Is It Permissible to Work on the Projects of a Riba (Usury) Based Bank?

Answered by Ustadh Salman Younas

Question: We are working in the IT sector. Recently, we got a request to develop a web portal for one of the reputed Riba based Bank.

Is it permissible to work on the projects of a Riba based Bank as the payments made by them may include prohibited money?

Answer: assalamu alaykum

The work that you have described would be permitted.

There are two issues here: (a) the nature of the work itself and (b) the source of the money that you will receive in payment.

Concerning the first, as long as the work itself is not something that is interdicted, the income that is gained from it is permitted. Developing a web portal is in itself perfectly permissible, and its usage for interest-based transactions is only indirectly related to it. For more on this, please refer to:

Is It Considered Assisting in Sin to Develop Software for Casinos, Banks, or Insurance Companies?

As for the second point, while banks do hold money earned through interest based transactions, this is not the only revenue stream that they have. Rather, the money that banks hold include, among other things, the initial deposits of their customers, capital put in by owners, and so forth. The money from these sources is usually in greater ratio to money held gained by a bank through interest charges. Therefore, any payment received from such a bank would be permitted.

Please see also: How to Avoid Riba (Usury): A Reader

Salman

Checked & Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani