Ijaarah

Renting out a portion of a property in exchange of a service

Q: There is space for 4 tenants on a property. Is it permissible to rent out portion A of the property to a garden company, with the rental due being a service, e.g. the tenant of the area A will tend to the initial landscaping and then gardening of the entire property long term, as long as they occupy the area A as a tenant.

There will be no rental payments due apart from the gardening service they will offer. In essence, is ijaarah permissible in exchange of a service rather than money?

Designing software for a delivery company

Q: I’m a software engineer currently working and residing in a Muslim majority country. I have a stable job but got a very good job offer from a delivery company in Europe. As part of the that company, I will be building web platforms that customers can use to order food, groceries, game tickets etc. The company partners with restaurants & supermarkets to deliver food and goods which can very well include pork and alcohol and the company takes the delivery fee and a comission.

The company also has a courier delivery and ticket delivery wing and I could be assigned to work on any of the particular service.

Although my job does not include direct contact with haram items, but it could be used either to order simple groceries or to order wine. There is no specific information about what share of the company’s business involves delivering alcoholic products or pork.

Is it permissible for me to take that job? Should I just stay away from it or join the company and see how close I am to building the tech which customers are going to be using for ordering haram items?

Earning through a pyramid scheme

Q: I wanted to earn and bear my university and other expenses on my own so I was looking for online jobs. I came across a business named Forever Living Products. They give earnings by a pyramid scheme in which you have to recommend other people to join your business and become a part of your team and you will get paid. In this way you can earn a great deal of money.

As the growth rate in this business is very high, thus I found it to be a bit doubtful and I think some sort of interest is in involved in this business. Kindly guide me so that I can take my decision accordingly.