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8th November 2024

Are early bird discounts halal?

I operate a business selling products. Is it permissible for me to offer an early bird discount for a specific length of time in order to generate sales.

E.g The cost of an item is $50, but if they purchase within the first 7 days of listing the product it will be $40 ($10 off). The price will then return to the original specified price.

Would this be a permissible transaction for both products and services rendered?
Transactions
9th September 2024

Indirect use of stolen money in business

firstly, Who does profit belong to if someone invests in a business with stolen capital, the owner of the money (opinion 1) or the thief (opinion 2) ? also has Mufti Taqi usmani said his opinion on this?

Secondly, let’s say someone followed opinion 1 and used minimal stolen money to pay for their house . They are aware that using something stolen in a business may require a person to return the profits back to the owner of the money (depending on what opinion someone follows) .now what about a person whose bank account is using that home address, their government ID, their passport, their driving license, their phone numbers, their SIM contracts, insurances etc . How can we start a business or a job when there will always be a link to that house that was used to funded by minimal stolen money. It would be costly and difficult and time consuming to put all of this on another address espcially when other peoples houses have some stolen money contamination in them and they may not even let the thief use their address for their own benefit. Does this mean we can’t ever do business in this situation . This would also make it extremely difficult to get a job because they would need our bank accounts Id, address, contact details etc . Lastly , The phones and cars itself, aren’t funded with haram money but rather the home address that was used to file as an address for the insurance company has some stolen money in it . In extreme need, what could someone do?

Thirdly,I used to follow a mufti who I trusted that said that profit from a business that began with stolen capital belonged to the thief and not the owner of the capital (but the capital would need to be returned to the owner regardless) but now I follow someone else who I trust more that says the profit belongs to the owner . What do you think The person should do with the profits he made whilst following the first mufti’s opinion? What if giving away the money it causes him to have nothing and causes hardship in making money in the future ?

Finally, if someone followed opinion 1 (in the first question above) and they were selling to certain shops as part of their business and they wear stolen clothes even though there isn’t a specific type of clothes you have to wear in the business, would the income be haram ? What about driving to that place with a car bought with stolen money because it isn’t also needed in the business but they chose to use it anyway
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9th September 2024

Business with stolen money as capital

if someone invests in a business with stolen capital, does the profit need to be returned to the owner along with the capital or just the capital ?

if someone follows the opinion that profits from a business that's invested with stolen capital belong to the owner of the capital and not the thief and they followed that opinion from a scholar they trust but overtime they followed another scholar they was more inclined to and the scholar followed the opinion

if person 1 was to partner up with person 2 in business on the condition that person 2 brings the capital for the business, if his money is completely haram as in hes earned it by selling haram services but a tiny proportion of his money but not majority is earned thorough insurance fraud, even if it’s haram to use that capital in a partnership as it’s not halal, would the capital come out of the stolen savings or haram savings (the person is aware entering this type of partnership is haram and they need to repent)

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1st September 2024

Business Permissibility

Salam u Alakum,
I began working with a plastic surgeon in 2019. However, our engagement was not the typical employer/employee arrangement. My background was in business management, particularly in the medical field, and this surgeon requested me to come assist him in his office several times. The surgeon already had a company, a brand, an office, employees etc. At the time, I had just left my previous job and was in between work. I’ve always aspired to entrepreneurship and wanted to veer away from being someone’s employee. We agreed that I can launch my own plastic surgery brand, with a different name, it would stand as my company, I would build it over time, all capital investment would come from me, with the goal of growing the company via scaling our marketing efforts. As for the office, it would be sort of a “plug n play” arrangement, as mentioned above, the office, the staff, the certified office based surgical center, the surgeon, etc, everything already existed. So as leads started to come in from my brand, they would come directly to the office (or virtually) for a consultation with the already existing workflow. For obvious reasons, my goal was to develop a brand that would attract patients to want to come through my brand.
Upon starting, things took quite a while to pick up, as you would expect with any business. We also had the COVID shut down looming in shortly after I had already started and committed to this venture. Nevertheless, I continued to be patient, trying to grow it. Most of the investment went towards marketing, whether in web development, paid advertising on various social media platforms, monthly SEO fees, etc. For the first year, I was in the negative, hadn’t made any of my investment back. In the second year, things started to pick up, but I still was in the negative in terms of a return on my investment. Going into year 3 and on, is when things started to pick up and I saw a more consistent base of leads coming in through my brand.
My question is regarding permissibility in continuing with this venture due to fake reviews. Somewhere along the way of my efforts, it became clear that many, if not all, competitors would pay for fake reviews on google in order to grow their brand. At the beginning, I was against it and wanted to do things the right way, but as time went by, and I didn’t see revenue coming in, I gave in. I was also influenced by my SEO (search engine optimization) specialist who has been doing SEO for years, and had mentioned to me a few times in our calls, that all of our competitors are doing fake reviews, and outside of the moral question of right and wrong, it’s almost a part of the industry and in order to compete, I should do the same. Sometime along the way, I gave in and started doing fake reviews, specifically on google. I would like you to please bear in mind while advising me on this matter, that while the google reviews are fake, everything else is real. The reviews may make someone interested in doing a consultation with us, but the person consulting them, whether the doctor or someone else, is well experienced in plastics, patients are welcome to see the office, are welcome to ask and see the surgeons credentials (all are hung up at the office), the pictures that show the before and after results for patients that we use for marketing online are real as well, these pictures are placed on google, the website, and other social media platforms, ie Instagram, facebook. This is a real certified office based surgical center.
A this time, I’m about 5 years into building this company, and it has been my primary source of income. Although I have stopped fake reviews for well over a year now, I’ve still had a massive change of heart because of the fake reviews that are still up and have been feeling a strong sense of guilt. I have sought advice from loved ones, and I get mixed responses. Again, everything besides those reviews are real, I don’t want you to think this is some plastic “overseas” type scam that we hear about on the news, this is a certified office based surgical center in the city that we’re operating in, this is a real licensed plastic surgeon with over 10 years of experience, the office, the staff, etc all are real. My guilt comes from the fake reviews that attract people to want to come do a consultation and possibly move forward with us. As difficult it may seem, I’ve considered shutting the company down and moving on to find something else for work. I am married and recently had my first child so as you can imagine, the pressure of leaving a stable income from a company I’ve built over the last 5 years, while having always been an aspiring entrepreneur is very difficult and I’m having extremely mixed feelings about it. One day, I am thinking of all this, and another day my thoughts are, to leave this for the sake of Allah SWT, and that this is what is best from my dunya and akhira. I am very worried that the income that I use to provide for my family, is haram income, and that really effects my psyche and emotional state in my life. SubhanAllah, and Alhamdulillah, the company has been doing well lately, and I am so confused ad not sure how to feel about it, as this is rizq from Allah SWT, but what if its rizq in an impermissible way, then I ask myself why Allah SWT is allowing it to succeed, is it a test, should I leave it behind, should I stay the course and continue to try and grow it the right/moral way. It all tends to overwhelm my thoughts when I try to figure out how to proceed.
By the way, in case this is important for you to know, my brand doesn’t market any procedures that I, upon my research early on, considered haram. For example, anything that would change the original creation of Allah SWT, like buttock lifts, women who want to enhance their buttocks, I felt was not permissible Islamically so we do not market that. The surgeon I work with does do buttock lifts and there are times when patients come in through my brand and from the point of signing up until surgery day, they decide to add a buttock lift. (Not sure if this matters so I am including it in case it does). We market procedures such as liposuction, removing fat that was not previously there, certain procedures that help women whether post birth or just struggling with maintaining a healthy body, such as with loose skin, sagging breasts etc. In summary, procedures I felt were permissible, again based on some research I did early on prior to launching the brand, not exhaustive, if I’m being perfectly honest.
Lastly regarding the reviews, I imagine you may be thinking, why not just remove them? The reviews do play a part in our online rankings as company, removing them would be almost like starting over or taking a few steps back, some of these reviews date back over 3 years ago, and that matters as it gives historical data points for the brand online. Secondly, even if I could remove them, the reviews came from somewhere overseas, and the person who did them no longer has access to the emails. Again, I have stopped these reviews for well over a year now and have requested office staff to request from patients to leave real reviews.
With everything I mentioned above, please advise me, Islamically, what is the safer route, should I shut the brand down and seek provision elsewhere, or can I continue operating and growing the brand, so long as I continue not to add any additional fake reviews?
And please, if there are any additional questions or information you need to advise me properly, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can email me at adamislam19899@gmail.com
Transactions
5th August 2024

Income earned from Uber.

Assalamualaikum

I did uber eats for 2 months not knowing that it is not permissible. i earned around 300-400$ dollars from it. As soon I got to know that it is not permissible, I stopped. But what should I do with the money I earned in that time. Should I give it away or what are my options?

Please help me out with this
Transactions
21st July 2024

Metal

the process for selling my gold to a cash for gold place is as follows: I send the gold to the company so they can inspect it, they decide if they want it, if they make me a buy offer and I accept it, they will send me the funds the same day. Now if we agree on a fixed price when I decide to accept the buy offer and they pay later on in the day, is this permissible?

Likewise, if I was to sell scrap metal that I collected to a scrapyard or metal recycler and then we agree on a price and at the same time of accepting the offer, they take possession of the metal and say they will pay me sometime in the same day? Is this permissible or does the transaction need to happen at the same time? If it’s not permissible ,is there another way method I can use to make it permissible ?

Transactions
13th July 2024

Online courses

Assalamualaikum, I want to sell coaching and a course online. Would it be permissible for me to only make the course part once people buy so I know if its in demand? The coaching will be available once they buy.

That way I would save alot of time and I would just say to the customer(s) once they buy, that the coaching they have access to immediately but the course part would be ready in the next 4 to 5 days and they can tell me if they want any specific modules to be added

Jazakallah
Transactions
2nd July 2024

Business partners

1.)does a business partner affect if your business income will be haram or not ? Let’s say someone had a non mahram female who didn’t cover up properly and the minimal communication barrier was broken in the sense that the male and female were close and talked about more than just business or someone had a business partner and he was a deviant who may mock Islam or someone who was a non Muslim and the two business partners already had a very close friendship, even if someone was to sell only halal products with all the partners listed above, would their income still be halal?

2.)if someone (person 1) wanted to do a specific business with one person (person2) and they told this person about the business idea and he agreed (person2) but person 1 did that specific business with a completely different person instead, will person 1s income be halal from that specific business or not (he sells completely halal products)

3.) Likewise if person 1 tells
Person2 that he’s interested in doing business with person2 and person 2 agrees but then person1 doesnt do it with person 2 and instead, person1, who behind person 2s back, collaborates on person3s business (person1 didn’t reveal the business idea to person 2, he simply said to person2 that he wanted to collaborate with their business) who is also doing the same business as person2 , will this make person 1s income haram for doing business with person 3 instead even though he vaguely verbally agreed to collaborate on the same business as person2
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26th June 2024

Making a condition that 30% of income from Masjid will go towards charitable works

"The individual intends to purchase land for a mosque, estimated to cost approximately £200,000, and intends to dedicate (waqf/وقف) this land for the mosque. However, there is a condition attached. After 4/5 years, once the mosque is established and funds start accruing through donations, etc., 30% of the money will be allocated to support the individual's madrassa for orphans in Afghanistan, following the clearance of all mosque-related expenses. In the event that the community does not agree to allocate this money to the orphan's madrassa, it can be directed to Afghanistan for various welfare projects, such as building schools, aiding the impoverished, reconstructing fallen bridges, or any other charitable endeavors."
Please note that the renovation will take place through donation and not this particular individual will do all the renovation process all by himself.
Is doing such thing ie; making such a condition that 30% would be spend there, is permissible according to Islam bearing in mind all the stated information. Please answer with evidences as answer will be shared with the community Insha'Allah later.
Jazakumullahu Khair
Transactions
17th June 2024

Investing in shares according to AAOIFI

Salam alaykum,

I started investing in shares a few months ago. I've already put in over 400 euros. To determine whether a company is halal, I use the Musaffa application, which claims to follow the AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions) methodology. Can I continue to invest in this way? If not, should I sell everything immediately?

