here. In any case, the buyer must exercise caution while dealing with these lenders to ensure that there is no increase in the price by way of administrative fees, service charges, late fees or any other charges as that would constitute to ribā’ (usury). ↩︎
- https://wp.me/p6WTNp-Om ↩︎
- Sales contract where the buyer and seller agree on the markup (profit) or “cost-plus” price for the item(s) being sold. ↩︎
يقول هناك تطبيقان نزلا في السوق وقال لهما تابي والأخر تمارا إلا أنك إذا تأخرت بالسداد يرفع الدين وإلا فهم يعطونك الشيء بدون دفع
قال الغوا هذا القرار بل اجبنا بمنعه حين كان هذا الشرط ثم الغوه فلا حرج من التعامل معهما إن شاء الله
▪️للشيخ أبي محمد عبدالحميد الزعكري حفظه الله تعالى.
🗓الخميس 18 / رمضان / 1445 هجرية
