Assalam alaikum,I live in Hong Kong. I read that conventional insurance is haram but cooperative insurance is permissible. In Hong Kong, there is no 100% cooperative insurance company but there is an insurance company that is 100% owned by a cooperative insurance company overseas. Would this be permissible to use?I have a wife and two children and if I was to pass away my wife and children would only have enough money for maybe 6 months then they would need to leave Hong Kong. Does this count as a hardship that would make life insurance permissible. JazakhAllah Khayr

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If the company in question is based on the common commercial insurance, then it is not permissible for you to deal with it regardless of the owner of the company and his country, because commercial life insurance is forbidden and it is not permissible to engage in it, as we have previously highlighted in Fataawa 81441, 361417, 164309, 164145, 81425, and 156333.

As for your fear for your wife and children after your death, then this does not make it permissible for you to enter this forbidden contract, but you have to take the reasons in your life and then rely on Allah Almighty, as He is the best of the providers, and He ensures the livelihood of every creature.

Allah Says (what means): {And there is no creature on earth but that upon Allah is its provision.} [Quran 11:6]

Shaykh As-Sa’di said in his book of Tafseer entitled Tayseer Al-Lateef Al-Mannaan Fi Khulaasat Tafseer Al-Qur'aan:

“The servant should attach his hope in Allah Alone, and that if Allah predestines a reason for his livelihood and comfort, he should praise him for that, and ask him to bless it for him; if such a reason is interrupted or not possible to get, his heart should not be confused, because this reason is among countless reasons and the slave's livelihood does not depend on that particular reason, but Allah opens for him another reason that is better and more beneficial, and it may be that He opens for him several reasons. Therefore, in all his circumstances, he should appreciate the Blessing of his Lord, and hope for His Graciousness; he should always realize this and have this understanding in his heart, and he should frequently supplicate Allah while having hope, as Allah Says in a Qudsi Hadeeth: “I am as My Slave expects Me to be; if he expects goodness from Me, he will get it; if he expects evil from Me, then He gets what he expects.” [End of quote]

Allah knows best.