Do the heirs have to get rid of interest/riba?
Question My father has passed away and left a wealth for us in a governmental bank. Interest has been added to this money since he firstly put it in the bank 1986 until he died in 2005. After my father died I cancelled the interest, and now I am trying to get rid of it….
Question
My question is: Do I have to get rid of all the interest that was added since the money was firstly put in the bank, or only the interest of the last one or two years before I cancelled it?.
Praise be to Allah.
It is not permissible to
put money in riba-based banks except in cases of necessity in order to
protect it when there is no Islamic bank. In that case one should only use a
current account (i.e., without interest), on the basis of doing the lesser
of two evils. The interest that is taken for depositing money in a
riba-based bank is haraam and it is riba which has been forbidden by Allaah
and His Messenger in emphatic terms. Hence you should get rid of it by
spending it in the public interest and on charitable causes. See the answer
to question no. 20876 and
45691.
This getting rid of it is
obligatory for the one who dealt with riba. As for the heirs, they may
benefit from this money according to some of the scholars, because that
which it is haraam to acquire – such as riba – is haraam only for the one
who acquires it, not for the one to whom the money is transferred by
permissible means such as inheritance, a gift and so on.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may
Allaah have mercy on him) said: As for that which is haraam because of the
way in which it is acquired, it is haraam for the one who acquires it, such
as riba. If the person who dealt with riba dies, then his wealth is
permissible for his heirs. As for that which is haraam in and of itself,
such as alcohol, it is haraam for the one who passes it on and the one to
whom it is passed on. The same applies to that which is haraam and remains
haraam, such as usurped and stolen property. If a person steals something
then dies, it is not permissible for the heir. If he knows who the owner is
he should give it to him, otherwise he should give it in charity on his
behalf. End quote from Liqa’aat al-Baab il-Maftooh (1/304).
Based on this, there is
nothing wrong with you benefiting from this wealth, but it should be noted
that you have to get rid of the interest that was added to the money after
your father died, because the money came into your possession on the death
of your father. As for the interest that your father took during his
lifetime, there is nothing wrong with you benefiting from it, and you do not
have to get rid of it.
Some scholars are of the
view that riba-based interest should not be included in the estate, and that
one should get rid of it. This was stated in a fatwa by the scholars of the
Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas.
See: Fataawa al-Lajnah
al-Daa’imah (16/455, 479).
But the former view is the
one that we favour and follow.
And Allaah knows best.
