Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
A Muslim in such situations should refer back to the insurance company to be sure if what he was given was calculated correctly or not. If it is a mistake, you must return the extra amount to the insurance company.
In his response to your question about extra insurance money, Prof. Dr. Monzer Kahf, Professor of Islamic Finance and Economics at Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, states:
It looks strange to me because usually insurance companies pay much less than is due!
I suggest that first you check with the insurance company to ascertain whether what was given to you was calculated correctly according to the rules of the insurance contract (I mean, not by a material mistake).
If it is a mistake, you must return the extra amount to the insurance company. Otherwise, it is OK to give it to Muslim charity.
I would also dare to say that if it is exactly in accordance with the contract, you may take it for yourself. Could it be that in the contract the employer intended to include some compensation for incidental expenses related to the coverage?
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.