Shaykh Buti on Riba (usury) in the West

We live in a country, which is based on transacting with interest, and we are unable to do anything without getting involved in making use of it. I've got a family and have been planning to buy a house, but it is impossible without getting a loan from a bank that, in turn, adds an interest to it. Will you, please, advise me concerning what to do. This is because the situation here is so hard while there are no Islamic banks to make easy access to such services for Muslims.

Inquiring brother, I have said more than once, on this site, that usury is prohibited. It is unlawful to deal in usury in the Western societies the same as dealing with it in Islamic societies save for the one who suffers necessity. You have, therefore, to consider your case. If you feel it necessary to resort to usury, it is then permissible as to you to deal in it, the same as the permissibility of eating the meat of the dead animal and that of the pig as to the one that is necessitated. I thank Allah that I am not one of those who cook up legal verdicts according to the orders and whims of others.

Will you, please, give your verdict concerning taking loans from a bank. In case of their being permissible in case of necessity, would you mind, dear sir, clarify the quality of such necessity, because I fear Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. This problem has widely spread in our age, the age in which life has changed into struggle. It may have even become Jihad (strife).

The necessity which allows usurious loans is the same necessity which allows eating the meat of a dead animal, pig and the like, in which case the one necessitated is exposed to perish from hunger, nakedness or losing a lodging. Such is the necessity, which makes prohibitions lawful.