An employee taking parking compensation from work while he walks to work

24-10-2013 | IslamWeb

Question:

My company pays me 300 dirhams monthly car parking assistance in order to compensate me for the parking fees to be paid for parking near my office building. However, my office has now moved close to my house so that now I walk to work and no longer need to drive to the office. Since I am no longer paying for parking, is it permissible for me to accept the 300 dirhams car parking assistance? Is there consensus on such a case or is there scholarly disagreement?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is not permissible for you to take compensation for parking fees unless you clarify the matter to your employer [your company] since the reason for which those fees are allocated no longer exists as you mentioned. So, if you clarify the matter to your employer [i.e. that you live close to your office and you do not use your car to get to work] and your company after that agrees to pay you these parking fees, then it becomes permissible for you to benefit from them; and it is unlikely that there would be any difference of opinion among scholars regarding such an issue.

Allaah Knows best.