Valid & Invalid transactions

Opening a kids entertainment area

Q: I am a businessman from Pakistan. I was looking into a new business opportunity which is in the kids entertainment industry. I was keen to know whether this sort of business is halal or not.

Basically we are looking into opening a kids play area which will have a softplay area and will have a few games like sports e.g. rock climbing or similar games. Mainly our focus will be kids of all ages but we are expecting teenage girls and boys as well. We won't be able to segregate the play areas.

Secondly, we might also have video games which include cartoon characters and some small rides for kids which are shaped as animals or cartoon characters. I am fully aware that music is haram so we are not planning to use any kind of music in the background.

Buy and leaseback contracts

Q: I want to ask about buy and leaseback in Islam. Is it allowed?

There is this company selling shops in a mall with this buy and leaseback contracts where we own the shop but rights of giving it on rent resides with company and we get a fixed rent of 0.7% with 10% raise per year.

Also the company guarantees 20% price appreciation per year if we sell the shop back to them. All these are written in a single contract. Isnt this just the same as keeping money in banks with a fixed profit?

Dropshipping

Q: I'm pretty sure you are aware of how dropshipping works, where someone buys from another person who actually buys from another wholesaler, etc.

So my question is that, would dropshipping be permissible if in the advertisement the following things are stated:

- Time and duration of delivery

- That the actual seller does not have possession of the item

- A thorough description of the item

Forex trading

Q: Is Forex Trading without margin halaal? I mean, if I invest $500 and I trade from this $500 and don't take any loan, will it be permissible? How can I get physical possession on an online platform?

Forex trading

Q: Is forex trading halaal or haraam? While I use an interest free account, I use a swipe free and no commission account. My broker says its 100% according to Islamic Shariah. Kindly tell me about it in detail.

Charging a fee to withdraw cash from till point

Q: I am a shopkeeper who sells general merchandise.

Sometimes, people come to my store and want to use their debit card to draw money from my card machine. They will swipe their card in the machine, enter the amount that they want, and thereafter I will take the corresponding amount of cash from my till and give it to them while their bank deposits that amount in my account.

Can I charge them for this service? In other words, can I tell the customer to enter R205 into the machine while I give him R200 in cash? I will make R5 on the service of giving him the cash. Is this permissible?

Charging a storage fee for uncollected items

Q: I own a manufacturing business where I take orders from customers and manufacture according to their specification. Once their order is prepared, they are notified and given a ten day period to collect the item from our warehouse.

The problem is that many customers delay in collecting their orders. This causes a problem for us as the uncollected orders take up space in the warehouse. In order to avoid this problem, we want to stipulate, at the time the order is placed, that if goods are not collected within ten days, then a stipulated storage fee will be charged for every day thereafter. Is this permissible in Shari’ah?