Buying a car in installments

#1

As salaamu aliekum,

I saw another thread about purchasing a car in installments, but I wanted to clarify some details. Here in the U.S., many car dealers offer installment based options for car purchases, but there is interest in the contract. I also read in one of your blogs, that the sharia doesn’t care for the form of the contract, but rather the substance of the contract. For example:

Car costs $25,000 cash
or
$430 /month payment for 60 months at 4.00% APR

Is it permissible to purchase with installments? Does it depend on if the dealer is financing to you directly or if you go to a third-party to provide the loan for the installment payment?

Technically, you do not own the car and are given a “temporary” title until you make the last payment and then the bank will give you the full title/ownership to the car.

#2

Wasalam

May Allah bless you.
Car financing deals need reviewing. In general, the conventional model is non shariah compliant. I am possibly leaning towards some exceptions, as there are not halal finance alternatives available.
Maybe in the future I will elaborate on this inshAllah.

And Allah knows best!

#3

Jazaak Allahu Khair for your prompt input.

In the thread I linked in the original post, you mentioned that the transaction was permissible. From a high-level, these two transactions look nearly identical. Can you explain the difference why that one was permissible and this one is “non shariah compliant”?

#4

We will be reviewing this article inshAllah.