Q: A person wishes to purchase some goods from a certain furniture store but does not have the money at present. The seller tells him that he can buy the furniture on lay-by. Will it be permissible for him to purchase the goods on lay-by and how does lay-by actually work? Through lay-by, does one become the owner of the goods immediately or only when the goods are completely paid for?
Q: A person took his watch to a repair shop. Thereafter, the repair shop accidentally sold his watch to someone. What should now be done? Should the repair shop pay the owner the value of the watch or should they get the watch back from the customer and return it to the owner?
Q: I went to buy some jewellery. A salesman there told me that there is a scheme where I have to pay 11 instalments in advance and the 12th instalment will be paid by the jewellery company as a bonus or discount. I can then buy any gold jewellery of my choice after 11 months. Is this allowed in Islam?
Q: What is the ruling regarding the following situation:
At the time of Qurbaani, certain stock farmers sell sheep and goats to the public. They charge a stipulated fee for providing the services of skinning the animal, slicing and parceling the meat for all those people who wish to do Qurbaani at their farm. Before the days of Qurbaani, people go to the farms, and after selecting the animals, purchase them from the farmers. After purchasing the animals they leave the animals on the farms to be slaughtered during the days of Qurbaani.
Other people merely phone the farmer and purchase their animals over the phone without going to the farm and selecting the animals. At times, the farmer selects and marks an animal for the client (e.g. sheep, goat, etc.) and concludes the transaction over the phone on the specific marked animal. At times, the sale is concluded over the phone, however the farmer does not select and mark any animal at the time of concluding the sale. Since the farmer knows that he has extra animals in the pen, he concludes the transaction on an unspecified animal with this in mind that on the day of Qurbaani, he will select an animal for the client and carry out his Qurbaani.
Is this method of purchasing the animal and carrying out the Qurbaani correct where the animal is not selected by the purchaser but by the farmer himself according to both situations explained (i.e. where the farmer concludes the sale on a specific marked animal or on an unspecified animal and only specifies it at the time of slaughter)? If this is not the correct method of purchasing, then what is the correct Shar’ee method of purchasing the Qurbaani animal and asking the farmer to slaughter it on one’s behalf?
Q: I bought something from a person and then saw that it was slightly damaged. When I complained to the seller, he offered me a discount. Can I accept the discount?
Q: I am working as a real estate agent. Whenever a deal is done, we take a 2% commission from both sides i.e. from the buyer as well as from the owner. Is this acceptable in Islam?
Q: A Muslim shopkeeper does business with a non-muslim who partakes in interest. The non-muslim then buys something from the shopkeeper. Is the money halaal for the Muslim to use?
Q: I trade currencies in the Forex market. I do not use leverage or margin, neither do I receive interest or pay any interest. All these things are done through an online broker. Is it permissible?
Q: Can a Muslim buy something online?
Q: I have some question related to contract related to property/plot/house purchasing and selling. Kindly guide me from the perspective of Hanafi Madhab on the matter.
Detail and questions are described below.
In our country we have a Real Estate Company, its business model is that they acquire huge area of land in an area where they build city infrastructure/facilities on them and then sell plots and sell houses built by them in that area to customers.
The buyer signs a contract with this real estate company to book a plot of land or to book a house which the real estate agent builds for the buyer.
Based on the contract the buyer pays an initial non refundable booking fee to the real estate company and starts paying in instalment an amount to the real estate company laid down in the contract on intervals for example instalment amount every 3 months for 3 years.
During the contract there is no indication of the allotted location of the place where the House or plot of land will be to the buyer. The real estate company announces the general area after the contract has been signed and allocates the plot numbers which is then distributed randomly to the buyers. (The buyer gets the area of plot of land or house based on the contract.)
The real estate company allows the buyer who signed a contract with them, for the area of plot or house, to transfer the contract to another person. This second buyer then pays the remaining installments to the real estate company in case there are remaining installments to be paid to the real estate company.
1. Can a person sign into a contract with the real estate company for a plot of land or a house to be built by the company based on the details above?
2. In case it is haram or Makrooh to sign into such a contract and a person has already signed it can the person sell this contract to another person
with or without a profit ? And what should the person do to atone for the mistake?
3. Can a person sell the unknown plot/house to another person by transferring the contract for the unknown plot/house without a profit or with profit based on the market value?
4. If a person had the intention of not selling the unknown plot/house to another person and then due to an unforeseen financial reasons wants to sell the unknown plot/house to another person can he do that without a profit or with profit based on market value?
5. After signing a contract with a real estate company for a house I have heard from people that the real estate company has forcefully grabbed some land from individuals. And I have also read about government claims on some of their land. Based on the above information kindly advise if i shall also be responsible for this land grab in front of Allah ? And how to atone for this mistake. I am willing to loose the amount paid till now to the real estate company if this is the ruling for this case.
6. The House is not in my possession yet and I am still paying the installments based on the contract. With this knowledge is it advisable to sell this contract for the house to someone else without a profit or with profit based on market value ?
In case there are no issues with the real estate company I some queries below.
7. Once the plot/house has been allocated to the buyer in the contract with the real estate company, can the buyer transfer the contract to another person without a profit or with profit based on market value in the case where the possession of the plot/house has not yet been given by the real estate company to the original buyer ?
8. In the case if the original buyer has paid all the installments in the contract to the real estate company for the plot/house and possession of the plot/house has not been given to this original buyer, during this period can the original buyer sell the contract to another person without profit or with profit based on the market value?
9. In case the original buyer is in financial difficulty and didn't intend to sell the plot/house contract to another person and has paid all the installments to the real estate company. The possession has not been given to this original buyer by the real estate company yet. Can the original buyer sell the contract to another person without profit or for a plot of landwith profit based on market value?