Is health insurance, which relies on contributions from the company and employees to a special fund to disburse medical reimbursements to employees based on their optional request, considered cooperative insurance permissible to subscribe to, knowing that surplus amounts are not returned to employees but are carried over to the following year?

Cooperative insurance differs from commercial insurance in several fundamental aspects:

1. Ownership and Disposition of Premiums: In cooperative insurance, premiums remain a donation and are not owned by the fund's management; rather, they are spent on eligible beneficiaries. In contrast, in commercial insurance, the management owns the subscriptions and they enter its private account in exchange for its commitment to treatment. 2. Objective: Cooperative insurance is based on cooperation and solidarity, aiming to achieve cooperation rather than profit from the insurance process itself, whereas commercial insurance aims for profit. 3. Contractual Nature: Cooperative insurance is a contract of donation, unaffected by gharar (excessive uncertainty). Commercial insurance, however, is a contract of financial exchange, which is Islamically prohibited due to its inclusion of gharar and maysir (gambling). 4. Surplus and Returns: In cooperative insurance, the surplus and investment returns revert to the policyholders, whereas in commercial insurance, they revert to the company. 5. Sharia Compliance: Cooperative insurance adheres to Sharia rulings and the fatwas of the Sharia board, while commercial insurance does not.

The "Sharia Standards" emphasize the necessity for the cooperative insurance's articles of association to stipulate principles such as commitment to donation, separation of company accounts from insurance accounts, the company's agency in management and investment, the return of surplus to policyholders, preference for policyholder participation in management, and adherence to Sharia rulings.