Valid & Invalid transactions

Paying for an item in instalments

Q: My question is,"I am a young person doing my job. I suffered from crises of income. My company's policy has been changed that each worker should have a smart phone to do whatsapp of any competeter activity in the market. While I don't have that phone and I don't have the payment power to purchase that cell phone on cash. So, I decided to purchase that on installment but some persons are making me tense that it is interest.(Sood). Please guide me is it sood?

Selling products online

Q: My Question is as follows. I want to start selling items on a website called etsy.com. It is a website were people can sell handmade items. The way it will work is that the website charges you a small fixed fee to list the item and then they take 3.5percent of the sale price once the item is sold. Also people can pay through paypal and they can pay with a credit card which means it they will be buying on account which will then be an interest transaction for them. Alot of people sell other items, some of which is haraam and alot of other stuff has to with other religions. It is permissible to sell through this website and would it be a wholesome way to earn a living or will it be better to find other avenues to sell goods?

Making extra profit from orders

Q: I'd like to buy and sell items which will be imported. I won't be importing bulk but rather will advertise an item and buy it once I have an order for that particular item. I will be charged about R285 to import. So if I buy an item that costs e.g. R300 my total will be R300+R285=R585. And i'll add a profit to it. e.g.R50 which will make the item R635. I'd like to know if this is permissible Islamically? And if I have 2 orders, each will pay R635 but since the order will go in at the same time I'll end up with more than R50 profit.

Adding water to milk

Q: I am a farmer and supply milk to shops. Almost all the other farmers sell their milk at a low price because they add water to the milk. The customers are aware of this as well. If I sell my milk without water, nobody will buy it because it will be more expensive than the milk with the water. If I inform my customers and mutually agree with them to add water to the milk, will it be permissible?

Adjusting the expiry date on a product

Q: I have purchased tomato sauce for resale; however, the tomato sauce is past the manufacturer’s best before date. I am in the food industry for the past 20 years and I know that the tomato sauce will not go bad by the date reflected by the manufacturer. In fact, the item is still good for another one year after the best before date. I wish to get the item tested by an independent food technologist and then adjust the date on the packaging to the date the independent food technologist recommends. Will it be permissible for me to adjust the date or will this fall under deception?

Binary option trading

Q: Many people are going binary option nowadays to make money. Is it halaal to trade online through investment in binary options in the stock exchange. It basically is speculation whether or not a commodity will go up or down in the stock exchange. Nowadays the software purchased by yourself will do the speculation for you. Please advise whether this sort of earnings in halaal.