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Is it permissible to benefit from an interest-bearing loan to finance a project for unemployed youth, knowing that the borrowers are in dire need of money to meet their basic needs and to get married, and that the state providing the loan is an Islamic one, and that the interest rate only became clear after receiving the money?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is permissible to pay the actual administrative fees for a loan without any increase, because every loan that draws a benefit is usury (riba), which is forbidden by Islamic law. Usurious increases are unanimously forbidden, and they fall under the saying of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: "Allah has cursed the one who consumes riba, the one who gives it, the one who records it, and the two witnesses to it." And he said: "They are all equal [in sin]." And the Almighty says: ﴿O YOU WHO HAVE BELIEVED, FEAR ALLAH AND GIVE UP WHAT REMAINS [due to you] OF RIBA, IF YOU SHOULD BE BELIEVERS. AND IF YOU DO NOT, THEN BE INFORMED OF A WAR [against you] FROM ALLAH AND HIS MESSENGER. BUT IF YOU REPENT, YOU MAY HAVE YOUR PRINCIPAL – [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.﴾ If the borrowing is due to an urgent necessity, there is no harm, and one must hasten to pay off the installments to drop the interest. But if the borrowing was not for a necessity, one must repent, feel remorse, resolve not to return [to it], and pay off the money immediately if possible to drop the interest.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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