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Fatwa CenterMaintaining the records of interest based dealings as an accountant
Question
I would like to ask about the hadith that says that ALLAH damed the person who eats the riba ,and the witness of it and the one who writes it ,and they are equal in sin. I Have a Ba degree in accounting and i used to work as an Auditor , but some body told me that woking in auditing and witnessing the ripa( interest loans,,,,) will be like the one who witness the riba contract and the money earned form this job will not be hallal , and Olso If i work as an accountant i will have to record interest ( repa) and i have read a fatwa of Sheikh bin baz that the one who work and record the interest will be the same like the one who eats it. So my question is ... Is it realy that the one who record the interest in and accounting job is the same one mentioned in the hadith or the one mentioned in the hadith is the person they used to bring him back in the days in the time of the prophet to record the transaction for the parties in the ripa contract However the the accountant he record the transaction after it is already done and he did not witness it. And also if this is true , is there and diffrence in openion in this matter and Jazakom ALLAH khir
Answer
All Perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as that of his family and all his companions.
The act of maintaining the records of interest based dealings falls under the ruling of writing down Ribaa (interest and/or usury) whose doer was cursed by the Prophet 
. Moreover, it might also come under the ruling of witnessing it while the dealing is being accomplished. As if the interest is charged spontaneously, as practiced in the case of the delayed payments, an accountant in this case calculates the amount of interest for the delayed payments and hence he commits the prohibition of writing and witnessing the usurious dealing.
Imaam An-Nawawi 
wrote explaining the above narration about Ribaa: "The narration clearly prohibits writing down and witnessing the usury contract of those who deal with it. It also prohibits any cooperation in evil."
Therefore, you know by now that it is forbidden for you to work in the mentioned field, and therefore you have to sincerely repent. Furthermore, the money you have earned from this work is forbidden. So, you have to get rid of that money by spending it on the Muslim public welfare, like helping poor and needy persons, building Islamic charity schools and the like. For more benefit please refer to Fataawa 81375 and 81451.
Allaah Knows best.
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