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Question
I have been married to my husband for 8 years. I knew after I married him that the 2 houses he has he bought after taking mortgage with interest from the bank. I told him that this is Haram but he never listens. He also bought 2 other houses the same way and didn’t listen to what I told him. Now we live in one house and he rents the others. I am so worried cause most our income is from this rents. I have 3 kids and I am afraid our food, clothes, everything we bought is Haram. What should I do, stay with him or leave? I do not want to eat from Haram.
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
There is no doubt that getting a loan with usury and interest is Haram. It is an obligation for whoever does this to repent to Allah, and to give back the capital to the one he borrowed it from (in this case the bank) without any interest or usury unless if he does not find the means to pay this interest. He has to pay it and get rid of this forbidden contract, and has to repent sincerely to Allah, the Exalted.
It is not an obligation to sell the houses bought in this manner, and the income from the rent of these houses is Halal, as long as the rent contract is correct.
This opinion is according to some scholars like the Madhab of Malik and Shafi’e, that the benefits from Haram money is a property of the worker who invested it. Their evidence is the Hadith of Ayisha (Radiya Allahu Anha) that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: "The guarantor takes the profit". [Reported by Abu Dawud]
As long as he was a surety (guarantor) to this money, then whatever the outcome (profit) is, is for him. This is what we consider to be the preponderant opinion.
Allah knows best.
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