Trade

Q: I urgently need to know something before I fall into haraam dealings. Please tell me if my method of charging commission is permissible:

I have an online store where people can advertise their things on my website and I charge them on each successful transaction, so if something was sold for R100.00 I would charge R1.00 (1%)

According to the Hanafi mazhab we are allowed to take percentage based commissions from customers, I have collected numerous fataawaa on this Alhamdulillah. What I need to know is whether I can tell my customers this:

We charge 3% for any sales under R1 000, 2% for sales under R5 000 and %1 for sales under R10 000

Although no ambiguity remains and both I and the client knows how much will be charged at the end of the sale, I just need confirmation if is this permissible. See the case scenario below:

Sometimes the client will have something like "negotiable price" on his advert, so he would either sell it for R900 or R1 000 for example. Since I charge him 3% for sales under R1 000 and 2% for sales between R1 000 - R5 000, is this considered as ambiguity or is it permissible?

Another scenario:

Someone advertises an auction on my website. The price of the auction could be won at anything from R1 to R2 000 or more. Can I charge a fixed 3% on all auction listings so that no ambiguity remains as to what the seller will pay me? So that if the sale goes for R1 then I will get R0.03 and if it goes for R2 000 I will get R60

I am very cautious of falling into haraam activity and this is my income so I need it to be clean.

Q: A fertlizer called amino acid is prepared from the hair of humans, dog or any other animal. So we are planning to buy hair from salons and then sell to this industries who make amino acid from hair. Is it permissible?

Q: Whenever I buy something from outside of the UK with my debit card, my bank takes a purchase/transaction fee. I dont mind this. Is this allowed?

Q: I work at a sales position in a company. Is it halal for me to pass on a lead I got from a connection, to some other supplier which I cannot fulfil from my company and receive commission from that supplier when the deal is done.

Q: My father is 68 years old now. He was working as a manager at a government bank for more than 40 years. When he was in his 20's he joined the bank because of the financial problems which his family encountered. At the bank he served plenty of positions such as cashier, assistant manager, credit controller, risk manager, etc. He quit his job at this bank 8 years ago. Now he is working at our village in Baithuz Zakath and Baithul Maal organizations. I would like to present the following points:

• He has never given money for interest (Riba) for him

• He has never borrowed for interest (Riba) for him

• All what he done was he did his job at the bank.

• During his top management career, he was very interested in Islamic banking and tried to introduce Islamic banking system in his bank (At that time, there was no bank to conduct Islamic banking services. Very Recently, his bank started Islamic banking services to its customers. They used my father’s proposals and other documents to start this service)

• He did that job as his livelihood

• Till now, he gets pension from his bank (since his bank is a fully government owned entity, all the funds are directly coming from the treasury)

• He uses his knowledge in banking to uplift the Baithuz Zakath and Baithul Maal organizations in our city. (Many other villages are impressed with his Baithuz Zakath Organization Model. They meet him and get advices and support as well)

• He is very pious. He never misses any of his prayers.

Now I am writing my questions:

1. Is that pension money which my father gets from the bank haraam?

2. If it is haraam, what are the remedies ? (The money which he gets from Baithuz Zakath is not enough for him to meet his day to day needs.

3. Was his job (Banking Job) haraam? 

Q: Allied bank is giving an ATM card in which we can deposit money from any city and can get money from anywhere with using this card from the branch of that bank and there is no charges of depositing and transactions. There is no need for any account of this. We only have to create an ATM card once from an Allied bank.

My question is that, is this permissible in shariah (deen) or not to use this ATM card? There is no extra money required for depositing and transacting.

Q: I want to work in an electronics company that provides products on loan (12 months installments) And they take more money than the actual prize of the product. For example a product which costs 45,000 PKR (Cash) they give it at a total amount of 54,000 PKR (in installments). Can I work there? Will my earnings will be Halal?

Q: My husband works for a private company. They give fuel tanks for rent to foreigners. When the fuel in the foreigner's tanks gets dirty and it is of no use to them, the driver takes that fuel and sells it outside the bazaar. This driver is introduced to customers by my husband and my husband does a deal with him to split the profits. Is this money halal for us or not? 

Q: I want to put up some advertising boards in my town and get shops and companies to advetise on and charge them. Is this permissible?

Secondly, I wont get companies that are dealing in haraam to advertise with them, so it will probably be businesses like supermarkets and hardware stores etc. But my problem is that am I allowed to advertise for them if a part of their business might be haraam or doubtful. For example I personally dont eat commercial chickens even though it might have a halaal stamp on it. I prefer to stay away since I feel it is still doubtful, will I be able to still advertise for that supermarket that sells it. Or if there is a car dealer who sells cars but organises a loan for a customer based on interest then am I allowed to advertise for him.

Also is there any guidelines that you can give me and advise?

Q: My husband wanted to buy the granite for our house but instead of buying it from a showroom he is buying it from the cinema theatre, just because it is cheap. I just want to ask if it is permissible in Islam to buy from a cinema theatre?