Trade

Paying a percentage of the bill as wages for the waiter

Q: Certain Muslim restaurants have made it a rule that a 10% hospitality fee (tips for waiters) must be paid over and above the bill. In some cases, it is clearly indicated on menus and notices, and in others, it is not advertised. Is it Islamically correct for restaurants to charge this fee? We, the customer, have no choice in paying this additional tip if we decide to eat there.

Giving secular tuition and selling secular textbooks and notes

Q:

1. Is it correct to give tuition to students studying at secular universities? It would involve a male giving tuition to other males only.

2. Is it correct to sell the notes, past papers and textbooks etc. for certain subjects at secular universities?

3. Is it correct to sell the notes, past papers and textbooks etc. for certain subjects at secular correspondence universities (like Unisa)?

All three questions above relate to permissible subjects viz., mathematics, accounting and computer programming.

Changing one's dollars on the black market

Q: I am visiting Argentina for a month. I have come across that the Peso Dollar official rate and black market rate to be very different. The official rate is around 8 pesos while the black market rate is around 15 pesos. Is it permissible for me to change my dollars in the black market? Someone told me that it is not permissible because its a type of riba and cheating and going against the law of the country. Please advise.

Buyer claiming that the sale was a credit sale

Q: Mohammed proposed to sell his share of a commercial property to Abdul Kader for R1 250 000. The seller didn't mention that it is cash (expecting immediate payment). The buyer didn't pay for the property immediately and one year has elapsed. The terms of payment have never been agreed upon. The buyer and seller didn't agree on how many months the buyer has to pay. Can the buyer claim that he has unlimited time to pay as we didn't mention "cash" at the time of sale? Is the seller entitled to rentals for the passed year? Is the seller still regarded as the owner of the property?

Dealing in gold

Q: I have one question regarding earnings. Is it halaal or haram. There is one company doing gold trading. If I open an account I will pay them some amount and they will open a gold account for me. Gold rates are linked with the real gold rates which are current internationally. When I buy gold from my money, I buy a lot of gold and then this gold is not physical in real. The gold purchased is from the money and if I want to sell that gold, I can get my money back (not the gold) to my account. It could be profit or loss.

Collectors item R2 coin

Q: I have a R2 union buildings coin. They say that it was minted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the union buildings. After much research to verify this, I came to the conclusion that it is worth R2000. Can I sell it for R2000?