Husband's permission is required when lending his money

25-7-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

A neighbour asked me for small loans 3 times and I was able to help her without informing my husband. She paid back. Her income is just enough to meet her ordinary needs without extravagance, but I find her often over-spending & not being thrifty. She has a lot of family and relatives who are welloff. But she claims that she is ashamed to ask them and has only me to ask. She now asked me for a rel. large sum and I am hesitant to loan her even if I asked my husband's permission because I am beginning to think she is taking advantage of me esp. since she frequently expresses how low her income is compared to others & she seems to be always comparing people's incomes including her relatives. I feel guilty not to try to come up with the money and losing thawab but at the same time, I don't want to make my husband lose his money if she didn't pay-up this time when the sum is big.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is not permissible for you to lend your neighbor money without your husband’s permission. But if you inform him and he gives you the money, then there is nothing wrong with this and you will be rewarded for interceding on her behalf with your husband to lend her money.

A good loan is among the virtuous deeds; Ibn Mas‘ood narrated that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “There is no Muslim who lends another Muslim a loan twice without one of these two loans being written for him as charity.” [Ibn Maajah and Ibn Hibbaan in his Saheeh]

Allaah Knows best.