Sat 28 رجب 1447 (17 Jan 2026)
[The Merchant’s Paying a Commission to the Bank]
Mufti:
Alsayyed Muhammad b. Abdallah Awad Al-Muayyady
Fatwa number: 20279
Number of views: 0
[The Merchant’s Paying a Commission to the Bank]
Fatwa number: 20279
Print
Question: A bank and a merchant agreed—seeking to avoid usury—that the merchant sell to the bank’s customers certain goods at their customary price, with no increase and no decrease; the bank is to settle the price of those goods, and the debt owed by the customers is to the bank. The merchant is to remit to the bank five percent of the value of those sales.
This is with the knowledge that the bank needs employees for this work—for entries, bookkeeping, transfers, and processing. What is the Sharia ruling on this arrangement?
The answer—and Allah is the granter of success: What has become clear to me in this question is that the arrangement is valid and permissible, containing nothing of usury. This is not a stratagem by which one arrives at usury: the seller sold at the customary price and received payment by bank transfer; the bank transferred the prices of those goods, on condition that the seller compensate the bank with five percent of the goods’ prices from his own funds.
If it is said: The bank paid on behalf of its customer ninety-five percent and recorded one hundred percent as a debt upon him—this is usury (Riba).
We say: The bank did not earn the five percent from the customer; rather, it earned it from the merchant in return for
(1) bringing in customers, moving the goods, and paying prices in full, and
(2) covering its costs in entries, bookkeeping, and transfers.
Usury is an increase taken from the buyer; here there is no increase upon the buyer: he bought the item at its customary cash price, with no markup.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2
- Website categories