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Fatwa CenterBenefitting from Health Insurance Benefit of Deceased Person
Question
My mother has a health insurance benefit through my father's work and he is dead now. She has 250 pounds per month to get her medicines, but her real need is less than this sum, so she is getting other goods from the pharmacy like, shampoo, toothpaste, and other stuff which is not like medicines, and sometimes she buy; me my medicines and stuff for my child. Is it "Halal" to get such stuff knowing that the pharmacy is taking 10% more on the medicines and other things to change it for her? The pharmacy encourages her to buy more things from it by taking more money I already got so many things but I feel that it's not my right, but my mother says that this sum is her right and she is free to get whatever she needs because my father's work didn't reward him well when he left. My father was a police officer.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
All kinds of insurance contracts are unlawful. In fact, these contracts include risks and hazards as well as eating people's belongings without a legal right. The person could, for instance, have an accident, or an incurable disease right after having concluded the insurance contract. The treatment of this disease could require paying installments over many years. So, how would the Muslim accept this money which he has not deposited and does not deserve legally? Similarly, the person might not get sick during a long period and spend all this time paying installments for no right purpose.
The scholars are all agreed that the non-Islamic contract is invalid, and each one of the two parties should take back what he has paid. The evidence for this is the verse in which Allah Says (what means): {… but if you repent, you shall have your capital sums. Deal not unjustly (by asking more than your capital sums), and you shall not be dealt with unjustly (by receiving less than your capital sums.} [Quran 2:279]
So, what you deserve of this insurance company is an amount equal to what your father or another party acting on behalf of him had paid. If you believe now that what you have received so far is equal or more than what has been paid, then you should stop getting any more profits from this company. If, on the other hand, you think that the amount paid (by your father or a party acting on his behalf) has not been consumed, you could carry on profiting from this insurance until you recover all your rights. But know that any amount you take more than your right is considered as eating people's money without a legal right and consequently it is forbidden.
Allah knows best.
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