Business and Dealings

Selling food from home

Q: My mom does a private catering business from home and sells food from our house to the customers. Recently a food organisation has contacted my mom for her to sell weekly food to them so they can serve their customers this food. Is this allowed in Islam? Because the customers of that organisation don’t know who makes the food (if the organisation makes it or someone else) My mom is saying that it doesn’t matter where the food comes from because when you go to a restaurant no customer asks who cooks the food and where it comes from?

Keeping one's money in a bank for safekeeping

Q:

1. Is opening a 'Shariah-compliant' savings account at a bank or at an 'Islamic' Bank with the sole intention of the bank safekeeping your money permissible if one intends to give all 'profit' earned in charity?

2. If one already has an investment account at an 'Islamic' Bank that claims to follow a Profit-and-Loss mode of financing, what should one do? Should we close down the account?

3. Is it against taqwa to save/invest money for the future?

4. What are the permissible means if one wishes to save/invest?

Charging the customer a handling fee when returning items with damaged packaging

Q: I have a general store where I sell a variety of different items. It often happens that a customer buys something, but later on has a change of heart and wants to return the item. The problem is that he has already damaged the packaging when opening the item e.g. he tore the plastic and box. This makes it difficult for me to resell the item because customers view the torn packaging as a defect in the item. What should I do in such situations? Can I inform customers that in the case where the packaging is damaged, a full refund will not be issued, instead 15% will be deducted from the refund?

Taking back an item after giving it to someone

Q: In India it is quite common for girls to receive jewellery as gifts or rewards by relatives. I received an expensive gold chain from my paternal aunt for passing my graduation with distinction. Also my dad gifted me a gold set. Also at the time of my wedding I received some gold jewellery.

All this jewellery is under my mom's possession. She says that I have no right over it and the jewellery belongs to her. Since I have left my father's house I have forfeited my right over my gifts. She plans to gift them to my sisters in law maybe sometime in the future.

I would like to know if I can get some of the gifts back. I have extreme sentimental value for the gifts given by my dad and aunt who are not alive anymore.

Gifting one's divorced daughter more than the other daughters

Q: I have four daughters. Three of them are married and the youngest one is a student. Out of all four, one married daughter was separated (got Khula) and is living with her parents (me and my wife) along with her daughter (my grand-daughter). Please guide me:

If I sell my house wherein we are living, can I gift 50% of the cost of the house to my seperated (Khulah yafta) daughter in my life?

Taking a fee for providing a service

Q: My husband knows some people who makes cards for work. They asked him to get people who want cards. If people go by themselves, they have to pay 80£ to do the test. If they fail the test they not going to get the card. But if you pay more, they can get the card for you without doing the test and you have to pay around 200£.

So my husband gets people and tells them it's 300£ for the cards. He takes them to get the cards and explains everything to them. He takes the money and pays 200£ to the people making the cards and takes 100£ for himself. Is this halal or is it a kind of riba?