Can I Teach Modern Finance at University despite Its Having Aspects That Are Haram in Islam?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Question
Is it permissible to teach finance in a college knowing that most of the components of finance are haram in Islam?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate
I hope you’re doing well, insha’Allah.
It is permitted to teach modern finance “as it is” without agreeing to or personally approving anything contrary to Divine Guidance.
The most important duty for any believer in any line of work or human engagement is to know the Divine Command and Guidance related to that area–knowing
- the limits of halal and haram;
- the ethics, values, and ways of excellence (as embodied in the Sunna); and
- cultivating the religious concern and strength of faith to be able to make the right moral choices. [Khadimi/Birgivi, al-Bariqa al-Mahmudiyya Sharh al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya]
And Allah is the giver of success and facilitation.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.