May Allah reward you for your efforts
Transactions
9th June 2024

Rulling on reselling

There was a football match in my place, and finding tickets for them is very tough. My friend's cousin works in an agency which buys these tickets in bulk, I advertised selling these tickets in my university and had many buyers, I had my friend's cousin who's working in the agency buy the tickets for me, the agency was selling the tickets at a profit price and they were well aware that I'm reselling it for my own profit. Example the agency got the tickets for $10, they sold it to me for $25 and I was selling it for $35, and even the customer who was buying the tickets is well aware about the original price as the original price clearly shows up on the ticket when I send them the details of it before they buy it. I made almost $2000 from it and wanted to know if the income here is halal or haram. If it is haram, what should be done with the money I have? Also my parents are unaware about this and I'm 19, am I supposed to tell them about it?
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25th May 2024

Renting A Rented Flat Haram?

Assalamualaikum Brothers and Sisters. So it works out like this, someone needed an X amount of money and own a flat so he decided to give it to me for a year so I can have the rent for a year and then end of the year he will get back his flat and i will get my money back. Theres no extra money or interest involved (meaning the rent payer will not have his rent increased or have their contract changed in anyway). Its a simple ethical trade. Is that considered haram? Thank you
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20th June 2023

Benefit money

Assalamu alaykum

When I first got married almost 23 years ago my husband was working in the family business like he had been since he was 16, and so he still wasn’t earning a proper wage. However after my son was born he applied for working family tax credit and child tax credit and ‘adjusted’ the records to be eligible. (In fact he showed he was earning more than he was receiving as his wage was too low to be eligible). And he again adjusted the records to remain eligible when I started teaching in maktab.

Some time ago there was a mixup and we stopped receiving one of the benefits and so started receiving free school meals instead. However my husband sorted it out straight away and we started receiving both benefits again, but the free school meal benefits remained. (this included free school trips and a free school uniform voucher and now also includes holiday lunch money vouchers since COVID and there was even a large one off payment last year).
He has called them a few times to cancel but they say we’re eligible and we’re still receiving the free meals and other benefits.

My son doesn’t eat the school meals and I stopped spending the holiday vouchers because I felt it was dishonest and cheating, but I keep receiving them and I’m wondering if it’s allowed for me to use them? My husband has told them to cancel but they aren’t. Can I think of it as Allah’s favours?

He hasn’t been able to work for the past 15 years due to mental health issues, but Alhamdulillah we weren’t really struggling because of his father’s support, but I’m getting a divorce and worried about saving for my future. Alhamdulillah I have my fathers support but I don’t want to be a burden.
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10th May 2023

Third party money exchange is it haram

Salam alaikum.

I do money exchange where If a client needs naira, i would look for someone in nigeria that needs pounds and aid the exchange while collecting the difference in rate. For example if pounds to naira is 920 to £1 and naira to pounds is 935 to £1 i would get the 15naira difference. Is this haram earning or halal
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10th March 2023

Is Affiliate Marketing Brand Bidding Income Halal or Haram?

Salam. I engage in a business activity called Affiliate Marketing Brand Bidding or Affiliate Marketing Trademark Bidding. A Google search will be able to explain it better than I can. Is the income generated from this haram or halal?

