Sincerity in actions

Q: I have a problem with sincerity. No matter how much I try to purify an intention for an action whilst I am doing it, I think: if only so and so could see me now. They would think so highly of me which deprives me of the reward. What can I do to ensure ikhlaas and stop desiring the praise and attention of people because love for fame is a disastrous thing?

Airtime Advance

Q: Vodacom has a service called airtime advance whereby a person can purchase R5 or R10 airtime on credit. After you purchase the airtime, then at a later time within a stipulated period, they will recoup the R5 or R10 plus an additional R1 which they term a service fee. Will this constitute riba?

Delivering haraam food for Uber eats

Q: I want to start working for Uber Eats as a delivery driver, but I am afraid that some of the orders may be for haraam food. One of my friends told me that I will be able to view the orders on my phone. In this way, I will be able to view all the items in the order and can then ensure that I only accept to deliver orders that are for halaal food. If this is true, can I take the job?

Taking fertile soil from campus for one's personal use

Q: I am studying at a university which has maintained some green areas with fertile soil in the campus for students. Other unmaintained places in the campus have unfertile, dry soil. I have a potted plant in my room and it needed more fertile soil, but I did not know any gardening shop to buy fertile soil from. So I got fertile soil from the maintained green areas and added that to my potted plant.

Is taking this soil from the campus' maintained green areas permissible or is it stealing?

Also, will it be permissible to take the dry soil from unmaintained areas of the campus?

Is credit guarantee (CGIC) permissible in Islam?

Q: In business, we sometimes suffer great losses when our debtors fail to pay us. To secure ourselves against these losses, we take out credit guarantee (CGIC).

How it works is that I tell CGIC, for example, that the general amount of money owed to me by my debtors at any given point is approximately R40 million. They will then provide me with credit cover and charge me 0.6% p/month of R40 million. When any of my debtors fails to pay me, then as soon as 90 days pass, I issue a letter of demand to the debtor and also inform CGIC. If the debt is not settled by 120 days, CGIC takes over the debt and tries to get the money from the debtor through legal means, etc. They then pay me 70-75% of the debt amount.

Because CGIC is a form of insurance, they also charge an excess i.e. they will not cover the first claim up to R200 000 per annum.

Is credit guarantee (CGIC) permissible in Islam?