Business and Dealings

Q: Can I sell an item in my shop that I don’t have in stock? For example, I sell bathroom ware. A client wants a bath tub and pays for it. I then accept payment, purchase the bath tub from the wholesaler and deliver it to the client’s house. Is this permissible?

Q: I have acted in error and require your advice in the following matter:

As a result of the sale of mtn shares, I transferred monies from the share trading account into an Albaraka investment account which operates like a fixed deposit account. After a few weeks I realised that I had (due to my own error) actually transferred some interest monies as well. This investment account has been earning profits. The percentage of interest monies at the time amounts to 6.5%. Due to the fact the Albaraka account operates as a fixed deposit, I cannot access the monies immediately. Is it permissible for me to take out 6.5% of the entire investment account from other halaal sources and distribute this as interest monies. Will this make up for my grave error?

Q: My supplier is refunding me my payment from malaysia after 3 years. I transferred 33510 us/dollars 3 years ago. I transferred around R260 000, which was 33510us/d. He is transferring bak to me 35000us/d [a little extra] but conversion to rands will be around R240 000. Does he have to transfer exact dollars bak or how does it work because i may leave us/dollars in account until i get a better rand rate? Please let me know the correct way.

Q: I have a friend, who borrowed some money from me a while back. He sits in a grocery shop, owned by another friend who is out for three chilla. I often go there and even sit with him in the shop and talk. From the beginning of our friendship we often entertain each other (with food). However after giving him the loan I was feeling reluctant to accept his invitation. I even expressed my cause of reluctance to him, to which he replied that he did not have any such intention prior to inviting me. Hearing this I accepted his invitation, keeping in mind our friendship that existed even before giving him the loan.

Recently I heard a lecture where Maulana Sulaiman Moola narrated a story (which more or less means) that Imam Abu Hanifa (ra) did not even take the shade of the tree of a person to whom he had loaned some money, cause he did not wanted to get any benefit from a person to whom he gave a loan.

(After hearing this) The next time that friend of mine invited me; I politely refused to accept it citing my reason. Now please enlighten me on what to do. Should I make a rough calculation of the amount that he might have spent to entertain me, and then when I take back the money should I take that amount less and what about my friends remark about his intention. Please let me know what can I do?