Is it permissible to get home insurance?

March 27, 2024

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The concept that someone in difficulty is helped by others pooling their money is rewarding; this is why we have the takaful insurance – the cooperation insurance. It’s a good thing. Thus the concept of insurance is not a bad thing, but the there are two elements which make conventional insurance haram:

i) the ambiguity

ii) the interest (riba) that it includes. The premiums are invested in interest-based investments. This is what contaminates the money.

If you can get Islamic insurance that is fine. Unfortunately we do not have Islamic insurance in the UK yet.

If it is a requirement of your mortgage, then you have no choice, so you can get a basic policy for your house, not contents etc. unless there is a special need for that. Do not go beyond what is required.

If it’s not a requirement and you don’t have a mortgage, is it OK to have a structural basic home insurance?

It depends where you live. If you live in an area where there are potential problems, like flooding then your insurance will be high, but you can get it. If there’s no need, then do not get insurance. Each individual has to weigh up their own situation and decide.

If you live in an area where there is a lot of burglary can you get contents insurance?

Again it’s up to the individual to decide. If he’s in an area where there’s plenty of theft and burglary then he should get as much security as possible, such as burglar alarms and surveillance cameras etc to minimize this happening.

Shaykh Haytham Tamim – 24th March 2024

Transcribed by Rose Roslan

Islamic Mortgages, Insurance and Loans

Shaykh Haytham Tamim

Shaykh Haytham Tamim is the founder and main teacher of the Utrujj Foundation. He has provided a leading vision for Islamic learning in the UK, which has influenced the way Islamic knowledge is disseminated. He has orchestrated the design and delivery of over 200 unique courses since Utrujj started in 2001. His extensive expertise spans over 30 years across the main Islamic jurisprudence schools of thought. He has studied with some of the foremost scholars in their expertise; he holds some of the highest Ijazahs (certificates) in Quran, Hadith (the Prophetic traditions) and Fiqh (Islamic rulings). His own gift for teaching was evident when he gave his first sermon to a large audience at the age of 17 and went on to serve as a senior lecturer of Islamic transactions and comparative jurisprudence at the Islamic University of Beirut (Shariah College). He has continued to teach; travelling around the UK, Europe and wider afield, and won the 2015 BISCA award (British Imams & Scholars Contributions & Achievements Awards) for Outstanding Contribution to Education and Teaching.