Business and Dealings

Q: What I would like to know is; are there any sunnah businesses like textiles, gems or itr, etc? Is it either sunnah or emphasised in shariah for barakah?

Q: Is it permissible to sell gold and silver plated jewellery?

Q: Is it permissible to use a voucher that a store has given you for your birthday and can be used throughout your birthday month?

Q: In some restaurants, if a person orders a dish and wishes to share it with someone else at his table (e.g. a husband and wife order a dish and both wish to share it instead of ordering separate dishes), the restaurant will charge the second person a ‘plate sharing fee’. If the second person does not pay this fee, they will not be allowed to share in the dish of the first person. In Islam, is it permissible to charge a plate sharing fee?

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.

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?

Q: My father was the only earning member in our family. Now he is retired and we are going through some financial problems. Can I find a job and earn an income to support my family by maintaing sunnat purdah?

As a Muslim woman I don't like working outside the home but I'm in a complex situation. What should I do?

Secondly, what type of job should I do?

Q: Can I take money from a student whose father is employed in a bank?

Q: I am a computer science PhD and I want to specialize in Computer Vision. Please allow me to explain what this does with examples:

1. Self-driving cars use computer vision techniques to "perceive" the surroundings and make decisions (avoid passengers, avoid trees, recognize road sighs, etc.)

2. Security camera uses computer vision for smart, precise facial recognition (not the blurry survey cams)

While these seem to be permissible, it is important to know that this technique is built upon (especially for self-driving cars):

- use camera/sensor to gather data (mostly images/photos/other data) --> cleanly visualize the image by rebuilding the images in 3D--> construct math model for the images --> provide instruction for next move.

As you can see, in order for it to work researchers and engineers must take photos with cameras on car. They also need to build 3D models in computer of human, cars, animals, trees, etc. It is well-known that takings photos, making images, and 3D images of human beings is haraam (not permissible), even though the technology (computer vision) is extremely useful, even for Muslims and Muslim countries (the applications are too many to be named).

Can I study this field and work in this field?

Q: I know a married woman but she is not on good terms with her husband. She has been given one divorce by him but it was taken back. Now she is living with him again. Her husband earns above 60 thousand rupees per month and their monthly expenses are about 50 to 60 thousand rupees and they still save some money. The wife is not working or earning any money. But due to insecurities about her life with her husband, who does not treat her well, she wants to work and start earning for which she wants to join a government institute which is run on a zakat fund. Their admission criteria is that the applicant should be mustahiq-e-zakat.

My question is that, on the basis of the fact that she fears her future with her husband, she wants to earn money to be able to live life of her own if she gets divorced, does she fall in the catagory of mustahiq-e-zakat and can she take admission in that institute which is run through a zakat fund?