Trade

Q: I am working as a gaming programmer. I intend to design educational games that will not contain any music or pictures of animate objects. Is this allowed in Islam?

Q: A person wishes to purchase a stove on credit from Makro (for example). The cash price of the stove is R5000. However, Makro says that if you wish to purchase it on credit, there will be a certain percentage interest rate. Hence purchasing it on credit will cost R5800 over 20 months at R290 per month. Makro says that the installment will NOT fluctuate during the months. Every month it will certainly remain at R290 till it's fully paid. When he purchased it, he ignored completely what they had to say about the 'interest rate', and his intention was that they are merely changing the price of the stove and just making more profit on him since he's buying it on credit. Is he guilty of ribaa in the above mentioned case?

Q: About 2 years ago a purchased a cellphone from a store that offers an extra warranty which I had taken out that says they will provide you with a new phone if something happens. The warranty covers accidental water damage and screen cracks etc. There is some terms and conditions that basically say that if it was intentional/deliberate then that would not be covered. One day whilst using the phone I thought some dirt/napaak might have gotten onto the phone, so i took some water in my hands and put it over the phone. Regrettably the phone had gotten water damaged and I had taken it in to the store to get it fixed/exchanged. When I took it in to the store, they did not ask how or when it happen but rather took my personal details and a week later gave me a replacement phone. Of course, my main intention was to just clean the phone, but unfortunately it had gotten damaged.

1. Is the replacement phone they gave me ok for me to use? I ask since the phone had broken through my own wrong doing even though not deliberate and they did not ask anything about it

2. Did any of the work i did for work purposes on the phone become wrong for me to do?

3. Coincidentally after a couple of months the replacement phone they had given me fell in the rain and yet again I went to them. This time they asked how it happened etc and I explained to them it fell in the rain and they gave me another replacement phone again. Is this phone also OK for me to use since the first one (not original, first replacement) had to be given in?

4. Can I sell this second replacement phone and use the money from it?

Q: Can a Muslim business sell un-halaal products (meat etc.)? The business is located in a non-muslim community.

Q: I have some question related to contract related to property/plot/house purchasing and selling. Kindly guide me from the perspective of Hanafi Madhab on the matter.

Detail and questions are described below.

In our country we have a Real Estate Company, its business model is that they acquire huge area of land in an area where they build city infrastructure/facilities on them and then sell plots and sell houses built by them in that area to customers.

The buyer signs a contract with this real estate company to book a plot of land or to book a house which the real estate agent builds for the buyer.

Based on the contract the buyer pays an initial non refundable booking fee to the real estate company and starts paying in instalment an amount to the real estate company laid down in the contract on intervals for example instalment amount every 3 months for 3 years.

During the contract there is no indication of the allotted location of the place where the House or plot of land will be to the buyer. The real estate company announces the general area after the contract has been signed and allocates the plot numbers which is then distributed randomly to the buyers. (The buyer gets the area of plot of land or house based on the contract.)

The real estate company allows the buyer who signed a contract with them, for the area of plot or house, to transfer the contract to another person. This second buyer then pays the remaining installments to the real estate company in case there are remaining installments to be paid to the real estate company.

1. Can a person sign into a contract with the real estate company for a plot of land or a house to be built by the company based on the details above?

2. In case it is haram or Makrooh to sign into such a contract and a person has already signed it can the person sell this contract to another person
with or without a profit ? And what should the person do to atone for the mistake?

3. Can a person sell the unknown plot/house to another person by transferring the contract for the unknown plot/house without a profit or with profit based on the market value?

4. If a person had the intention of not selling the unknown plot/house to another person and then due to an unforeseen financial reasons wants to sell the unknown plot/house to another person can he do that without a profit or with profit based on market value?

5. After signing a contract with a real estate company for a house I have heard from people that the real estate company has forcefully grabbed some land from individuals. And I have also read about government claims on some of their land. Based on the above information kindly advise if i shall also be responsible for this land grab in front of Allah ? And how to atone for this mistake. I am willing to loose the amount paid till now to the real estate company if this is the ruling for this case.

6. The House is not in my possession yet and I am still paying the installments based on the contract. With this knowledge is it advisable to sell this contract for the house to someone else without a profit or with profit based on market value ?

In case there are no issues with the real estate company I some queries below.

7. Once the plot/house has been allocated to the buyer in the contract with the real estate company, can the buyer transfer the contract to another person without a profit or with profit based on market value in the case where the possession of the plot/house has not yet been given by the real estate company to the original buyer ?

8. In the case if the original buyer has paid all the installments in the contract to the real estate company for the plot/house and possession of the plot/house has not been given to this original buyer, during this period can the original buyer sell the contract to another person without profit or with profit based on the market value?

9. In case the original buyer is in financial difficulty and didn't intend to sell the plot/house contract to another person and has paid all the installments to the real estate company. The possession has not been given to this original buyer by the real estate company yet. Can the original buyer sell the contract to another person without profit or  for a plot of landwith profit based on market value?

Q: I have recently heard that in order for the sale of meat/fruit/ items sold by weight to be halaal the buyer either has to be present to see the item being weighed or has to ask for R200 worth of mutton instead of 1 kg of mutton. I order my meat from a butcher telephonically and order by weight as I am generally aware of the meat prices. This is then delivered to my house and later paid for. In this instance is the meat halaal as I have been told it is haraam?

Q: I do not have sufficient money to buy a website theme, so I have decided to get it free instead of paying money. But before I do so, I know that stealing rights of software without permission is haram, so I got a new question. Is it permissible to get the website theme free (without asking for permission) and then make money from it and then pay to the owner the cost of the theme?

Q: Is it permissible to copy the functionality found in another company's software and develop it for business?

Q: Will it become haraam if I download and use pirated software (ms office, windows, sql server, visual studio etc.) for business?

Q: I am currently working in a store which sells health and beauty products, including makeup, perfumes, creams, medicines, etc. Some of these products contain unlawful ingredients like alcohol and glycerin (which may be derived from animals or vegetables), and some may also have been tested on animals. My question is, is it permissible for me to work there selling these items?