Q: My cousin acquired an old 2 bedroom house from the Municipality of a certain place for a price of R 25 000.00 around 1989, paying it off in installments plus interest on the balance. This house was incomplete, just an empty shell with no roof, doors or windows, on a piece of land.  Thereafter he started renovating it. One of the conditions was that my cousin cannot sell this property to anybody and if he needs to sell it then he must sell it to the municipality, as he was  bound by a clause that this property will only be transferred onto the my cousins  name after a period of 20 years.  

After a while we met on an occasion and I enquired as to how far he was with the renovation when he told me that he had stopped due to finance. My cousin was going to return it to the municipality when he offered it to me as we have the same initials, same first name and same surname.  As I was looking for a property at that time I decided to take it over and he asked me to pay him whatever he invested in renovations and continue paying off the balance of installments including the rates and the interest, light and water accounts.   When the balance was paid off then we will make arrangements to have the said property double transferred firstly onto his name and thereafter onto my name. I paid him whatever was owing to him (cent for cent) and I took over the property verbally (as in a willing buyer and a willing seller) without signing any documents. On completion of the renovations I moved in and as the years passed on I worked very hard even over weekends and paid off the balance owing to the municipality.  The above property became freehold. I know that in the eyes of the land and the law my cousin is the legal owner of the above property. 

My Question:

1. In the eyes of Allah and the Islamic law who is the legal owner of the above property after all dues were paid to my cousin.
2. Does my cousin have any authority to take out any loan against the above property, without my permission although the said property is still on his name. 

Q: It will be greatly appreciated if you could please assist me. I have a few questions to ask and will take it one step at a time.

1. Is earnings from selling (All and any Type) Insurances - Halaal
2. Is it acceptable to live off the above earnings and to pay for your children’s education and madressa.

Q: I sell cosmetics from home. This month I ordered 10 creams but I was charged for 9 creams and i also got charged for a roll on that I did not order. My business leader told me that i must pay for the roll (on R29) and give it to someone as a gift and sell the cream (R55) and give the money to charity because it will cost her  petrol to come and collect the item of R29 for return. My b leader said that by paying for the roll on it will be like paying for the cream. It sounds okay to do but im still not sure if I should do what she told me to do.

Q: Nashua mobile offers the following contract:

Insure your SIM card effectively against theft, loss or damage with SIMSure. Pay R4.20 monthly to cover your SIM card, and if it is lost, stolen or damaged, Nashua Mobile will replace the SIM card at no extra charge. Why fork out a large lump sum to replace your SIM, when you can pay a small monthly premium for ongoing peace of mind? Terms and conditions apply.

Is this contract permissible or does it fall under the category of haraam insurance?

Q: Mrs J used to sell goods on behalf of Mr A, on a commission basis.  After months of this trading, Mr A's sons began selling other goods to Mrs J's customers, Mr A then made a statement that his 2 sons will give Mrs J R1k each a month because of her these goods where being sold.  For over a year this was being done, where Mrs J received R2k a month, and commission on the goods that she was to sell.  In April of this year (2011), Mrs J asked for her commission of R8k which was due to her, Mr A then stated that over these past months the R2k a month was for her commission on the arranged goods as he did not make any arrangements for the R1k a month from each son. Mr A's son even said he was not aware that this had changed until his dad told him not to give the commission.  What is the Shariah ruling according to this? Is Mr A liable to still pay Mrs J her commission that is due to her, and then request the change in her part of this agreement?

Q: What is the status of women going out in masatooraat jamaat and girls attending girls’ madrasahs? 

Q: I wanted to sell my old mobile phone, but it has musical ringtones on it which have been there from the beginning as factory settings and can’t be deleted. Can I sell the phone in spite of that? What about selling it to non-Muslims, even though they might do haraam with the phone?

Q: One person is asking for Help for his sons health. We gave him (not only me but so many others also gave) some money. Later we came to know that, that person is a fake and he did not have any kind of problems and he doesn't have a child as well. Due to his bad lucky one day, I saw him and spoke to him. He was earning money like this for many years and when I was asked him didn't you fear Allah he said yes I do. When I told him that earning money like this is haraam, he gave me a wired answer. After hearing the answer I was totally confused and I am totally confused. He said if he earned 1 lakh money that way, he will donate some amount as a Zakaat to purify the money. In this way he will be earning halaal income. 

Is this true? He said if your earn money unlawfully like interest and many other sources, if you give zakaat or donate some money, it will purify the money. Please guide me?

Q: One of my uncle earned his money by begging and now he started the hotel business. Obviously the total money he invested in the Hotel was came from his last job "Begging". But he did all the hard work to make him successful man in the hotel business. I know he was doing charity to purify the money. Is this acceptable and will purify the money? By starting the business through begging did he do any sin?

Q: Is it permissible to earn money through selling pornographic videos and pictures and subscriptions to adult sites? If it is not permissible, what should I do with the money?