Business and Dealings

Boycotting

Q: What is Mufti Sahib's view with regards to boycotting? I understand that turning to Allah through Salaah and duaa is more important but I wanted to know should we also boycott Israeli products and stores that support Israel? What about boycotting other countries that are oppressing Muslims eg. USA, China?

Cashing a customer's cheque on condition that he purchases from one's store

Q: In our country, many shopkeepers do business using third party cheques. The customer comes with a cheque on his name issued by his employer or any other company. He comes to the shopkeeper to cash the cheque. The shopkeeper agrees to cash the cheque on condition that he buys 20% of the value of the cheque worth of goods from his shop. For example, the customer brings a cheque worth R5000. The shopkeeper agrees to cash the cheque on condition that he buys R1000 worth of goods from his shop. In lieu of the R5000 cheque, the shopkeeper will give him R4000 cash and R1000 worth of goods. The benefit the shopkeeper gets from this transaction is the profit he makes in selling the R1000 worth of goods. Thereafter, the shopkeeper will recover the R5000 by cashing the cheque in his bank (he has a prior agreement with his bank to cash third party cheques).

1. Would such a transaction be permissible?

2. Some shopkeepers have resorted to cashing the cheques in the following manner: The customer brings a R5000 cheque. The shopkeeper sells him a pen for R1000 and gives him R4000 cash. So in lieu of the R5000 cheque, he gives him R4000 and a pen worth R5. Is this permissible?

3. Can the shopkeeper charge a fixed service charge for each cheque bearing in mind that he has to spend his time and effort to go to the bank and deposit the cheque?

4. Such a business is risky due to the possibility of the cheques bouncing and therefore, the shopkeeper normally puts a higher mark up on his goods than the prevailing retail price in the market. For zakaat purposes, what price will the shopkeeper base his calculations on; his selling price or the prevailing price in the market?

Interest

Q: Is it in order to lend money to someone for example I say I will lend you R100 and you pay me back R150.

Making a fake experience certificate

Q: I want to know about doing a course by showing fake experience certificate. I want to do a welding course, but for that you must have 3 years of welding field experience. But I am not in the welding field now. I work in a different field and if I go to a welding related job, then I can't get the salary I am getting now. It will be decreased to the salary of a freshman. Now I have 12000 per month salary, and in the welding job I wil get only 7-8 thousand. Can I show a fake experience certificate to the institute for this course? Will my salary be halaal?

Purchasing a new car from the bank

Q: I want to purchase the new car from the bank. The price of the car is (lets say 500,000 Rs) in one shop and 550,000 Rs in other shop and from the bank it is 600,000. Each of them has different value based on the profit they take from the buyer. (Basis that every one has the right to get the maximum benefit based on the investment). Please guide me. Can I take the car from the bank?

Ads on free websites

Q: I have a medical website hosted for free by a company called WordPress. Occasionally, they will place an advert on my website at their discretion. The content and image of the advertisement could be for anything, i.e: advertising insurance, a vehicle, a gambling website, a holiday cruise etc. Often an animate object is included. These adverts will often link to the respective website. I have no control over these adverts that appear occasionally nor its sometimes haraam content. - Is it necessary to change to another web-host company that does not do this, or pay a fee for the Wordpress 'No-Ads Upgrade'?