Question:

My cousin sister is studying in medical collage,the admins of her collage are going to celebrate their institute’s 75 th anniversary,they are going to make  grand music show and all kind of lahw-o-laab,so my sister doesn’t want to participate in it,now the question is”they forcefully collect 1000 indian rupees from her,so she can give this amount from interest money?”

Answer:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

In principle, if one is in possession of any interest monies, then it is compulsory to give away this money in an avenue of charity towards the needy without any intention of reward. Since the money is filth, it will not be appropriate to retain it for longer period of time and should be disposed right away. Hence, Ulama encourage to dispose interest monies to are the needy Muslims, without any intention of reward.

Alternatively, a person may offset his interest charges from an institution, as long as, the accrued interest is from the same institute. For example, if a person has collected some interest money in his Bank of Montreal account, and has to pay off some interest amounts on another account within Bank of Montreal, then the Ulama have mentioned that one can set these two off.

Some Ulama have also mentioned permissibility of using such interest monies to pay off the taxes from the government. However, this should only be when these taxes are unduly oppressive. The idea is to dispel the undue oppression using the money which is to be disposed either way. It is in line with this view, if your cousin deems the Rs 1000 being imposed on him an undue oppression, then it will be permissible for him to pay it out with the interest monies.

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Mufti Faisal bin Abdul Hameed al-Mahmudi
www.fatwa.ca