Assalam alaikum wa rahmatAllah,

I used to use credit cards when doing my daily shopping because I thought there was nothing wrong with that, as long as you pay what you owe at the end of the month so as to avoid interest. I got an offer from one of the credit card companies giving the client a year without interest, on condition that you pay just a little bit (the minimum payment due), so I used the card to buy some merchandise for trading, and then I paid off everything I owed before the year was up. Would that contract be considered interest-bearing? And what is the ruling on the profit I made trading with the capital from a loan with an invalid contract?

Please advise, and may you be rewarded.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful,

All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessing be upon the Messenger of Allah, upon his household, his companions and those who have followed him. To proceed:

The rule is that it is prohibited to enter into a contract that contains invalid conditions, except when these contracts are determined to be a means of fulfilling an exigent, personal need or a pervasive, public need which would take the same verdict as an exigent need in temporarily allowing the prohibited. If the norm in your area is to use credit cards, you had significant difficulty obtaining an Islamic alternative for them and you used the card within the limits of necessity, with the firm resolve not to delay payment so as not to fall into a matter prohibited by Shari'ah (Islamic law), then I hope there would be no blame in that within these limits, insha'Allah (God willing). If the matter was as such, there would also be nothing wrong with the profit generated from the likes of this transaction, as long as you were trading in permissible goods and you did not deal with riba (interest) or invalid contracts in your business.