Business and Dealings

Q: Is it permissible to sell non prescription coloured contact lenses

Q: My father bought an agricultural land almost 19 years ago, measuring 110 acres. My father is an advocate by profession and at the time of purchasing the land, my father had some money earned by himself and took some money in the shape of a loan from the bank and bought the land. I have heard that taking a loan is completely haraam, so is the land haraam for us? How do we make it halaal?

Q: I work for an engineering consulting firm. Our fees are mainly derived from consulting services for clients.

The firm is owned in a trust with the employees being the shareholders. The employees are allocated ‘shares’ based on their length of service and seniority in the firm. The employees do not buy any shares when entering into the firm, and neither do they sell any shares when leaving. Rather, the shares are merely allocated to them for the duration of their employment.

Every six months, a portion of surplus cash is allocated as profit and distributed amongst the employees according to their allocation of shares. The amount will be dependant on the performance of the company and the cash balance available at the time of allocation. No other bonus/13th cheque is paid. This profit share is over and above the regular salary that each employee receives.

Is this type of employment contract permissible?

Q: I own a gym and I am also a qualified fitness trainer. I have kept my facility segregated i.e. I have different timings for ladies and gents. However, people frequently ask me why I have kept it segregated. What should I tell them?

Also, I have a question regarding training my clients. Someone contacted me and requested me to provide training services in their home for their elderly parents as his parents are very sick and old and can't come to my gym. What is the ruling regarding training the opposite gender? Is there a separate ruling for women who are elderly? Is there a separate ruling if the husband of the old woman is present or not?  

Q: If anyone knows that he is doing a job with fake degrees (he is capable of doing this job but he is not qualified with a degree) is his income halaal? 

Q: When I was younger around 16 years old, I took a little gift box that I thought was empty from my fathers cupboard. When going to use it, I saw a few coloured stones that didn't look very valuble. They fell out and I didn't think that it was anything of value. I am not sure whether I put the stones back in some other box in the cupboard or whether they were misplaced.

Some years later my mother mentioned that she couldn't find some precious stones of hers. I later thought that perhaps these were the stones I found but out of fear and embarrassment I never mentioned it to my mother. I would like to know that although I didn't intentionally steal them, I just took the gift box without informing anyone as I thought it was empty, what can I do to atone for this mistake and wrong of mine? I am still afraid to speak to my mum but dont want to be sinning either. This happened about 17 years ago.

Q: I have a question relating to network marketing.

I am a neolife distributor and I sell the products as well as recruit people under me, thus growing my team. I therefore earn based on their sales as well as my own.

My question is whether this is allowed by the shariah. Is the income earned from what they sell and thus contributing to my points and therfore my position within the company e.g. Senior manager, Halaal income?

Q: I'm going to my home country on vacation from Saudi Arabia and my company is giving me an air ticket of 2090 Saudi Riyals. I told them that I will buy it myself.

If I buy a cheap ticket in a less privileged airline and show them an invoice of a privileged airline, the same that the company was supposed to buy for me. Kindly tell me if it is okay or the surplus money will be haraam.

Q: I work in a government organization as an officer. We deal with a lot of tenders. Everyday lots of contractors visit us regarding projects. These days we are working on a new tender and a contractor (let’s call him X), who frequently visits us, informed me that his company’s country head is in town and wants to meet us. I asked him to come to our office and meet our team.

X came along with the country head and we discussed technical matters. At the end of our meeting, the country head gave us a gift bag and told us that this is a souvenir from his side for us. We were 3 team members but he brought souvenirs for only the two of the team members. He didn’t give anything to the third person.

Was this ‘souvenir’ a bribe to us? Because the meeting was regarding a tender, but we are not giving them any favours. We are going through the whole tender process as transparently as possible. I am worried whether this souvenir is a bribe or not, because I realised it later on, after he left, that it might be a bribe. We still won’t be giving them any favours on the tender project. If it is termed as a bribe, what should I do now because I have already accepted the gift.

Note: The country head gave us the products that his own company makes, hence called it a souvenir. 

Q: Is it permissible to sell an item on terms to pay and in the receipt/agreement it is made clear that if payment is not made by a stipulated date, the person will be charged a set amount for each month in the delay of payment. Both parties sign the agreement and everything is transparent. Or is the amount to be charged to the customer for delay in payment considered riba?