Interest bearing loans & Transactions

Q: If a person works at an accounting office that deals with tax and due to no fault of his own the government reassesses the tax liability of a previous period and charges it say a year after with interest and penalty. Is it haram to pay that? What if the accountant has to submit the payment since he deals with the account, is he liable for the sin too? Since he is not involved with the deal, it is not his account and he is not the scribe for the deal nor did he witness the contract?

Q: Is it haram to pay interest is one is forced to? For example if the government charges you a tax penalty and includes interest in it, is it haram
for you to pay it? What if you're writing a check on someone else's behalf, is it haram for you to write it?

Q: My brother does not have own house and is planning to buy one with the help of bank loan. Will he be entering into any sin by doing so?

Q: I am asking a question on behalf of a trust who runs musjids and madressas, schools and clinics. We had a executive committee meeting in which couple of members said to deposit excess money which we have in an interest bearing account and use that money for Roads, Toilets, Walls, etc. There was disagreement, most members disagreed and but was agreed to ask Mufti to address the question.

Q: Are any of the following Interest Transactions?

1. If a person says "Buy this item for me when you go to the supermarket, it costs R40,but I will give you R50 tomorrow?
2. Loan me R40, I will give you R50 tomorrow, the extra R10 is a gift?
3. A person gives me R50 and says "Go buy this item for me, it costs R40 and you can keep the change?
4. If the person insists on giving the extra amount even when I tell him that it is Interest, what should I do with that money?

Q: Can we buy home loan to avoid income tax? Income tax is also indirect interest. Instead of paying it to the Government can we pay to bank as interest? or do we have an alternative to avoid it which benefits us?

Q: I heard a hadith that says the dua of a person is not accepted if the source of money for his food, for his drink and for his clothes is haram even if he says "Ya Rabi" (my lord). Does this haram money include interest-based loans? I know that taking out interst-based loans is haram. But once you have the money, is that money itself haram to use? I use my student loan money to pay for my university tuition and fees. Any money that's leftover from my loan is used to pay for my rent and my food. I try to make tawbah (repentance) for getting involved in this sin, but is my repentance accepted? Or is my salah  and dua invalid? Is it haram to fill my gas tank with this money or drive anywhere or buy my groceries? I try to eat home-cooked dinners prepared by my mom (from my dad's halal income - which isn't enough unfortunately to pay for my loan).

Q: I saw an add on Internet for sale of land. I wanted to buy that land but I didn't have enough money. So I contacted the bank and fixed the loan. As it was property of a private owner, so bank bought the property, paid amount to the seller and gave me loan. Land price was 100,000. I have 5 years loan period, amount of payment is fixed to 150,000 only if I pay within 5 years, above the principal amount 50,000 is interest (in bank's terms, because it is a conventional bank) but I considered it as I'm buying the property at a high price and amount of money is fixed at the beginning. I will pay this amount within that period if I don't bank will charge interest. Is this contract halaal?

Now after few months have past and i'm paying off that loan, I realised that I have made a mistake because first, I will not be able to pay off this loan within this period and secondly I think its not halaal. I have put this land for sale. I have in my mind that I'll do lots of istigfar and still begging Allah to forgive me. I have decided i'll never deal with conventional banks ever. Is it all right if i sell the property now? Where bank will not share in any loss or profit, rather it has some fixed fees it will charge for breaking the contract. Although, that land is not going to be sold in profit, may be equal to the same actual price of 100,000 or may be less than that. Whereas I have paid more than that amount in terms of lawers fee, council charges, bank fee and interest to bank (as I considered extra payment as high price). Was that contract halaal? Can I sell that property now? I had dream on two different nights that a storm in the ocean is approaching us. What does it mean? Is it related to the whole story?

Q: Is it haram if someone makes a contract and in the contract it says that they will give someone something for free, but it also says in the contract that if the person that gets the free thing breaks the terms and conditions of the contract or cancels once the free thing that is being given starts to be installed then they will be asked to pay for it and also if they break the contract and are asked to now pay for the free thing and they do not pay for the free thing when the money is asked from them then interest will be charged on the money they would owe? Is that a haram interest contract to ask someone to sign? 

If it is, what should someone do with the money they have made and saved from doing a job that involved witnessing and asking others to sign up to a interest contract like this one? What should a person do if the company they worked for doing this for are due to pay him money from past contracts that the person signed others into?

Q: I'm a 22 year old graduate student studying for my Master's in Physiology. I live in Cleveland, Ohio, USA and I was wondering if someone would be able to answer my question. I'm currently $124,000 in debt due to government loans, which charge interest. I was under the impression that under situations of necessity, the haram becomes halal, however I recently found out that the definition of "necessity" means life or death. I took out the loans so that I could complete my bachelor's and master's degrees. I'm planning on going to medical school in Fall 2014 and I will be required to take out even more loans (with interest). I found out that there's a military service program (HPSP - health professions scholarship program) for medical students in which the military will pay all tuition and fees, along with a monthly stipend, but will require 4 years of military service as payback. This will mean I will have to live without my family for months at a time. I'm planning on doing this program so that I do not have to take out further riba-based loans, and so that I can begin to pay off my current loan with my monthly stipend. However, there are other non-military programmes out there as well, but they will only forgive my loan after 10 years, which means I will be paying interest for at least 10 years. Also, there are some residency programmes that offer signing bonuses and partial loan forgiveness that might reduce the time required to pay off my debt to 3-5 years. Dropping out of medical school doesn't seem like a good option since I will end up paying the interest on my loan anyway. Any career besides medicine will most likely pay less, and thus take longer to pay off my loan (resulting in more interest). In the meantime, is there anything else I should do? I don't come from a wealthy family, and there are hardly any interest-free student loans offered for regular middle-class families. I guess, I can only keep asking for Allah's forgiveness and pray for a way out of this debt.

I'm sure there are many other Muslim students in America in my situation. I appreciate any answer.