Working for a company that was established with a riba-based loan and is still borrowing money on the basis of riba
Question What is the ruling on working for a company that was founded with a riba-based loan and until the present is still taking loans, and every time it pays off one loan, it takes out another for a larger amount… And via these loans it funds its projects and pays the salaries of its…
Question
Praise be to Allah.
If the projects that the company undertakes are permissible
projects, and the programmer asked about does not directly deal with the
finances of the company, as you said, then it is permissible for him to work
with that company, but it is better for him to look for other work, because
it is makrooh to work with those who deal with riba.
The sin of riba is borne by the company and those who
directly deal with riba or help with it, or approve of it. As for the salary
of the programmer, he has received it in return for permissible work.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked
about an employee who works for a company that deals with banks and takes
out riba-based loans from them, and gives the employees their salaries from
those riba-based loans.
He replied: Does this employee write the contracts between
the company and the banks?
Questioner: He does not write them; rather it is me, O Shaykh!
(i.e., he is the employee about whom the question is being asked).
Shaykh: Then you do not write down the riba-based contract,
you do not witness it, and you do not take or give riba, so I do not see
anything wrong with this, so long as the work you do for the company is
sound (and free of any haraam element), in which case the burden of sin is
borne by the company itself. If you do not go to the bank or sign any
transaction with the bank, then there is no sin on you. This company – first
of all – was not established for the purpose of dealing in riba, and it is
not like the bank concerning which we would tell you not to take a job
there. It was not established for the purpose of dealing in riba. Secondly,
you are not dealing directly with the riba, by writing it down, witnessing
it or offering any other service connected to it; your work is separate from
the riba.
End quote from al-Baab al-Maftooh (59/15).
And Allah knows best.
