to the man who owns the car, purchase it from him although its cash price is fifty, then say to him, “Sell it to me for sixty, payable in a year.” You take the car and immediately resell it. Shaykh al-Islam says this is forbidden, impermissible, and nothing but a stratagem; it is one of the ʿīnah transactions the Messenger ﷺ warned against when he said, “When you engage in ʿīnah sales, cling to the tails of cattle, become content with agriculture, and abandon jihad, Allah will impose upon you a humiliation that He will not remove from you until you return to your religion.” The link here is obvious.

As for availability, the commodity is already with the seller, whether for this buyer or anyone else: if someone comes with cash he sells it for fifty, and if someone wants it on credit he sells it for sixty. Yet the buyer himself has no interest whatsoever in the item; all he seeks is usury. He then grows accustomed to it and declares, “This is lawful.”

Think of the Day of Resurrection: you will meet your Lord alone—no mufti or anyone else will stand with you. Allah knows the treachery of the eyes and what the breasts conceal. In short, one must beware of usury.

That is why, as I have said, once this arrangement was made easy for the poor it became effortless for one of them to tell a trader, “Sir, I want such-and-such a car.” The trader replies, “Go and buy it from the showroom; I will settle the showroom’s price and then sell it back to you at an increase.” In this way they have made the religion “easy” for people. Had they not found someone to facilitate it, they would have refrained to some extent, their consciences would remain sound, and they would be at ease. We ask Allah to grant us and you success and guidance.