Adam
1
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
