Is it a sin to accept e.g. food from a relative who supports herself using riba?

Question

I am in a grave confusion for a long time. I am well aware of the fact that taking interest or being associated with anything related to it is a dangerous sin.

But my aunt (from my mother’s side) lives next door, and she lives off from the money of interest from the bank. And as we are relatives and as well as neighbors, we exchange cooked food everyday. My question is, will I be under sin of having any association with riba for having food from her?

If so, I can’t also deny her offerings as it will break the relationship, which is also a sin from Islamic view. What should I do in this situation? Hope, someone can help me out on this matter with proper reference hadith.

Answer 1

This is just a thought. You do not need an Imam for you to tell you what to do in this case. You already know what to do since you say like this --> 'I can’t also deny her offerings as it will break the relationship, which is also a sin from Islamic view.'

Just accept it (you can decide whether to eat it or not or give it to someone who needs food [but no merit for that though] ;)), keep a good relationship with her and slowly try to point out what she is doing is wrong. If you think she will not listen, and it could again cause problem for your family, just leave it.

You can deal with this with your own logic and what you feel is right. Islam is more logical.

When you see a sin, 1. Try to Stop it with action, 2. Try to stop it by word 3. hate that sin with your heart.

This is the basic level of E-Maan.

Answer 2

First and foremost: Assuming she is a Muslim you have to be %100 sure if she is supporting herself with riba. (If your relative wasn't a Muslim then things would be differently). If you are not sure then you have no problem in eating. If you are sure:

You see, your friend, your father, your neighbor...everyone they are all working for someone, or with someone. Do you think all their money is pure?

I mean your father's employer does he make his money in a pure way? OK. What about the people who work with your father's employee? What about your friend's partner's client? You see where I'm going with this?

In general this is unavoidable but it doesn't mean that we should be careless.

Also do you know ALL her income is made through this way? I mean from when she was 10 years old until now, did she always make her income through riba? I doubt it. Do you know if she bought the food from all her non-halal income? Again I doubt you can be certain. I don't think she even separates her money this way. Like let me go buy food with halal-income but fix my car with non-halal-income. So because you can never successfully separate then you can eat.

So you are to accept it and assume that the money is coming from her non-haram way of income.

What you should never do yourself is to support yourself from riba. Others is not your problem.

Having that said my knowledge on this subject is 7/10 so do double check with an Imam you trust.