All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of The Worlds, and may His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all of his family and companions.
Commercial insurance differs from solidarity Islamic insurance according to Muslim jurists whereas the former is prohibited according to the majority of contemporary Muslim jurists and Islamic Fiqh Assemblies, because it is one of the contracts which are based on gambling and games of chance for Allah, The Exalted said (What means):” ye who believe! Strong drink and games of chance and idols and divining arrows are only an infamy of Satan’s handiwork. Leave it aside in order that ye may succeed. [Al-Maidah/90].
Nowadays, the majority of Muslim jurists and Fiqh Assemblies are of the view that there is no harm on taking profits from solidarity Islamic insurance so long as it is based on solidarity, cooperation and donation, since Allah, The Exalted said (What means):” but help ye one another unto righteousness and pious duty. Help not one another unto sin and transgression,” [Al-Maidah/1].
Therefore, it is permissible to benefit from excess insurance distributed to shareholders stipulated that it is based on solidarity as stated by the Islamic Fiqh Assembly in its eleventh session. However, if the profits were taken from commercial insurance then a person is obliged to give them as a charity for the interests of Muslims, because the only way to purify ill-gotten money is throughout charity. And Allah knows best.
