Can I get insurance for my candle business?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
I’m thinking about starting a candle business, but I’ve read that having insurance is highly recommended because candles produce fire and can potentially harm customers and myself.
I’m also aware that insurance is prohibited, and I can’t find any halal candle insurance. Should I start the business without insurance? Should I abandon this plan entirely, or are there any other alternatives?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
I pray you are in good faith and health.
Given the risks that candle businesses are exposed to, ensuring the business’s various layers is essential in preventing expensive claims and liabilities, and some scholars have allowed doing so. One should first seek to take out a policy compliant with sharia principles. If no such policy is available, one may resort to conventional insurance as a matter of dispensation to the extent that the requirements of the law are met.
All forms of prevalent insurance contravene the sharia due to interest (riba), risk (garar), and gambling (maysir). Therefore, one should only take out conventional insurance when one has to pursue a regular daily activity for which there is a need and when the law requires this. If it is not required by law, or it is the pursuit of an activity for which there is no real need, then one should not take out conventional insurance.
Please speak to a reliable local scholar about the specifics of your business and ask him about this issue according to the laws and requirements of your country.
Related:
The Legal Verdict on Prevalent Forms of Insurance
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I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.
