Is it permissible to purchase a car in installments with profit charged on it, due to the unavailability of sufficient funds to buy another car, given that it is essential for work?

Installment selling is permissible under specific Sharia-compliant conditions, including:

1. Purchasing the car directly from the seller at an installment price, which may be higher than the cash price. 2. Purchasing the car through an intermediary who genuinely buys it first, and then sells it to you in installments. 3. It is not permissible to purchase in installments through an interest-based bank or any other entity if it pays the price on your behalf and then recovers the price in installments with profits, as this constitutes a forbidden interest-based loan.

The fundamental difference is that the first two cases involve a genuine purchase of the commodity by the seller or the intermediary, whereas the third case does not involve that, but is merely a loan of the price with interest.