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Fatwa CenterA church group sponsoring the building of a house for a Muslim
Question
1) What does Islam has about a church group sponsoring the building of a house for a Muslim in the U.S? 2) What is the Islamic teaching on buying houses through Mortgage in places where you can not get other options? 3) Are there any Muslim Institutions in America that can sell house to muslims in the U.S. without Riba? Thank you.
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 well as that of his family and all his companions.
First of all, we ask Allaah to enable you to do good and make you steadfast on His straight Path.
We did not understand what you meant by saying that the church group is sponsoring the building of a house for a Muslim. If you meant that this group will lend the cost of building a house to the Muslim without conditioning on him to pay Ribaa (interest or usury) when repaying the debt, or that they will build it for him and sell it for him with instalments, then this is permissible provided the general conditions for the permissibility of sale by instalments are met. For instance the sale should be with a definite price, the instalments should be specified, and the time of repayment should be defined, and there should be no Ribaa when delaying the payments of instalments. The principle in all this is the fact that the Prophet 
dealt in lending and borrowing money and traded with non-Muslims.
However, if you meant that this group will build this house for him and gift it to him, then the scholars 
differed about the ruling of accepting a gift from non-Muslims and polytheists. The reason of the difference of opinion is due to the existence of different narrations which give different rulings according to different situations. For instance, Anas 
narrated that a Jewish woman gifted a poisoned lamb to the Prophet . [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]. On the other hand, 'Iyaadh Ibn Himaar narrated that the Prophet was gifted something or a camel [the doubt is from the narrator] and he asked the donor: "Have you embraced Islam?", and the man replied: "No." Thereupon, the Prophet said: "I am prohibited from taking gifts from non-Muslims." [Ahmad, Abu Daawood & At-Tirmithi].
The scholars correlated between the two narrations stating that, the refusal of accepting the gift is when someone seeks by his donation friendship and loyalty to the Muslim, and the acceptance is when it is expected to soften the heart of the donor towards Islam; this is the preponderant view according to Ibn Hajar 
.
Furthermore, Mubaarak Poori said: "It is not strange to say that in principle it is not permissible to accept the donations of the polytheists, however, if there is a general or personal benefit in accepting their gift, then it is permissible to accept it from them." Moreover, Abu 'Ubayd said: "The Prophet never accepted a gift from a belligerent polytheist."
In our view, the situation which you inquired about is included, in the circumstances in which it is forbidden to accept a gift from a non-Muslim.
It is known that the group mentioned in your question, and similar groups help the Muslims as a means to call them to their false religion and soften their hearts towards it. Allaah Says (what means): {Verily, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (men) from the Path of Allaah.} [Quran 8:36]. Therefore, Allaah wanted to block this door and prohibited accepting their gift in such situations.
As regards buying a house with mortgage whereby the bank pays cash for the house on behalf of the buyer and then writes a contract with the buyer which reads that the bank lent him the price which will be returned to it with an interest rate (of 6% for instance) on instalments, and during the period of the loan the house is a mortgage to the bank in a way that if the buyer is unable to pay the instalments, the bank would sell it and take its price from it, then this is not permissible as this is a clear dealing with Ribaa which could only be allowed in a case of dire necessity as clarified in Fatawa 85931.
Finally, we are sorry for not being able to guide you to an Islamic institution in your country which sells houses without Ribaa.
Allaah Knows best.
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