Permissible and impermissible items of trade

Encouraging customer to take finance

Q: I want to sell my car and I know that in most cases, people will not be able to buy it cash. I know a car dealer who arranges finance from the bank for customers. Can I advertise the car and say that finance can be arranged, and when a customer comes to me, I will send him to the car dealer who I know will assist him with the finance? Will this be permissible?

Selling novels

Q: We have a bookshop selling Urdu and international novels. As you know there is romance in every novel. I want to know whether it is permissible to sell novels or not in Islam. Kindly reply in accordance with Qur'an and Ahaadith or some early scholars.

Selling computer training videos

Q: I would like to know if its permissible to sell computer based training (e.g. video training for microsoft word etc). It is not software, but videos that teach an individual how to work with that software. However it may have copyrights by an international company. It is not sold in south africa because it is very very expensive eg. R3000 and as you know education is expensive here. My main aim is to sell it to those who can't afford training and to help overcome south africas skills problem by educating people. The price I'll be selling will be close to nothing eg R80. The profit is for my time taken. I would like to know if this is permissible even if I do it without the companies permission. I obtained the material for free. All I'm doing is making copies and distributing it.

Purchasing a cat as a pet

Q:

  1. Is it permissible to purchase a cat? I am of the Hanafi Madhab.
  2. If impermissible, please advise with regards to the SPCA.

To adopt a cat from them, based on the information provided on their website, it outwardly appears that no fee goes towards purchasing the actual animal itself.

Rather, R100 is allocated to a 'Pre-Home Inspection' where an "inspection of your property will be done to ensure that animals are placed in homes suited to their needs." Then, based on the suitability of your home, a further adoption fee is charged for a "health check, sterilization, first set of innoculations, micro chip, collar and ID disk. 

Cats: R405

Kittens: R405 (plus R300 refundable deposit)

Selling glue to someone who is sniffing it

Q: At our store we stock a large variety of products including shoe makers products. Recently we have been getting a customer coming regularly to buy shoe glue only. The staff have brought it to our attention that he is buying it to sniff. After this I have observed the following:

  1. He does not buy any other shoe makers products.
  2. He buys more glue on a single trip then any other shoemaker I remember serving.
  3. He never has any shoes or shoe makers items in his hand when he comes to the store whereas this is usually noticed  on most shoemakers.

So it is clear that he is sniffing the glue and not using it for shoes. Is it permissible to continue serving him knowing that he is using the glue for sniffing?

NB: Our store does NOT run on a self help system so he has to ask for the glue to be given to him which makes it very easy for us to stop supplying him if necessary.