Q.1. Here in the US, a person may have to use the facility of buying expensive items, such as a car or a house, or even less expensive items, on installments. This may involve the payment of interest. Is this acceptable from the Islamic point of view?
Q.2. Is stoning to death the Islamic punishment for adultery? I could not find it in the Qur’an.
M.A. Saeed, USA
A.1. Much depends on the form that the purchase takes. If you go to a car dealer and say that you want to pay for your car over a period of time, and he says to you that the price will be so much for immediate payment, but a higher one for payment over a period of, say, two years, this is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, if the car dealer offers to make arrangements for you with a finance company so that you pay over the same period and at the same price he has quoted, this is strongly objectionable, and may be forbidden.
In this latter form, you are actually obtaining from the finance a loan in the amount of the cash price of the car, which the company pays to the car dealer on your behalf. You then repay your loan with interest.
In the first form, you are buying the car for a higher price because of the payment arrangements, while in the second you are borrowing money and repaying it with increase.
As for buying a house on mortgage, this is permissible. We have discussed this on several occasions, quoting the ruling of the European Fiqh Council that permits this arrangement.
A.2. You are right when you say that the punishment of stoning is not mentioned in the Qur’an. It relies on a Hadith that defines the punishment for adultery. It should be said that according to the weightier opinion, this is not a mandatory or hadd punishment that cannot be waived. Rather, it is discretionary. Moreover, Islamic punishments are established mostly for deterrence. This applies to the punishment for adultery that requires either a free, unsolicited confession, or testimony by four qualified witnesses who state that they have personally seen the offense being committed.