Business and Dealings

Q: I had set aside a certain amount of cash to use for a gift that my sister's and I were going to give collectively. A year later my sister was ready to buy the gift, however the gift was less than the amount expected. I paid my portion of the gift. But there is still some cash leftover. Can I keep this cash for myself or do I have to gift it to the person intended. I had only set aside the cash as I had made a commitment and in the case of death I did not want it unfulfilled.

Q: My father built a house and the house was on my grandmother's name. Now the house is on my mother's name. My father and grandmother are both dead respectively and now my mother transfered this house on my elder brother's name. We are 4 brothers and 3 sisters. My brother got the market value of the house and divided the property between us seven family member including him. What does Islam say about the division of the property?

Q: With regards to the money that belongs to our small children (gifted to them by people or given by parents as a reward), if from their money we buy them clothes and toys to use and play with, what should be done with them later as they grow and neither the clothes nor the toys are of their use.

Q: I have a question about withdrawal from a broker. I know FOREX trading is a separate issue, but lets say you do.

My question isn't about FOREX specifically, its about withdraw. Lets say our first initial deposit is $1000, then you make profit and your account becomes $5000. Now some brokers will say that first you have to withdraw your initial deposit, then you can withdraw your profit. This is haram. But if the broker lets me take all my money, then its halal. Please explain why the first scenario is haram.

Q: I own a 50 % share in a barbershop business and my partner wants to buy my share out. My portion cost me R30 000 18 months ago when we started the business. I earn between R5 000 and R6 000 profits per month for my portion. I would like to know that if I agree to sell my share will I be able to ask for a higher price than what I originally invested. I was looking to ask for R75 000 as I am earning well monthly from my dividend.

Q: Please advise if this method of saving money is halaal.

6 people each agree to participate in a group savings plan. Each person pays monthly to 1 person an amount of R1000.00 for 12 months. Person 1 recieved R12000 in the first month being January. Then person 2 recieves R 12000 in March and so on and so forth; whilst each person still pays R 1000.00 for the rest of the year. In this way each person recieved a bulk amount of R 12000.00 even though they may not have paid their full amount on their turn of taking out the R12000.

Q:

1. While at university we used to play table soccer at the café that was on the campus. We cheated by not paying for this as we knew how to manipulate the game machine. I have now made towbah for this. Can I give an estimated amount of money to the current owners of the café as repayment? If yes, do I give it to one of the employees at the café? What do I say to them? I am also not sure if the café is still being owned by the same owners as this happened over 20 years ago. Also, I am not sure if the machines belonged to the café or to a third party. The café was not owned by the university but was run by an independent company.

2. As a child (naabaaligh) I stole sweets from my uncle’s shop and money from my brother’s cupboard. I am too shy to now approach them to tell them this. Is there any way I can pay back for this without them coming to know? Can I give it to them as a gift without telling them what it is for? Also does it have to be returned as money or can I give them a gift in kind (eg. fruit, books, etc) to the exact amount?

3. As a child (naabaaligh) I stole scissors and rulers from my school stockroom. Can I pay back to the government through an extra amount of tax?

4. When I was a child (naabaaligh), I used to steal money from a game in a café. I may perhaps be able to trace the owner of the café. But I do know that the games were owned by a third party whom I do not know. How do I pay back for this?

5. As a child, another child gave me toy cars that he had stolen from a shop. Do I need to pay back for this and how?

Q: In 2016 I paid an agent £19500 for a hajj package for four people (myself, my wife and my two daughters). Just after Ramadhaan 2016, my eldest daughter had an operation and she could not travel. As such, my eldest daughter and my wife had to cancel their hajj trip.

As the trip was already paid for, I arranged with the agent for my niece and her husband to join my daughter and I for hajj from Zambia.

They applied for their visa in Zambia and booked their flight tickets from Zambia as they were going to join us in Jeddah. After they arranged and paid for everything, they had to cancel their trip as my agent in the UK did not apply for our visa and gave our package to another party.

I had to compensate my niece for all costs which came to over £500. My agent refused to give us a refund in 2016 and made the excuse that the visa was refused so he will take us for Hajj in 2017.

In early 2017, the agent had a very bad accident and was in hospital for a few months. Due to the accident, he did not do any hajj packages but kept promising me that he will take us for hajj with another group. However, it never materialised and he was still refusing to give me a refund. I subsequently took him to court and got a judgement against him as well as his company for my payment to him as well as the compensation that I had to give to my niece plus costs for the claim.

The agent did not have any money to pay me as per the judgement and so his old partner interceded for him to come to a compromise. Hence, we agreed that the agent would pay me £1000, which he did, towards the claim costs and that he would take us for hajj in 2018 with a third party.

The agent arranged a package for us with a third party on the basis that when he got his hajj visa license for 2018, he would give it to the third party in exchange of our hajj package. The visa license depended on the agent getting a license which he has not received as yet, and so he has not been able to get the visas this year.

The agent came to see me a few weeks ago and apologised for all the inconvenience. He told me that he cannot take us for hajj this year as he has not received his  license and as such, he cannot get the hajj visa to compensate the third party for our hajj package. He promised me that as soon as he gets his license approved, he will give me my certificate for the hajj package so if he does not take me for hajj in 2019, I can claim from the organisation which issued the certificate.

Similarly, without me asking, he gave me the following two choices as a means of compensating me.

1. When he takes me for hajj in 2019, he will upgrade our rooms in Makkah and Madinah.

2. Rooms will stay as normal but in addition, he will take us for umrah in December 2018 at his cost.

My question is that from a sharee point of view, can I take the second option?

Q: Can I work in an admin job in a real estates agents office?

Some of the duties include:

- Managing telephone calls and taking messages

- Data entry of booked viewings and valuations

- Deal regarding property lettings and sales; establishing their needs, liaising with tenants, buyers, landlords and vendors (over the phone)

- Any other related duties to support business requirements

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.