Valid & Invalid transactions

Selling food from home

Q: My mom does a private catering business from home and sells food from our house to the customers. Recently a food organisation has contacted my mom for her to sell weekly food to them so they can serve their customers this food. Is this allowed in Islam? Because the customers of that organisation don’t know who makes the food (if the organisation makes it or someone else) My mom is saying that it doesn’t matter where the food comes from because when you go to a restaurant no customer asks who cooks the food and where it comes from?

Istisnaa sale

Q: Can you work for a shop which shows their clients samples of blinds and thereafter they acquire it for them? I don't think the shop owners understand that it is not permissible for one to sell something which one does not possess.

Restraint of trade agreement

Q: I would like to know if a restraint of trade agreement is permissible in an Islamic sale.

Example: I am selling my cellphone business to Zaid. In the sale agreement a clause is added that I, the seller, is not allowed to trade in the same field of business for a stipulated period (e.g. 5 years). Will such a clause be permissible? If not will the adding of such a clause nullify the entire sale? Or will the clause be impermissible and the rest of the sale be correct?

Taking percentage based commission

Q: I urgently need to know something before I fall into haraam dealings. Please tell me if my method of charging commission is permissible:

I have an online store where people can advertise their things on my website and I charge them on each successful transaction, so if something was sold for R100.00 I would charge R1.00 (1%)

According to the Hanafi mazhab we are allowed to take percentage based commissions from customers, I have collected numerous fataawaa on this Alhamdulillah. What I need to know is whether I can tell my customers this:

We charge 3% for any sales under R1 000, 2% for sales under R5 000 and %1 for sales under R10 000

Although no ambiguity remains and both I and the client knows how much will be charged at the end of the sale, I just need confirmation if is this permissible. See the case scenario below:

Sometimes the client will have something like "negotiable price" on his advert, so he would either sell it for R900 or R1 000 for example. Since I charge him 3% for sales under R1 000 and 2% for sales between R1 000 - R5 000, is this considered as ambiguity or is it permissible?

Another scenario:

Someone advertises an auction on my website. The price of the auction could be won at anything from R1 to R2 000 or more. Can I charge a fixed 3% on all auction listings so that no ambiguity remains as to what the seller will pay me? So that if the sale goes for R1 then I will get R0.03 and if it goes for R2 000 I will get R60

I am very cautious of falling into haraam activity and this is my income so I need it to be clean.

Using an ATM card

Q: Allied bank is giving an ATM card in which we can deposit money from any city and can get money from anywhere with using this card from the branch of that bank and there is no charges of depositing and transactions. There is no need for any account of this. We only have to create an ATM card once from an Allied bank.

My question is that, is this permissible in shariah (deen) or not to use this ATM card? There is no extra money required for depositing and transacting.

Earning money through deceiving people

Q: My husband works for a private company. They give fuel tanks for rent to foreigners. When the fuel in the foreigner's tanks gets dirty and it is of no use to them, the driver takes that fuel and sells it outside the bazaar. This driver is introduced to customers by my husband and my husband does a deal with him to split the profits. Is this money halal for us or not?