Question :
A conventional bank has offered to be the exclusive sponsor of my business in return for allowing it to put an ATM there. What is the Islamic ruling on this?
The Answer :
Praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds.
It is impermissible to market the services of a conventional bank whose contracts involve forbidden usury and interest-based loans, because this activity takes the same ruling of the usurious contracts themselves for Allah The Almighty says, "Help ye one another in righteousness and piety, but help ye not one another in sin and rancour: fear Allah. for Allah is strict in punishment.'{Al Maidah, 2}.
Due to the fact that money are offered by banks or companies in exchange for marketing their services and well-known trademarks aims to attract customers.
In addition, as markerting is a mean to an end; thus, it takes the ruling of the end that was set to achieve. In this regard, Al-Iz Ibn Abdulsalam, a Shafie scholar, said, "Means have the same ruling of ends. When the ends are lawful then the means are lawful as well. But, when they aren't, then the means to achieve them are unlawful as well."{Qhawa`id Al-Ahkam, 1/53}. And Allah the Almighty knows best.