How is it to take an interest-based student loan for higher education? Education is a basic need of today's era; will the ruling of necessity apply to it? One student has already taken a loan — what is the ruling on his degree and on the job and income obtained through it? And if the loan has to be taken under the parents' pressure, what is the ruling?

Allah Almighty says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَذَرُوا مَا بَقِيَ مِنَ الرِّبَا إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ ۝ فَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلُوا فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ﴾ (Surah al-Baqarah: 278–279). And it is narrated from Jabir, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ cursed the consumer of riba, its payer, its scribe and its witnesses, and said: “They are all equal (in sin)” (Sahih Muslim: 1598). In the fatwa of IslamQA (No. 110159) it is explicit that taking an interest-based loan is haram — whether it be for buying a house, or for the fees of education, or for any other purpose; a good purpose does not make a haram means halal. Likewise, a maintenance loan too is impermissible due to riba, however low the rate of interest may be; indeed, even one dirham of riba is haram (IslamQA fatwa No. 249369).

In Shariah terms, necessity is that state in which there is a danger of the loss of life or of a limb — this is the very definition stated by Imam al-Zarkashi, may Allah have mercy on him (Al-Manthur fi al-Qawa'id: 2/319; quoted in IslamQA 110159). The desire for a degree and the hope of a good job is certainly a need (hajah), but it is not a necessity of that degree which would make a major sin like riba permissible. Halal paths of education exist in the world: stipends and scholarships, benevolent loans (qard hasan), part-time labour, institutions with low fees — and even a delay of a year or two in education is far better than falling into riba. A path whose beginning is with a declaration of war from Allah and His Messenger — hoping for blessing in it is futile.

In the light of IslamWeb's fatwa (No. 458107): if it is possible to terminate the agreement, he should exit immediately. If he has taken the money, then three things are now obligatory upon him: (1) sincere repentance — remorse over the sin and a firm resolve not to do it again; (2) to exit from this burden by returning the principal amount as soon as possible, especially where early payment ends the liability of interest; (3) it should remain in mind that good intention and the intention of repayment do not make the haram halal, so this dealing should not be considered normal. As for the degree and the job: the sin is of the riba contract, not of the knowledge acquired and halal labour; therefore, the salary received from a job of halal work is not in itself haram — nevertheless, repentance and early repayment are obligatory in any case.

Obedience to parents and kind treatment of them is a great Shariah obligation, but there is no obedience to any creature in sin. The Prophet ﷺ said: “There is no obedience in disobedience to Allah; obedience is only in what is good” (Sahih al-Bukhari: 7257; Sahih Muslim: 1840). So the student should explain to his parents with gentleness, respect and reasoning, place halal alternatives before them, and make no shortcoming in serving them and in praying for them — but the sin of signing an interest-based agreement will not be committed even for the parents' pleasure. Parents too should not put their children into a trial whose burden all will have to bear on the Day of Resurrection.

One who is still thinking of taking a loan should desist from this intention and seek a halal alternative — a scholarship, a benevolent loan, a one-year delay of admission, or a cheaper institution. One who has already taken it should not despair: the door of repentance is open, and the first step is to arrange the repayment of the principal amount as soon as possible. Success in religion and in the world is in that very education whose foundation is upon the halal.

A Maqasid-based caution: Education is among the objectives of the religion, but the greatness of the objective does not end the prohibition of the means. Riba removes blessing from an individual's life and justice from society; therefore, the Shariah has kept no leniency in this chapter, so that the path of knowledge too remains pure, and the earning too.

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.