He Borrowed Money with Riba to Study

2-9-2019 | IslamWeb

Question:

If a person studies at the university to become a teacher with studentloan which involves interest when paying it back, will the education and the jobb after the studies be haram forever? Will this person eat and earn haram because he/she finished university with haram money if he/she becomes a teacher?
Note that this person found out about riba and that it is haram very late and has been looking for a job for awhile know. Yet still cant find anything. How should this person act? Should he/she quit the studies in order to stop paying his/her rent and needs through studentloans and return home with the risk of disappointing his/her parents?

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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.

Borrowing money with interest is forbidden Riba (interest and/or usury). However, if a student borrows money with Riba in order to study, then this does not make it forbidden for him to benefit from his certificate and this does not make his job or whatever he earns from it forbidden as long as his field of work is permissible.

This is because the sin in an interest-based loan is connected to the person dealing in it and not the money itself (or whatever it is spent on).

If someone has borrowed money with Riba out of ignorance of its prohibition, then we hope that he is not sinful and it is not necessary to leave school since he has already borrowed the money and he is required to repay the loan.

For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 379279 and 130545.

Allah knows best.