Using interest to pay an unauthorised charge

Using interest to pay an unauthorised charge

By: Dr Mohammad Akram Nadwi
Oxford
12/12/2025

Question:
As Salam Alaykum Mufti Sb. Hope you are doing good.
I was recently a victim of a credit card scam, and an unauthorized amount was taken from my account. The credit card company is now asking me to pay this amount.
Is it permissible for me to use the interest money I received from the bank to pay this bill, since the transaction was fraudulent and I have no other option?
Kindly guide me Sheikh. Jazak Allah Khair
Rizwan -Bahrain

Answer:
Al-Salāmu ʿalaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh,
May Allah ease your affairs, protect your wealth, and shield you from every form of harm. Your question involves an important matter that many people face today, and it requires clarity and balance.

When an amount is taken from a person’s credit card without authorisation, it is not regarded in Sharīʿah as a debt he voluntarily entered into, nor something from which he benefited. In principle, one is not liable for a transaction he did not approve. For this reason, you should pursue the dispute with the credit-card provider fully, file a fraud report, and obtain all relevant documentation to establish that the charge was not yours. It is important, both legally and ethically, that you exhaust every available avenue to have the charge removed, as this is fundamentally an unjust liability.

Regarding interest money, the ruling is well known: riba is impermissible and a Muslim may not use it for personal benefit. Any interest received must be disposed of, given away in avenues of general welfare, without the intention of gaining reward, because it is not pure wealth. However, the jurists have also clarified that such unlawful wealth may be used to lift an unjust burden when a person has not voluntarily placed himself in that situation. Since the interest must leave your possession in any case, its use in relieving an imposed, unavoidable harm does not constitute personal benefit; rather, it is a form of disposal.

If, after exhausting all dispute procedures, the company still insists that you must pay the fraudulent amount, and you genuinely have no viable alternative, then it is permissible to use the interest money to settle this imposed charge. This is not a permission to benefit from riba, nor does it make interest lawful; it is simply an allowance in a situation where the liability is forced upon you and the funds are being used only to remove an injustice.

Thus, if the charge is indeed fraudulent, you have taken every step to contest it, and payment becomes unavoidable, you may use the interest money for this purpose. The principle here is necessity and the absence of choice, not permissibility of riba in ordinary circumstances.

May Allah restore your peace, replace your loss with better, and protect you from all forms of financial harm.

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