Fatwa and Hukm

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honor of the prophets and messengers, and praise be to the Messenger of Allah, may peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and upon his family and his companions, and on many many things. From Abadu, my brothers and sisters, a very important matter that I want to speak to you about. And that is, somebody asked me this very wonderful question. The question they asked me was, they said that somebody has given a fatwa to say that if you do not own your own house, if you do not own a house, then to buy your first house, it is permissible to use an interest bearing mortgage. Right? The fatwa is, if you don't own a house, it is permissible to, get a house using an interest bearing mortgage. So I thought, let me clarify this once and for all. And for that, the excuse or the logic they have given, they used two terms which are Shari'i terms. One, they said that this is, to own a house is Darurah. To own a house is Darur. Darurah is the Shari'a. Darurah is something which, if you don't have this, if you don't have that, you will perish. Right? If you don't have that, you will perish. So in that case, the Haram becomes Halat. For example, if I don't get dinner today, can I use that to eat something Haram? No. Because if I don't eat one meal, nothing will happen to me. I won't die. But if I am not able to get any food, for say three days, four days, nothing. Not one scrap. So at the end of three days or four days, that's a different level of Darurah, different level of desperation. That's understanding about the word Darurah. The second word or term they used was that, since you are living in Darul Harb, Darul Harb. So I thought, let me explain this to you. And of course, this is recorded, so you can go and listen to it again and again if you like. First and foremost principle to understand is this, that all goodness, all khair, all barakah, all blessing is only and only in the obedience of Allah . Not in disobedience of Allah. So first get this thing settled. Once and for all, settle this in your mind. Don't live in confusion that there is no goodness, goodness in the disobedience of Allah. For example, somebody asked Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam, they said, Ya Rasulullah, if there is some medicine in which there is some alcohol, there is something which is haram, which is not, you know, the whole thing is not alcohol, but Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, there is no goodness in what Allah has prohibited. Period. So there is no goodness in what Allah has prohibited. There is no, no evil in what Allah has permitted. So all goodness comes from obeying Allah and all evil comes from disobeying Allah. That is the first thing which I want you to understand and fit in your mind. Then let me explain the second term which is, this term which is used in the, by the scholars called Darul Harb. Now Darul Harb and so on is not part of any, is not part of the, is not in the Quran and Sunnah, but this is terminology that was later on, created by the scholars. Alhamdulillah, it's good terminology, nothing wrong with that, but you must understand what it means. There are three classifications of states, of countries, three classifications. One is Darul Islam. Darul Islam is a country which is ruled by Muslims according to the Sharia of Islam. Right? Completely everything. The civil law, the criminal law, the law, concerning family law, right? Every single thing in this country is run completely and totally 100% according to the Sharia of Islam. There is no disobedience of Allah which is permitted in that country and that country is ruled by Muslims. This is called Darul Islam. Now I won't comment on, in today's world which country is like this. I'll leave that to, I'll leave you to discover that. Number two is a country in which the country may be ruled by Muslims or non-Muslims, doesn't matter. But in that country, they may have laws which are, some laws may resemble Islamic laws, some laws may actually be Islamic laws, right? According to the Sharia. For example, the criminal law may be according to the Islamic Sharia, but in terms of finance, this country has commercial banks, this country, the government itself borrows money from commercial banks and is paying interest, and it allows commercial banking in the country. Maybe it's got a distillery somewhere, maybe it's got a casino somewhere, maybe it allows this and allows that, maybe it allows the public consumption of alcohol, and so on and so forth. So this country is a mixture of laws, right? But as far as Muslims are concerned, in that country, there are no restrictions on Muslims to follow their own personal law in their lives. So if a Muslim wants to get, wants to pray, alhamdulillah, there are masajid, he can go and pray, she can go and pray in the masjid. If they want to fast, they can fast. If they want to