Assalamu Alaikum,
I am hoping one of the respected muftis could please help me determine how to purify some past insurance issues (if they need purification)
1 - As a student, I was enrolled in student health and dental insurance plans - I could have opted-out but I did not do so. I have availed of some health and dental benefits through these plans. Now, it is really hard for me to determine now how much my premiums were and how much I claimed, but my honest guess is that I claimed less than the premiums that I paid.
2 - I do still have a cheque for a dental claim from one of my student insurance plans that I am still eligible to claim. Would I be allowed to deposit this? While it is with the same insurance company as my previous plans, this was a newer plan for which I don’t recall claiming any dental benefits (although I may have claimed some health benefits, but they had a separate premium)
3 - When I was younger, I was covered under my father’s dental and health insurance and used it to cover some of my expenses. However, his insurance was not free - rather the employer was charging some premium for it. I availed of this not only as a child, but also when I was a young adult.
4 - I was previously on an auto insurance policy with my parents which included some optional insurance on our cars along with a optional home insurance policy. However, this actually helped me to pay less premiums overall as we got more discounts due to multiple policies and drivers under one account.
5 - I had a part-time sales job where when selling a product we would also try to sell an extended and enhanced warranty. This was like an extended warranty, but with extra types of coverage on the product that weren’t covered by the original warranty. We got extra commission for selling this service plan on items we sold. My pay at this company was sometimes the base salary and sometimes the commission, depending on how much I sold in a particular week.
For these scenarios I would just like to know if I need to purify my wealth, and if so, how would I go about doing so as I may not have all the details anymore.
JazakAllah khair
Assalamu alaikum
Just wanted to follow-up on this to see if @Mufti_Billal or @Mufti_Faraz_Adam may be able to help clarify these matters for me. I apologize for asking a bunch of these at once but i thought it may be better to group them together as somewhat related
JazakAllah khair
Wasalam
May Allah bless you.
First, try to work out how much of the premium you have paid, and how much you have claimed. If you have claimed more than you have paid, then donate this amount to charity.
For the car insurance, you will do the same. The premium paid is your money, which is halal. So in the case of a claim, you can take the amount contributed. The extra amount, should be given to charity. Even if, out of necessity you have to use the entire payout amount, you must have the intention to donate the extra amount, as soon as you can afford to.
If you have sold the extended warranty at the time of selling the product, then its fine, you do not need to purify your wealth. Some scholars consider extended warranty permissible, when it is purchased at the same time of purchasing the product (Extended warranties).
Thus, selling the warranty at the same time of selling the product, I would see it as permissible.
And Allah knows best!
Assalamu Alaikum @Mufti_Billal
JazakAllah khair for your reply.
1 - At this point, there isn’t really any way for me to know how much premium paid and how much I claimed. Is a best guess sufficient to determine whether I need to donate or if I can claim the cheque?
2 - If I had multiple plans with the same insurance company, do I consider my premiums paid and claims for each plan separately while evaluating, or in totality from all plans? Similarly, would I evaluate my health premium and health claims separately from my dental premium and dental claims, or just look at them as one? For example, paid health $100 claimed health $125, paid insurance $100 claimed $0. Looking at it in totality, I claimed less than my premiums but looking at them individually, I claimed an extra $25.
3 - If I determine my claims are less than my premiums, then I can deposit my outstanding cheque, correct?
4 - Do I need to do anything for the scenarios where I was covered under my father’s insurance and used his plan to cover some of my expenses? I wouldn’t have any idea of the total claims or premiums in this case.
5. If there was optional insurance on the policy to actually lower the premium paid, does this make those savings on the premiums haram?
6. The extended warranty was sold at the time of selling the product. However, part of my concern was that it is not just an extended warranty - there was far more protection/coverage in this plan than the original warranty would cover (e.g. product replacement, etc).
JazakAllah khair
Assalamu Alaikum @Mufti_Billal,
Would you be able to help out with the above questions?
