A bank stipulating that a financed car may not be sold until the instalments are paid

A question about buying a car through a bank that forbids selling it until the instalments are paid, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that this condition is invalid because it contradicts the nature of a sale, unless it takes the form of a mortgage of the car in the bank's favour, in which case it may be sold only with the bank's permission. ¹

The questioner asked about buying a car through a bank, paying part of the price himself while the bank pays the rest, with the bank obliging him not to sell the car until all instalments are paid. ¹

The Department answered that conditions agreed by contracting parties are valid in principle unless they contradict what the contract entails, citing al-Qalyubi's division of conditions in his gloss on Kanz al-Raghibin into five cases, the last being a condition contrary to the contract's requirements, which invalidates it. ¹ It said that murabaha for a purchase orderer is a kind of sale, so the bank may not stipulate that the item not be sold, since ownership has passed to the client, but it may stipulate a mortgage over the item in its favour, after which it may be sold only with the bank's permission. ¹ It said the client may not pay any part of the price to the original seller or to the bank; he pays instead a good-faith deposit that is not counted as part of the price. ¹ It concluded that the bank may not validly stipulate that the car not be sold until the instalments are paid, except by way of mortgage, in which case a sale is valid with the bank's permission. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3937, dated 9 January 2025. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.