go for Hajj and all that, they can go for Hajj and all that, there's no restriction on that. If they want to dress in an Islamic way, if the women want to have hijab, the men want to have beards and so forth, no restriction on that, most welcome, please do that. If they want to set up schools, colleges, universities, to teach their own religion, or to have departments of Islamic studies, no restriction, go ahead, do that, right? Inheritance property, the government does not compel you to leave your inheritance in this or that way. If I say I will leave my inheritance, according to the Sharia, what Allah has ordered it is Kitab, there is no problem with that. The government does not interfere with that and say, no, no, you can't do that, you must give equal to the daughters and the sons. The government does not say all that, it's up to you. You write your will any way you like. If you want to leave everything to your dog, most welcome. Government will not interfere. And your cat also cannot object to that. Why was nothing left to me? Right? Complete freedom with respect to the practice of the religion. Even though other laws in the country may be un-Islamic. Such a country is called Darul Aman, a place of peace, where a Muslim is not persecuted for his religion. A Muslim is free to follow his religion. At the same time, there are many other laws which are not Islamic. And if the Muslim wants to go and get drunk somewhere, nobody will stop him, nobody will beat him, nobody will punish him. Such countries are called Darul Aman. The third category is what is called Darul Harb, the land of war. That's very simple. That is where the Muslims are literally prisoners, either in their own country, or they have been taken as slaves or prisoners to some other country. So they are in a state of Harb. They are in a state where they are fighting. They are in a state where their lives are threatened, they are in a state where literally their survival is at stake. Three states. Darul Islam, Darul Aman, and Darul Harb. Now, these people who are giving these fatwas to say that interest-based mortgages are permitted for your first house, they are saying that you are living in Darul Harb, by which they mean places, countries like America or India or any of the European countries and so on and so forth. They are saying that you are living in Darul Harb, number one. That is the basis. And secondly, they say that to own a house, please understand very clearly, to own a house is Darula. It is critical to survival. Therefore, you can borrow money on interest, you know, in the form of a mortgage or whatever. Now, let us unpack this. The countries that I am in, there are countries that I have been to. There are countries that I have been to. I mean, I name for you, say India, say India or say America or say any of the European countries and so on. The three categories which I explained to you, which fits, is this Darul Islam? No. Is it Darul Harb? No. If it is Darul Harb, how are you sitting here in your own masjid and saying whatever you want? It's not Darul Harb. What is this country? Darul Aman. Darul Aman. The laws of the land, are they based on the Sharia? No. But if I want to practice the Sharia, which is we are doing, that's just how we prayed Salatul Maghrib behind the Imam in a beautiful masjid, mashallah, did anybody stop us? No. We can, are we free? Say I have property, right? And say I have children. And when I write my will and I say in my property, I am permitted to... give 33% to whoever I want, 66% will be divided among my children as per the Kitab of Allah, as Allah has... Will the government come and say, no, no, no, you can't do that? Will that happen? No. I am free to leave my property as I want. I want to get married and I say I want to get married according to the Sharia of Islam. Is anybody stopping me? Yes or no? No. Any Islamic principle? I am not allowed, right? I say I will not borrow money on interest. Will anybody stop me? No. Darul Aman. Right? So you are not living in Darul Harb. So first and foremost, understand this. We are not living in Darul Harb. Practically, except for one or two states which are right now in a state of war, other than that, all Muslims everywhere are living in Darul Aman. Alhamdulillah. You might say, well, it would be better if we had Darul Harb. I am sure. No, we are not disputing that. We are saying what is happening right now is happening. So Darul Harb, there is no such thing. We are not living in Darul Harb. Number one. Number two, to own a house. I am not saying to have a house. To own a house. Is this Darul Harb? If you do not own a house. Say, assume, for example, I do not own a house. And I know that I have a house. I never own a house. And my whole life I live in a rented house. Is there a problem with that? No. Will I go to Jahannam? Is it one of the questions of the Khabar? Is it one of the questions of the Day of Judgment? Nothing,