Working as an actuary in an insurance company

Everyday Islamic Finance Business and Career Questions
#1

As Salam alaykum,

I have just graduated with a masters degree in actuarial science in France an therefore I am willing to work as an actuary in France in a conventional insurance company (as takaful companies do not exist over here). However, I have been reading many articles claiming that insurance is haram due to riba and gharar. Learning this is quite overwhelming for me because I have never wanted to work in a haram field but I never thought that what I was studying was « bad ». I have been watching your videos on this subject and I know some scholars consider insurance contracts as permissible. As an actuary, our role is to control the risk uncertainty using probabilities on a big quantity of data. So therefore for me, the role of the actuary is important to completely eliminate the « gharar » side of the contract…
For the riba aspect, usually life insurance contracts (in France) contain riba but not non-life contracts (car, home etc). Therefore I don’t want to work in a life insurance sector just in case.

My question is : working as an actuary in a non-life insurance field (to avoid dealing with riba) permissible ? Knowing that non life contracts are mandatory in almost all countries so are permissible even for Muslims…

Baraka Allahu fikum thanks in advance for your answer and help.

#2

Wa alaykum salaam,

Although in principle this role can be considered permissible, it would be encouraged to work in sectors which are pure and not connected to conventional financial services.

My teacher Mufti Ebrahim Desai Rahimahullah states on this:

In principle, active and direct participation in any unlawful venture is impermissible. Allah Ta’ala says,

و لا تعاونوا على الإثم و العدوان(النساء:٢)

Do not assist one another in sin and transgression (Nisa: 2)

An Actuarial Scientist doesn’t have an active or direct connection with anything unlawful. The responsibility of prohibition will solely be connected to those who participate directly in anything unlawful.

However, it would be advisable to choose any other career which doesn’t have direct or indirect connection to anything unlawful.