I am aware that Affiliate Marketing income is halal, but this is slightly different as it involved going against 1 term. It is completely legal, but companies that pay you generally suggest against it in their terms. It is allowed by search engines & by the law as mentioned. It is business and from my understanding it doesn’t serve any net loss to the company, even if it did - that is the case in every business. The rule only exists because companies are greedy. They do monitor ads and if seen it is their responsibility to forfeit your payment if seen going against their rules, but sometimes they don’t notice as it doesn’t cause any harm to them. If you google “Affiliate Marketing Trademark Bidding” you will get a better understanding of the business model and be able to advise better, I have left a brief summary of the business model below but if there are any questions regarding the business model please reply or feel free to google.

About business model :
Simply put, affiliate brand bidding is the practice of affiliate partners using their own funds to create and display ads on Google and other search engines. These ads appear on consumer searches for your brand name.
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6th January 2023

GAP Insurance

Assalamu alaykum,

Here in the UK car insurance is compulsory as we know. When buying or leasing a car on any sort of finance (including 0% interest) car dealers offer you an optional insurance called GAP insurance. This is because if the car is written off ( by accident, theft or fire) the insurance will pay out the current market value of the car not the purchase price (what you still owe). The insurance money goes to the owner ( the lender) and if there is a shortfall you the customer have to pay the lender..so the GAP insurance is supposed to cover the shortfall..

Is taking this GAP insurance permissable?
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1st December 2022

Money invested used for a different purpose and then stolen. Can we claim back our money?

As salam alaykum respected shuyukh... I need a fiqhi answer to a financial issue...can you kindly please help me .. Jazakumullahu khayran... . Here is my question :

In February 2020, my husband and I invested money with one of his friends.
The basis of that investment initially was that, after every 3 months, we get 25 % profit of the amount of money invested. HIs activity was buying expensive cars at a cheaper price through channels, fixing them and reselling them for more. According to him, his business was successful and no mention of any risk or loss has been mentioned at that time.

After a couple of days, I realised that it was a form of ribaa to get a fixed amount so my husband contacted him to change the conditions of the deal, so this becomes halal.

We agreed on continuing on a basis of partnership, and on the fact that we may not make a fixed and expected profit, and that our profit will depend on how much profit he makes.


The brother sent to my husband this message :

“The percentage is based on 5.5% return more or less on 10K. That makes roughly around 5k up and down as profit based on the product value. This is an investment only and if you investing same amount roughly then it’s same figure roughly unless you invest more amount.”


After a year, my husband enquired about the investment and the brother informed him that he lost all the money. He invested the money in a different activity, which is importing or exporting cars to sell them. He told my husband that the cars he bought have been stolen on the journey, hence he lost all the money.

I have personally invested all my savings on the basis that the investment is sure and will generate profit. My husband also on his side invested a big amount. Now when we try to contact the brother, his answers are not clear, in the sense we don’t know when, how much and if he is going to give us our money back. Also, from his message, it seems that for him, giving the money back is not a must but rather out of his benevolence.
Now, more time passes and less he is willing to give the money back.


So my questions are :
Are we in our right to ask the money back and still consider this money as ours? Or is this money a debt upon him if he decides not to give them back?

Was it right for him to invest in another activity without consulting us?

Do we have to pay zakat al maal upon this money? (I am maliki, my husband is hanafi)

What do you advise as a solution?

Jazakumullahu khayran for your time and guidance.
Transactions
28th September 2022

Finance for home

السلام عليكم و رحمةالله و بركاته

I am looking into buying a house and I am researching into few islamic finance providers.

In the mean time I came across this website.

I would like to have some guidance in the financial system offered by the following website.

Should a Muslim be pursuing it.

https://frontya.com.au/faqs
Transactions
1st July 2022

Bank transactions

I am doing a business for that i need go daily riba based bank for business transactions. Is it permissible?. Without bank i cant do that business now what can i do?
Transactions
5th April 2022

Hair brush business

Asalaamualaikum

I have a company which i sell hair brushes and these hair brushes their bristles are made out of boar and im not sure if its 10 % made from boar or 50 or etc but im just curious to know if i can still sell them and currently i have 300 brushes left jazakallah