Dealing in Interest while Living in a Non-Muslim Country

Question

If a person lives in a country which has an interest based banking system then is he not allowed to work in any company or institution then? As all companies will comply with the government rules including the ones on interest. Also I heard that Imam Abu Hanifa had said that if you are living in a Non-Muslim Country then you can work in a interest driven market. He said this when Muslims were going to Europe to spread Islam and had to work in the interest based market of Christian Europe. Is this is true then please provide the citations for this.

Answer 1

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله،

(ٱلَّذِینَ یَأۡكُلُونَ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ لَا یَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا یَقُومُ ٱلَّذِی یَتَخَبَّطُهُ ٱلشَّیۡطَـٰنُ مِنَ ٱلۡمَسِّۚ ذَ ٰ⁠لِكَ بِأَنَّهُمۡ قَالُوۤا۟ إِنَّمَا ٱلۡبَیۡعُ مِثۡلُ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ۗ وَأَحَلَّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلۡبَیۡعَ وَحَرَّمَ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ۚ فَمَن جَاۤءَهُۥ مَوۡعِظَةࣱ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ فَٱنتَهَىٰ فَلَهُۥ مَا سَلَفَ وَأَمۡرُهُۥۤ إِلَى ٱللَّهِۖ وَمَنۡ عَادَ فَأُو۟لَـٰۤىِٕكَ أَصۡحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِۖ هُمۡ فِیهَا خَـٰلِدُونَ) [سورة البقرة 275]

Any transaction with interest is haram.

This is a limitation set by god, not mere humans, any person who says otherwise is talking outside of the boundaries of Islam, no matter what his "status" may be to a subpart of Muslims.

The fact your company/boss is not applying the laws of shariaa doesn't make you responsible for his acts, the same way you're not responsible for him not being a muslim for instance. In the end you are paid for providing services, the provenance of the money he's paying you with is outside of your reach, and the way the state you live in is handling your taxes is also outside of your reach.

You're only judged upon what you can act on, in this case what you've done with the money you've been paid for. Allah will never make you take a burden that you can't handle.

Furthermore, with this reasoning of yours, you could just as well cut yourself from the whole world because pretty much all countries are involved in world wide commerce which implies some kind of interest. So you wouldn't be buying anything from anyone because you would be supporting the global world system which is anti-islamic, and this is a direct non-sense.

Allah is the Owner of Everything, and he is the Only One that distributes the wealth on earth.

Humble Regards