Question:

Do you advise me to get rid of my VISA card? I only have 1 for emergencies and when I travel… can you give me some advice please, should I cancel it and rely on Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, or is having it an exception to living in this society?

I’ve read different opinions from people I don’t know, but I want to get your opinion inshallah.

Answer Sh. Khaled Abdel Hamid Alazhari: In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Praise be to Allah(The Almighty), the Cherisher and the Sustainer of the worlds. Peace, prayers, and blessings be upon our illiterate Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions

I would like to thank you for the great confidence you place in me, and I implore Allah Almighty to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake. As for your Question : Using Credit card?

Introduction
Credit card contract has a conditional interest (Riba) clause.
Credit cards may be used to pay for purchases and to withdraw cash.

The Rule
Using Credit card has two opinion of thought in islam:

The First:
Using Credit card is permissible in Islam as long as one does not delay paying the bills and pay the total amount on time.

The Second:
Using Credit card is forbidden (haram) in Islam even if the user is certain that he will pay the bank within the time.

The first Opinion is based on that using the credit card is like using the modern banking system. Most of the modern banks are interest-based and Muslims have to use them because interest free banks are not available. It is permissible to use the services of these banks without getting involved in interest.

The second opinion base their ruling on hadith narrated by Ibn Mass’ood

“Allaah has cursed the one who consumes Riba (i.e. usury or interest), the one who gives it to others, the one who records it and the one who witnesses it (its transaction).” He said: “All of them are equal in sin.” [Muslim]

So, having a credit card and dealing with it, itself is surrounded by many prohibitions.

1. Everyone who demands a credit card has to agree to the terms mentioned in the contract, i.e. that he is ready to pay interest, thus he freely approves of dealing with interest. Therefore, whenever one delays in any payment he pays a certain percentage as interest. Merely signing such a contract is forbidden, since this clearly indicates that he approves of this transaction.
2. Very likely the one who has such a card is practically involved with interest whenever he\she delays a payment or not.

Sh. Khaled Abdel Hamid Alazhari’s Fatwa:

I conclude that it contains usury (RIBA) which is forbidden in Islam, so it should not be used.
The need and easiness in marketing by the internet is not a sound reason (darorah) that entitles you to enter a contract that involves Riba. You can solve this problem by using pre-credit card.It’s permissible because you spend your own money with the same benefits of using credit card without committing sins.

But if you have a sound reason or necessity (darorah) You can use them with two condition:

1. Do not delay paying the bills and pay the total amount on time.
2. Do not withdraw cash money.

And Allah knows Best

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Saudi Arabian Central Bank Governor said:

It will be a qualitative jump in the way we finance housing in the country and in the way we use financial instruments that are linked to the housing market.

The Sharia-compliant legislation which has been discussed for the past two years will consist of five parts. It will define the terms of mortgages, how they are designed, how they are granted, how companies are licensed and how procedures will be enforced.

The legislation is on the way to the council of ministers before going to the Shura Council, the country’s consultative assembly, for final approval.

When asked if Saudi government has planned to issue longer maturity bonds, Al Jasser said that Hopefully, the mortgage law will ensure the production of sufficient sukuk and corporate bonds that will be held by banks in lieu of government bonds.

Islamic Sharia forbids interest payments. Hence Sukuk, or Islamic bonds that are asset-based securities are used to pay profit distributions to investors.

U.S. Central Command spokesman, Air Force Maj. John Redfield, told the Associated Press, “This situation is not unlike the situation with U.S. currency. Are we going to stop using money because the bills have ‘In God We Trust’ on them? As long as the sights meet the combat needs of troops, they’ll continue to be used.”
Redfield says the inscriptions do not break military rules on proselytizing because the equipment is not distributed beyond the troops who are actually using them.

Trijicon’s director of sales and marketing, told Associated Press, “We don’t publicize this.” He says, “It’s not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, ‘Yes, it’s there.’ ”

According to an ABC report, one of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads:

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as “the light of the world.” John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads,

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

In an interview with ABC, Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation feels the religious inscriptions will give the Taliban and other enemies of the U.S. a propaganda tool where they could say American troops are Christian crusaders invading Muslim countries.

I don’t have to wonder for a nanosecond how the American public would react if citations from the Koran were being inscribed onto these U.S. armed forces gun sights instead of New Testament citations.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) called on US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to immediately withdraw from combat use equipment found to have inscriptions of Biblical references after it emerged that Trijicon has contracts to supply over 800,000 of the sights to the US military.

Commander Darryn James, a Pentagon spokesman, told AFP,

If determined to be true, this is clearly inappropriate and we are looking into possible remedies.

I think Muslims should not make it a big deal at all as it is not. US military and NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have majority who are Christians in faith. Whether they use a weapon that has reference to biblical inscription does not make any difference. They have every right to do so.

My advise to Muslims around the world is please don’t make this non-issue an issue.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay outlined the new focus for the expected 2,000 Canadian troops, who will be positioned in Jacmel, a town of about 40,000 on Haiti’s southern coast. Canada’s Governor-General Michaëlle Jean’s family has strong roots in that community, which was virtually isolated from the rest of Haiti by recent earthquake.

The other area of concentration is a town west of Port-au-Prince, Leogane, where the quake hit hardest. The Canadian troops will provide everything from engineering support to clean water and medical aid. Three mobile purification plants will be on the ground in Haiti and can provide up to 36,000 gallons of clean water every day.

Canada has also announced expedited immigration process for the family members of the Canadians in Haiti as well as the adopted children. Canadians wishing to sponsor their family members are advised to write Haiti on the envelope before sending to Canadian Immigration Center. However, members of Montreal’s Haitian community said that Canada is not doing enough to help Haitians leave their earthquake-ravaged homeland

Canadian also raised over $125,000 through text messaging donations through their cellphones. The major cellphone carriers waived off the normal text messaging fee ($0.15) for this purpose.

The 7.7 million Euros sponsorship contract will give the Turkish Airlines right to place its logos on the billboards in FC Barcelona’s home stadium, Camp Nou, and all other locations where the team is playing. Turkish Airlines will also carry out relevant promotions and fly the FC Barcelona players to their tournaments.

According to Temel Kotil, the Turkish Airlines was able to grow during the financial crisis that affected the aviation sector around the globe. The passenger numbers of Turkish Airlines were up 11% to 25.1 million in 2009, according to official figures released by the company on January 13, 2010. However, this growth missed the company’s target of 26.8 million. Altogether, the airline currently has a fleet of 134 aircraft and serves 156 destinations world wide. Turkish Airlines targets to handle 40 million passengers annually by 2012.

The Western powers have shown their desire to ratchet up the pressure on an increasingly defiant Teheran over its atomic ambitions during a UN Security Council debate on Iran. However Russia and China hinted that they were not convinced.

French UN Ambassador Gerard Araud told the council, “If it continues to refuse the slightest confidence measures, to refuse dialogue, transparency … we must draw all of the necessary conclusions and that means that we must move on to a new resolution involving sanctions.”

The French envoy later told reporters, “‘We make a last call to the Islamic Republic of Iran to respond to our offer of negotiation. ‘If Iran doesn’t do it on the short term, France will propose a new resolution of sanctions.”

Iran rejects the allegations, along with UN demands that it suspend a program it says is intended solely for the peaceful generation of electricity. But Western officials say recent revelations about a previously hidden uranium enrichment plant in Iran have made Teheran’s denials less credible.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters in Moscow, “This language of sanctions, it is not our language. It has already been said many times.” He further said Moscow favored ‘using political and diplomatic methods to resolve all emerging problems.’

The United States said again that Teheran might have to face new sanctions but did not touch on the question of when work on a new sanctions resolution should begin.

US Ambassador Susan Rice told the council, “Should Iran continue to fail to meet its obligations, the international community will have to consider further actions.”

The Chinese envoy stressed that China remained committed to negotiations with Teheran and there was still room for talks.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters that the six powers would base a decision on whether to press for a new round of UN sanctions on an assessment of Teheran’s nuclear program and its response to their offer of economic and political incentives in exchange for an enrichment suspension.

He added that if a well known personality like him can be treated in such a manner, these hospitals are capable of doing far worse to the general public. After failing to receive adequate treatment for his wife in Pakistan, Akram was forced to fly her out of the country. Her condition worsened when the plane made a refuelling stop in Chennai. She was shifted to the Chennai Hospital, where she succumbed to a severe infection, a week later.

Pakistan National Assembly Standing Committee on health has recommended the cancellation of practice licenses 17 doctors of Lahore over negligence in the treatment of wife of former cricket captain Wasim Akram’s wife Huma. Federal Health Minister has directed the PMDC to cancel license of these doctors.

A meeting of was held here in Parliament House. Dr. Nadeem Ehsan has presided the meeting. Wasim Akram has informed the Pakistan National Assembly Standing Committee on health that doctors of National Hospital are responsible for the death of his wife. He said hospital administration charged $200,000 for treatment and commission to send Huma Singapore whereas India allowed her entry without visa and charge nothing for treatment. Earlier, Federal Health Minister Ijazz Jakhrani briefed the committee and informed that investigation of death of Huma Wasim has revealed the negligence of the doctors.