The Ruling on Marrying With the Money of a Father Who Deals in Usury or Interest

Question :

All praise and thanks be to Allah, for He has blessed me with guidance and I am about to marry at this time. But the problem is that my father-may Allah guide him - deals in usury (Riba) and he will help me financially in the matter of this marriage. So now I am in a dilemma, because I do not possess the sum of the dowry, and at the same time, I am hesitant to accept my father's assistance because of his unlawful money.
This means that I will continue to live without a life partner for the coming years. So what should I do?

Answer:

I would like to share a useful rule with the questioner and the readers, which is that what is forbidden due to the manner of its acquisition, is forbidden only to the one who acquires it. As for something which is in itself forbidden, it is forbidden to the one who acquires it and to others.

As an example of this, if a person literally took somebody's money and wanted to give it to another, in order to buy something, or as a gift, we would say that this is unlawful, because this money is in itself forbidden.

As for a method of earning which is unlawful, such as through usury or cheating or other such things, this is unlawful for the one who earns it and it is not unlawful for the one who takes it from him by right. And the evidence for this is that the Prophet used to accept gifts from the Jews and accept their invitations and eat from their food and buy from them; and it is well known that the Jews deal in usury, as Allah has mentioned regarding them in the Qur'an.

Based upon this rule, I say to this questioner: Take all that you need for marriage from your father's money for it is lawful for you, not unlawful and the sin is only upon your father. And I ask Allah, Most Glorified, Most High to bless him with guidance and repentance and abstention from usury. And your father should know that Allah, Most High says in His Noble Book:
"Those who eat Riba will not stand (on the Day of Resurrection) except like the standing of a person beaten by Shaitan (Satan)."

So what do they think is the meaning of this Verse? The scholars of Tafsir say that when those who devour usury are sent forth on the Day of Resurrection, they will stand like one whom Allah has beaten into insanity. That is a more severe punish- ment, by which they will be humiliated before the people on the Day of Resurrection.

Some of the later scholars said that the meaning of the Verse is that those who devour usury practice these dealings like the behavior of an insane person, in that it takes over their reason, their thoughts and their bodies, and distracts them from everything. Whether or not the Verse carries this meaning, the meaning which we know is the first, for it is agreed upon by the majority of the scholars and the commentators, which is that they will be punished in this world by this greed and miserliness, and in the Hereafter they will receive that ( aforementioned) punishment.

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