Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Dear Bro Burhan,

Assalamualikum

First of all my sincere appreciation for answering my question last time and it really did clear all my doubts alhamdulillah.

This time my question is in reference to my Business transaction which is usually export business from my country to other. When our customers usually send us money for the goods they want sometimes the money we receive can be more or less than the amount mentioned in the invoice. Now my question is if the dollar becomes stronger than our currency than sure we get something more than the invoice so is it Halal for us to keep this amount of money or do we have to return this amount to our customer. When dollar becomes weaker and we get less amount we never ask them to pay for the loss we incurred.

My second question is in regards to a friend of mine who has taken loan from a Bank and since he was in a very bad financial position for the past few year and was also out of the country the insurance had settled the loan he owes the Bank now in this situation does he still have to settle the amount he has taken from the Bank as it was he who took the loan at the first place.

I hope you can clarify this to me asap.

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Business and riba

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Your Question: ….When our customers usually send us money for the goods they want sometimes the money we receive can be more or less than the amount mentioned in the invoice. Now my question is if the dollar becomes stronger….

This depends entirely on your agreement with the buyer regarding who amongst the two of you will bear the risk of the fluctuation in currency rates.

If the buyer wishes to take the currency risk, then you should only take what is due to you in your local currency. If between the date of the invoice and the payment, the foreign currency rate fluctuate upwards, you would owe him the excess you have received; and if the rate fluctuates downwards, the buyer would owe you the difference.

But if the buyer does not wish to hold the currency risk for any reason, the two parties can agree that you will quote him a price in the foreign currency, and regardless of whether the foreign currency fluctuates upwards or downwards, the profit/loss is yours to bear.

Your Question: ….My second question is in regards to a friend of mine who has taken loan from a Bank and since he was in a very bad financial position for the past few year and was also out of the country the insurance had settled the loan he owes the Bank now in this situation does he still have to settle the amount he has taken from the Bank as it was he who took the loan at the first place.

Respected brother, I’m not entirely sure I understand the question and request please rephrase the question to make it clearer.

What I am able to gather from the quoted statements is:

1. Your friend takes a loan from the bank.
2. He takes out an ‘insurance’ for the loan he has taken from the bank (I’m not entirely sure if this is at all possible!!!)
3. He is unable to pay the loan he has taken back to the bank….and thus the insurance settles the loan your friend has taken to the bank on his behalf!
4. Is your friend still liable to pay the loan back to the bank for a second time after it has already been supposedly settled by the insurance???

If you could kindly rephrase your question, we would respond to it in light of the Guidance of the Quran and the Sunnah, Insha Allah.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan