Alsalamu alaikum, 

I'm from Michigan USA. I have a daughter, she'll be going to university next year. She has good grades and she will be studying Dentistry, but it's a very expensive program. The problem is that we can't pay arround $40,000 a year for her tuition. She has to take loans and as you know loans in US have interest. So is it right to take a loan? if not she can't enroll in this university. 

Thank you. Alsalamu alaikum.

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy

All praise belongs to Allah, and may prayers and peace be upon Allah’s final Messenger. 

Here is the decision of AMJA’s Sixth Annual Convention (2009) in Canada regarding this issue:

“Firstly: Student Loans

The default is the forbiddance of interest-based loans regardless of whether these loans are for students or otherwise due to it falling under the clear interest that the scholars unanimously agreed, past and present, on its impermissibility. It is incumbent that all efforts are spent in finding permissible alternatives before leaping to the justification of urgency or need.

In the world of Western universities, academic scholarships are granted for the outstanding (students) and unable (to afford), alongside work-study opportunities that allow for combining studying and earning, by which one can avoid falling into these loans. Also, there may be subsidized loans that the nation pays its interest if the student is able to repay all he owes within six months of his graduation. In addition, there are grants provided by some companies and institutions in exchange for employment contracts with it after graduation. It is incumbent that one spends his efforts in (trying) all this.

If all of these are nonexistent, and the interest-based loans are the only way to facilitate the beginning or continuation of a university education, or the only way to secure the Muslim communities need for what cannot be done without of professions and expertise, then this is considered an urgent necessity that removes the sin even though the ruling of impermissibility remains. This is upon the condition that the one forced to this isn’t an aggressor nor transgressor, and this is by giving the urgent need its proper estimate, and by continuing to search for a permissible alternative and breaking free of these interest-based loans when one is first able to do so in order to minimize the interest amount paid as much as possible. We emphasize the need to return to the people of Fatwa (i.e. qualified to passed a juristic opinion on Islamic Law) to estimate these needs and urgencies. It isn’t correct for just anyone to assume the responsibility to do this, or to measure his need on the need of others.”

Allah knows best.

[Link to full text of the Declaration: https://www.amjaonline.org/declaration-articles/decisions-and-recommendations-of-amjas-sixth-annual-convention-canada/]