Question:

Due to my lack of knowledge and being a less practicing Muslim, which still I can’t claim to be perfect, I owe back in 1980, I didn’t pay bill on J.C Penny Credit Card (US$1300) and US National Bank of Oregon (now US National Bank) owe US$700. I am trying to connect these organizations for payment but in vain.

Please tell how to repay to and/or donate to charitable christian organization in Canada

Answer:

Bismillahi Taʿālā

Assalāmu ʿalaykum waraḥmatullāhī wabrakātuh,

Jazāk Allāh for writing to us. These types of questions are becoming more common at our Dārul Iftāʾ. I take it as a sign of glad-tiding that people are becoming more aware of their dealings and thus seek Sharʿī guideline. May Allāh Taʿālā assist you in all your efforts, Āmīn.

With regards to your question, it is true that the amount that you owed to the respective parties need to be paid out. It is a duty from Shaīʿah that you maintain your dealing proper both ethically and legal. Hence, we request you to make you utmost effort to contact the parties and rectify your old accounts. If you do manage to get hold of the company, they may demand interest accrued on the unpaid amounts. You may try and negotiate with them for the capital sum. But if you have to pay out the interest, then you do pay it and seek Allah’s immense maghfirah for letting your debts reach this ḥarām state.

In most cases an unpaid account is forwarded to a third-party collection agency for collections. At this point, the company no longer expects this debt to be recovered and hence takes a reasonable substitute in its lieu from the third-party collection agency. For accounts perspective, the debt has already been classified as bad-debt and hence unrecoverable.

From here on the collections agency takes this debt as their own job to recover. While Sharīʿah does not recognize a transferral of debt, but this transaction between two non-Muslim entities does not concern the Muslim party. For our purposes, the original party has transferred this debt over to another party to recover, and you need to pay out your debt to its rightful party.

Since the original party no longer seeks this debt, your obligation will be fulfilled by giving it out to the collections’ agency. This is obviously if the collection have been structured as above. Nonetheless, in most cases you can call in the primary party and request them to look up who the third-party collections company was for your account so you may pay it out. You should negotiate with the third-party collection to only pay the capital amount and not the interest accrued. But if you have no choice to clear your debt with interest, then you pay it out. All you can do about it is seek forgiveness of Allah for entering a transaction involving interest.

If you unable to locate the collection agency, or even unable to get hold of the original party, this debt does not become absolved. For this you may give the amount into charity where it will benefit some avenue of reward, in lieu of which you beseech Allah to forgive your transgression in the dealing.

Do take note that this charity in itself is not an absolution of your debt. It is a disposition of debt monies to beseech Allah’s mercy. For this, as long as, the money is not ḥarām interest money, you should dispense it any avenue of good as a ṣadaqah for sake of Allah. In this scenario, if there is any interest amount accrued over and above the initial debt owed, then you do not pay this interest amount into charity.

You do not need to look for charitable Christian organization for this, instead you should dispense in avenues which yield you rewards in Islām. You can dispense such monies in mosques, welfare organizations, maktabs, schools, and even online Islamic websites. All these are viable venues for this sadaqah.

May Allah assist you and forgive you for any transgressions, Āmīn.

And Allāh Taʿālā Knows best,

Wassalamu ʿalaykum,

Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi