Valid & Invalid transactions

Business dealings with non-Muslims

Q: Someone was debating with me a while ago and said “ why do you Moulana’s etc drive cars because the place where you purchase the vehicle from - e.g. Toyota - are in backdraft of over millions, owing other companies money, etc. Will it be haraam to purchase this car.

They also gave the example that why do we buy from checkers etc, if we know that the money they are buying their goods with is Haraam.

What is the answer to these two questions?

Guidelines for a Muslim Pharmacist when dispensing medication

Q: I am a pharmacist who owns a retail pharmacy and would like to know the shariah ruling on stocking and selling the following types of medication:

1. Tablets and capsules containing porcine and non-certified bovine gelatin. 

2. A number of medicines which contain alcohol as a major part of ingredients and many which contain alcohol as a preservative.

3. Medicines which contain ingredients which people can become addicted to e.g. codeine-based products like pain killers, etc.

4. The permissibility of transacting with patients on medical aid.

5. The sale of contraceptive pills and morning after pills to prevent conception.

Using a robotic woman's voice in apps for disabled people

Q: I want to make an app for disabled people. I want to make an app that uses text-to-speech and speech-to-text function. Text-to-speech has a robotic womens voice, so is it permissible for males to hear such a voice? Is it permissible for me to launch such app and sell.

Secondly, I want to make speech-to-text app for the deafs so that deaf can receive incoming calls, subtitles will appear, so is it permissible for me launch such an app? If any woman is calling, so her voice will be translated into text form. I think this background process will also be robotic. Is it permissible for me to launch such app?

Finding an extra pair of sleeves after purchasing an unstitched garment

Q: I purchased an unstitched ladies suit (shalwar qameez) from a shop 3 years ago. Recently when I gave it to tailor for stitching, she discovered that it had an extra pair of sleeves. What should I do with that extra pair of sleeves? Can I give some money for that extra piece of cloth to any poor person and use the cloth myself?

Giving a discount

Q: I purchased an x-ray machine. Mr.X said that he wants to run the machine, and told that he will be giving monthly 20,000 rupees to me, and the rest of the profit will be his. Three months he gave me that amount i.e 20,000. The next two months Mr.X couldn't get enough profit, so he told me that he is going to give 15,000. I agreed as I don't want him to go in loss. Is my business in accordance to shariah?

Can the one appointed to purchase make a profit?

Q: I need Shar'ee guidance regarding a certain trading transaction:

My relative asked me to buy a washing machine for him. The washing machine cost Rs.3000 for example.

1. Can I inform my relative that the machine cost Rs.5,000? He does not know that I will charge him extra. 

2. Can I first inform my relative that I started selling washing machines and then charge him Rs.5,000?

Selling apps on playstore

Q: I previously purchased a playstore account with 7 more girls in university. Now I am starting my own android app business so I will buy my own separate playstore account as my intention is to sell features of my urdu learning app. There is some different process to put the app on the playstore for sale. So I want to make a separate test app to test the process of selling.

My question is, can I do this testing on the previously purchased playstore account which is owned by the 7 girls from university and myself. I will only do the testing for the selling process with the permission of the 7 other girls. If yes, do I need to share my profit with those 7 girls when I will be selling my app later on?

Note: I will not put my selling app on this account which is owned by the 7 other girls. I will only test the selling process.