Is It Permissible to Earn Referral Income From Impermissible Insurance?

Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat

Question

May one earn a referral income after directing a client to impermissible insurance offered by others?

Answer

I pray you are well.

No, this would not be permissible. You are assisting someone in sin, and then earning money from that referral.

This is no different from directing someone to something clearly unlawful. For example, if someone sells pork, and you tell another person, “They have good pork chops, go buy from them,” and then you receive money for each customer you send, it is the same principle.

You are directly assisting in something impermissible.

When Insurance May Be Permissible

Sometimes insurance can be permissible, depending on the situation and necessity.

For example:

• Health insurance in a place where there is no free medical care.
• Travel insurance, if one is going to a genuinely high-risk area where medical costs could financially ruin a person.
• Home insurance for indemnity purposes, such as liability if someone is injured on your property and sues you.

These are cases where there may be a valid need.

Impermissible Insurance and Referral Fees

However, if the insurance is impermissible, not required, and not legally necessary, then referral fees for directing others to it are not permissible.

Life insurance, for example, is often based on excessive fear about provision after death. Everyone worries about their family, but everyone also has a Lord who has guaranteed their provision.

Iman instills in a person the understanding that Allah is in charge and has decreed everything.

Such referral income, therefore, would not be permissible.

[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim

Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began studying Arabic Grammar and Morphology whilst studying for a degree in English and History. After graduating, He traveled to Damascus and studied Arabic, Hanafi Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Theology, and Logic with Shaykh Adnan Darwish, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman Arjan al-Binsawi, Shaykh Husayn Darwish, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, the late Shaykh Rashad Shams, and others. He then moved to Amman to continue his studies in those fields, as well as in Tafsir, Quranic Sciences, Hadith Methodology and Commentary, Prophetic Biography, Prophetic Perfections and Traits, Rhetoric, Arabic Literature, and Tajwid. His teachers include Shaykh Ali Hani, Dr. Hamza al-Bakri, Dr. Salah Abu al-Hajj, Dr. Mansur Abu Zina, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Ahmad Jammal, and others.