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Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Bāz said: “If necessity obliges one to transfer funds through interest-based banks, there is—God willing—no sin in doing so. The same ruling applies to depositing money there out of necessity, provided that no interest is stipulated. Should interest nevertheless be paid without any prior agreement, it may be taken and spent on charitable projects such as helping the poor, assisting those in debt, and the like.”
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As for the saftajah—a financial letter written for the one to whom money has been handed over as full ownership, authorizing him to collect its equivalent in a specified foreign city—the scholars have differed over its ruling. The majority, including the Hanafis and the Shafiʿis, prohibit it, regarding it as a loan that yields a benefit. The Hanbalis, together with Shaykh al-Islam, view it as a form of hawālah (debt transfer) and see no legal objection to its permissibility.
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Shaykh ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Sallūs said: “When a bank receives cash from you and, in return, issues a cheque to be cashed in another country, does this transaction fall under what Islamic jurisprudence calls saftajah?” The Islamic Research Academy in Cairo has issued a fatwa declaring it permissible.
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Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn stated: “If someone lends another a sum of silver coins to be collected from him in a different land, the scholars have differed regarding its permissibility. The correct view is that it is permissible, a position adopted by al-Qāḍī and al-Muwaffaq in al-Mughnī.”
The jurists’ disagreement:
The scholars unanimously consider the transferor in a hawālah essential. They differ, however, on whether the consent of the transferee and the person to whom the debt is transferred must also be taken into account. Abū Ḥanīfah stipulates their consent, maintaining that, since this is an exchange contract, mutual satisfaction is required