Re: critical illness insurance
Monthly premiums for 10 years will be returned in full if no claim is done in 10 years period.
Is it permissible in Islam?
Bismillahi Ta’ala
Walaikum Assalam Warahmatullah
As per my information Critical Illness Insurance is an extended insurance over and above the mandatory Health Care provided by the Government. As a base rule, all conventional insurances are haram due to the full trifactor of causes for hurmah.
a. Uncertainty (Gharar): The rewards on the premiums are dependent on an uncertain event.
b. Interest (Ribaa): The rewards on the premiums are not in lieu of anything, hence interest.
c. Gharar (Gambling): The premiums act as a wager for the uncertain event to bring forth the rewards, hence gambling.
In insurance, the premiums will be considered as a loan. Hence, even in case of the uncertain event, disregarding b and c, one will only be allowed to make use of only the premiums one has deposited and nothing more than that.
In the case you have mentioned, *in an event of receiving* all the premiums back in full after 10 years & no uncertain event will cross out “b” and “c” nihayatan (from the angle of end of the transactions) but not the fact that the transaction was still based on “a, b, c” bidayatan (angle of inception of the transaction).
Moreover, these three elements being part of the transaction from the inception mean that even entering into this transaction itself was not Shariah Compliant, and warrants to be annulled and reversed.
The sin of entering into such a transaction is separate from the non-compliant nature of the transaction.
The only parameter left then is haajah or duroorah, where a person is so need-bound that he has no choice but to take these extended insurance. However, this is very difficult to ascertain in critical health matters and a general fatwa cannot be given on it. Moreover, by the time one will know of such critical illness it may be too late to take upon any insurance.
I have tried to discuss this issue as generally as possible, so the concept is understood.
Wallahu A’lam
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi