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:
Since you have already bought the house and live under the mortgage, I believe it is wrong now to break it if the rental areas do not provide adequately acceptable schooling, security, services and other amenities.
In his response to your question, Prof. Dr. Monzer Kahf, Professor of Islamic Finance and Economics at Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, states:
Since you have already bought the house and live under the mortgage, I believe it is wrong now to break it if the rental areas do not provide adequately acceptable schooling, security, services and other amenities.
As for your case, it is permissible to have a conventional mortgage when Islamic finance is not available. If your husband insists on that, he may have good reason or he may not have adequate information about the importance of relaxation of prohibition in case when its objective is not fulfilled and there are issues of real importance to a Muslim family.
I suggest that under your explanation, you should go ahead and continue living in the house that provides you with safely and good schooling.
If your husband is not yet convinced, please, have him write me and I will see his point of view and how the Shari`ah goes about it.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.