Salam alaikum respected scholars,

My late father took out a life insurance policy many years ago after having consulted others and being told that it was halal to do so. He passed away in October 2005. Since then, my mother and I (the only members of my father's immediate family) used the money from his life insurance to pay off our home, purchase a car (we did not have one when my dad passed away), pay for my college education, and other things such as purchasing food, clothing, paying bills, etc. My mom has not had a stable job for the past 2 years or so, so we have been really relying on my father's life insurance for a lot of monetary needs. I do not think we would be able to stop using the life insurance funds, especially because my mother is unemployed and I am still in college without a job.  I am emailing to ask if life insurance is truly permissible or not.

Jazakallahu khairun