so he goes to the dealer and says, “Buy it yourself and then sell it to me.” I seek refuge with Allah! These are ruses against the Lord of the worlds—pure deception and guile: “They would deceive Allah, yet it is Allah who outwits them.” The dealer never cares about the car itself; all he wants is the extra profit. Tell him, “Sell it to me for the same cash price you paid,” and he will answer, “What benefit is there in that? I will only sell it with an interest markup.”
Some people—whom Satan has deluded—claim to have arguments proving this is permissible, but we say: that is a lie against Allah. A man truly in need of a car is extremely rare. What is more, it is reported that if a buyer later falls short, they put his name on a blacklist and will never deal with him again; that is virtually forcing him to remain in a scheme that cheats the Lord of the worlds, and that is invalid.
By Allah, if we were to ask that dealer who picked up the car from the showroom only to resell it, “What was your aim—were you trying to show kindness to this man?” he would reply, “Not at all; I do not even know him. My only aim is to turn one hundred into one hundred and ten.” That is the reality. How can we attempt to outwit the Lord of the worlds?
If the man had gone straight to the bank and said, “Lend me one hundred thousand and ten so I can buy the car,” the sin would actually be lighter than this gimmick, for deception is worse than open wrongdoing. The trickster commits the sin and adds deception to it; the openly disobedient person commits the sin while admitting it is sinful and hopes to repent, because his conscience is uneasy. The problem with the deceiver is that he deems the matter lawful, becomes accustomed to it, and insists, “There is nothing wrong with it.”
Ask your own heart; do not ask anyone else. The Messenger said, “Sin is what causes unease in your soul and what you dislike people discovering; righteousness is whatever the soul and heart feel at ease with, even if people give you one fatwa after another.” So do not ask anyone: did you truly buy that car as a genuine commercial purchase seeking profit? Certainly not—had that man not approached you, you would never have bought it. Was the purchase of the car truly intended? Clearly not; the intention was to put cash in his hand. Instead of saying, “Here it is for fifty thousand, to be repaid as sixty thousand in instalments,” he says, “Go look at it, and I will go to the showroom, buy it for fifty thousand, and sell it to you for sixty thousand.” Anyone free of personal desire knows this is forbidden, without the slightest doubt. Even if you ask people and they issue you fatwas, the One who will question you on the Day of Resurrection is the Lord of the worlds, and He knows what is in your heart.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) said: “If you need a commodity that someone owns—a car, for example—but you have no cash, and you went…"