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Fatwa CenterPaying and recording interest as part of accountant's job
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Please do not direct me to another fatwa. I live in America, and I work as a staff accountant, and I have different clients, but all clients have checking accounts and savings accounts that earn interest. I am in charge of recording the interest which they gain through these accounts in a book. Some clients, not all, take out loans in which they are required to pay interest. For example, if my client took out a car loan, I would be in charge of making those car loan payments from their checking account. These payments that I make contain some interest, and I record that in a book. All clients have credit cards, and some might have to pay interest on these credit cards. I pay the credit card statements with their money in the checking account. Is the recording of the interest income or interest expense haram? I have been working in this company for five years, and I was ignorant. Just to let you know, I do not have any interaction when the client decides to go to the bank an get a loan with interest. And I do not work in the bank; I work in a private company for staff accounting and management. There are other duties of work which I do that are not related to interest, The majority of the work which I perform is halal and is in a halal environment, like depositing money or checks, paying customers bills, etc. The only concern in my work is the interest that I record in a book. All these questions are very important for me:
1- Is the money that I get from this job a mix of halal and haram?
2- Can I use the money which I saved from this job while I was ignorant of the haram in it in halal matters, like my food and life expenses? I do not have any other money to live from.
3- Can I perform ‘Umrah with this money that I saved before?
4- Can I keep this job until I find something which does not include recording interest, which is hard in my field? What do you suggest?
Please do not refer me to another fatwa because my situation is different .
Answer
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 you pay interest and record it and so on, then it is not permissible. Allah says (what means): {…but do not cooperate in sin and aggression.} [Quran 5:2]
Therefore, you should not work in what you mentioned except if you can avoid what is forbidden in it.
As for what you have earned in return for this part of your work before you found out that it is forbidden, there is no harm on you to benefit from it in permissible things as you wish, whether it be for ‘Umrah or anything else.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen 
said, “If he had taken it (unlawful earnings), then if it was out of ignorance, and he did not know that it was forbidden, so then his repentance wipes out the previous sins, and what he earned is for him (to benefit of), because Allah says (what means): {So whoever has received an admonition from his Lord and desists may have what is past.} [Quran 2:275]”
For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 85917.
Allah knows best.
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