If I Buy a Prohibited Item, Is the Change Received Haram?
Shafi'i Fiqh
Answered by Shaykh Jamir Meah
Question: Assalamu alaykum
If someone has money that is not haram and buys something haram with it, for example alcohol, does the change he recieved from purchasing the alcohol become haram money?
Answer: Wa’alaykum assalam. Thank you for your question.
If you bought a prohibited item with halal money, then the change received from the transaction is still considered halal money, and therefore permissible to keep.
The sin is in the transaction itself (which is void) and whatever one uses the prohibited item for. As such, one should repent and return the item if possible, in which case the refunded money is permissible to keep.
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Warmest salams,
[Shaykh] Jamir Meah
Shaykh Jamir Meah grew up in Hampstead, London. In 2007, he traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he spent nine years studying the Islamic sciences on a one-to-one basis under the foremost scholars of the Ribaat, Tarim, with a main specialization and focus on Shafi’i fiqh. In early 2016, he moved to Amman, Jordan, where he continues advanced studies in a range of Islamic sciences, as well as teaching. Jamir is a qualified homeopath.
