Hiring and Renting

Q: Zaid let his house out to a non-Muslim. While residing in the house, the non-Muslim conducts his acts of worship. Will this invalidate the lease?

Q: We have been running a shop for the past 8 years. We have been paying a monthly rental subject to a 10% yearly increase. However, during the last year, after the increase, we have been paying say R10 000. Due to rising costs, etc. we decided to physically split the shop in half and give it to our neighbour for R9000. We had the permission of the landlord to do this. This effectively meant that we were now paying R1000 for our portion which is quite a bargain. However, now the landlord says that what we have done is not Shari’ah compliant. We would like to know whether it is permissible or not.

Q: Please advise whether it is permissible to buy a property on which any of the following tenants are found:

1. Non muslim homes

2. Supermarkets that sell haram products

3. Liquor stores

4. Gambling dens

5. Non muslim places of worship

6. Banks

Q: A person does sewing as a business.

1. Can they ask permission from their customers to throw away the very tiny scraps of their fabric. eg. from overlocking and trimming seams etc?

2. Is it okay if she notifies them afterwards that some of the scraps might have been thrown away or should she tell them from the beginning that its possible that some of their fabric/cotton(scraps and shards of fabric eg.from fraying/ cotton from unpicking when altering etc.) could possibly be thrown away or does she have to notify them at all as sewing usually does entail all these? (usually she tries to return everything but sometimes very tiny pieces remain so notify afterwards)

3. Does she have to decide for each customer, whether she will sew for them or not, from what they are wearing at that point or from what they seem to be from what they speak (if she doesnt know them personally) or if she knows them to be parda concious or not and then let them know whether she will sew for them or not, or will a clear notice that all outfits(i.e. which she sews atleast) should be worn in accordance to shariah, suffice? Please give any other advise which might also be important to take note of when doing business.

Q: I have often heard that celebrating birthdays is strictly prohibited and haraam in Islam. What is the ruling regarding the owners of hotels and restaurants which earn money for arranging these birthday parties?

Q: I rent out cars to tourists and sometimes while doing currency conversion, I take lesser than the agreed price as they don't have change or coins are not available. I take lesser to be on the safe side and not taking more as I may be sinning. Is the way I proceed OK?

Q: I am going to rent my apartment. Someone handling the property told me that the tenant will give 2 months advance rent and security deposit.

1. Is it permissible to take the rent of one or two months in advance?

2. Is it permissible to take a security deposit?

3. Is it permissible to rent my apartment through this man or I should do the deal myself?

4. I have never seen the apartment, possession is not yet given to me, but I have paid the full amount during construction. Is all this fine?

Q: I work in a hospital in the UK and applied for a parking permit - I have to pay every month to park my car at the hospital. When my wage came, I realised the charges for parking were not being taken from my wages so I contacted them twice. They assured me that they had my account details and money would be taken.

A few months later I realised again no charges for parking were taken so I took no further action and left it because I thought I've contacted them twice and done what I could. But now I have a guilty feeling and think maybe I should have contacted them again until they took the money. Do I have to pay them back or pay the amount to charity? and am I at fault?

Q: What is the Islamic ruling on an employee that does remunerative private work during his working hours for his employer? Are these earnings, both salary and private work halaal? If the employee takes time off that his employer does not approve of or is not aware of, does the salary earned become haraam?

Q: Sometimes I travel by a particular bus and the bus controller doesn't give the fare to the owner of the bus as he is supposed to, rather he keeps it for himself. Is it permissible to travel by that bus?