Ijaarah

Donating the proportionate amount that was received from haraam income

Q: I had a job in a large clothing store. My job was a mixture of cleaning floors, folding and hanging clothes, moving boxes around containing clothes, working on the cash registers and so on.

The problem is that a few of the items contained haram imagery, like cartoons, which were somewhat like Greek mythology and such very haraam stuff, nike is a famous similar example. And part of the job required me to work with these items here and there. I tried to avoid them as much as possible, I wanted to quit but I had a lot of difficulty finding a job as I'm a student.

Also I didn't know for a long time if this company was going to be selling these kinds of items. So I have repented and I think I should donate the money I earned from the haraam items which was very little to begin with as most sales were from plain products.

Also, due to covid-19, I lost that job and because I was paying taxes, I now receive government assistance, which I'm depending on to get me through possibly more than an entire year and even more perhaps as I am a poor student. I have some savings from the job and mostly from government assistance. Total sales from these haraam items were probably much less than 2% or even 1% and even much less were actually paid to me. But should I donate from my job savings only or from job savings and also the government assistance? How much should I donate and where should I give my donation?

Charging a cancellation fee

Q: I booked accommodation with a certain guesthouse for the March school break holidays which was originally from the 20th March until the 30th March for a total of 10 nights and payed a sum of R8500.

On the 15th March the President announced that we are facing a pandemic and was putting social distancing restrictions in place as well as non essential travel was to be cancelled. The next day I contacted the guesthouse to cancel my accommodation due to the presidents speech the night before. While negotiating the penalty for cancelation, the beaches were then also closed.

After much deliberation I was penalised 4 nights (40%) of my 10 night paid accommodation without a cash refund however a 6 nights credit for future stay. About 10 days later I was contacted for a refund to be processed. The amount refunded was 60% of what I paid (R5100) resulting in a 40% penalty as per above.

My question is, is it Islamically permissible for this penalty as this cancellation was due to the pandemic as declared by our President.