
(Cross-posted at Avid Editor's Insights)
18 (5) EXEMPTIONS FROM INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.
—In the case of an individual who is seeking an exemption certificate under section 1311(d)(4)(H) from any requirement or penalty imposed by section 5000A, the following information:
(A) In the case of an individual seeking exemption based on the individual’s status as a member of an exempt religious sect or division, as a member of a health care sharing ministry, as an Indian, or as an individual eligible for a hardship exemption, such information as the Secretary shall prescribe.
Ruling on working in insurance companies or broker companies when insurance becomes obligatory
Health insurance is going to be compulsory for all companies and associations in our country. The insurance company will not have direct relationship with companies or associations, as there will be brokers in between, this is also compulsory.
The question is: What is the ruling on working for these brokers? Its role is basically introducing offers to companies and individuals and dealing with claims.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly: Health insurance is haraam like other types of commercial insurance, because it is based on ambiguity, gambling and riba (usury). This is what is stated in fatwas by the senior scholars. See the answer to question no. 39474 and 4210.
In Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (15/277) there is a quotation of a statement of the Council of Senior Scholars concerning the prohibition on insurance and why it is haraam:
1. Commercial insurance contracts are transactions based on probability and extreme ambiguity, because the customer cannot know at the time of signing the contract what he will give or take. He may pay one or two instalments, then calamity may strike and he will be entitled to what the insurer committed to pay. Or no calamity may happen at all, so he pays all the instalments and takes nothing. Similarly the insurer cannot know what he will give or what he will take with regard to any individual contract. In the saheeh hadeeth it says that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade ambiguous transactions.
2. Commercial insurance contracts are a type of gambling, because they involve the risk of financial compensation or penalties for no offence or cause on the part of the one who is paying the penalty, or gaining without paying something in return, or paying something that is not equal to the gains. The person who is insured may pay one instalment of the insurance, then an accident occurs, so the insurer will be obliged to pay the whole amount in accordance with the insurance policy. Or no accident may occur, but he pays all the instalments of insurance and gets nothing in return. When the ambiguity becomes prevalent, it becomes like gambling, whereupon it comes under the general prohibition on gambling in the verse in which Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“O you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), and gambling, and Al‑Ansaab (stone altars for sacrifices to idols etc), and Al‑Azlaam (arrows for seeking luck or decision) are an abomination of Shaytaan’s (Satan’s) handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may be successful.
91. Shaytaan (Satan) wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants (alcoholic drinks) and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allaah and from As‑Salaah (the prayer). So, will you not then abstain?” [al-Maa’idah 5:90-91].
3. Insurance contracts include both types of riba, riba al-fadl and riba al-nasa’. If the company pays the customer or his heirs or the beneficiary more than the sum that he paid, then this is riba fadl; and usually the insurer pays this money to the customer some time after the contract, and this is riba nasa’. If the company pays the customer only what he paid, this is riba nasa’ only. Both are haraam according to the texts and scholarly consensus.
4. Commercial insurance contracts are a kind of haraam betting, because each party is getting involved in ignorance, ambiguity and gambling. Islam does not permit any type of betting except that which supports Islam and propagates Islam by means of proof and jihad. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) granted a concession allowing betting in only three cases, when he said: “There should be no (money) prizes for competitions except in camel-racing, horse-racing and archery.” Insurance does not come under these headings and cannot be likened to any of them, so it is haraam.
5. Commercial insurance contracts take a person’s money without giving him anything in return, and taking money without giving anything in return in commercial transactions is haraam, because it comes under the general meaning of the prohibition in the verse (interpretation of the meaning):
“O you who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves unjustly except it be a trade amongst you, by mutual consent” [al-Nisa’ 4:29].
6. Commercial insurance contracts involve commitment to something that sharee’ah does not make binding. If no accident happens to the customer and he does not cause any accident, then it is merely a contract with the insurer against danger on the basis that it might happen, in return for money that the customer pays to the insurer, and the insurer does not do anything for the customer, so it is haraam. End quote.
Secondly: The fact that the state makes insurance compulsory does not make it permissible; rather the burden of sin is waived from the person or company who is obliged to do that. As for the broker company which is doing this work by choice, it is guilty of sin.
The same applies to the person who works in the insurance company or broker company; he is doing this work by choice, but this work is not permissible for him, because it is directly helping in sin, and Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Help you one another in Al‑Birr and At‑Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety); but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allaah. Verily, Allaah is Severe in punishment” [al-Maa’idah 5:2]
It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (15/251):
Firstly: Commercial insurance of all types is haraam because it involves ambiguity, riba, uncertainty, gambling and consuming people’s wealth unlawfully, and other shar’i reservations.
Secondly: It is not permissible for the Muslim to get involved with insurance companies by working in administration or otherwise, because working in them comes under the heading of cooperating in sin and transgression, and Allaah forbids that as He says: “but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allaah. Verily, Allaah is Severe in punishment” [al-Maa’idah 5:2]. End quote.
And Allaah knows best.
John Patrick Bedell, the man who went on a shooting spree outside the Pentagon this week, was a Bush-hating, pot smoking, registered democrat. Although officials said he did not have any suspected links to terrorist groups, it was discovered this weekend that Bedell used the Arabic term “inshallah” or “God willing,” using Arabic font – “إن شاء الله” – on more than one on his internet postings.
Since everyone who stands up for human rights and freedom against Islamic supremacism and violence is branded a racist nowadays, it's useful to look at the evidence. Here is a group that is so racist that it has featured a Sikh speaker, has a youth group that bears the slogan, "Black, White and Brown Unite," and says: "We welcome members from all over the political spectrum, and with varying views on foreign policy, united against Islamic extremism and its influence on British life. Everyone from those whose ancestral roots are in pre-Roman Britain to immigrants just arrived yesterday will be welcomed into the EDL with open arms as long as they are willing to stand up with us for English values and against Islamist hate."
Many people conflate the EDL with the genuinely racist and antisemitic BNP, which I repudiate utterly, but there seems to be a good deal of evidence to suggest that the EDL is not itself racist, white supremacist, antisemitic, neo-fascist, etc. At very least, they bear watching. In any case, these charges are invariably and inevitably trotted out by Leftists and their jihadist allies whenever anyone stands up against the Islamic supremacism that would deny our freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and equality of rights before the law. After awhile, the wolf-crying becomes obvious.