Business and Dealings

Compulsory insurance

Q: We have recently found out that medical aid and insurance are not permissible and cancelled ours. We have recently opened a tyre fitment centre. The department of labour have requested us to enter our staff on the system, we did plan on doing so however found out now that they have to have an insurance as their job here entails a risk so if we put them on the system they will be insured and if we don't we could be in trouble with the department of labour.

Developing software for an insurance company

Q: I am a software engineer, my core competency is to develop & support software. Now I work for a software company which has projects only from one insurance company. So our company is responsible to make sure all IT related infrastructure is up & running all the time for this insurance company. And my job is to support the software application which the insurance company is using, so if the application has any issues or users of the application need any data/reports/help, I need to help them and make sure they don’t face any issues. Mostly I will be sitting in my company and supporting these applications. So I am not directly working for the insurance company. So my question is if it is permissible to work for this software company?

Goodwill/Increasing the Price of the Shop Fittings

Q: I am aware that in Shari’ah, it is not permissible to charge anything for goodwill. However, I was told that if you attribute the same excess to the ‘shop fittings’ figure for example, it will now become permissible. Is this true? How can it be permissible when the purchaser, seller and the receiver are fully aware that this inflated figure is not a true reflection of the shop fittings figure?

Investments

Q: I am married and live with my husband & In-laws. My in-laws have invested certain amount of money with their son-in-law who have his own
trading firm and he pays a certain fix amount on monthly basis as return for investment. I would like to know whether this monthly fixed amount received on investment will be considered as halaal as per Islam.

Being eligible for a certain bank account

Q: I have a question which might seem a little odd but was hoping you could assist me. I have an account with First National Bank called a Young Professionals Account and the only way you can get this account is  if you are between the age of 18 and 30, earn more than a specific amount a month and have a professional degree (law, accounting, engineering, medicine etc), like a profession. I got the account a couple of years ago but started realising now that I don't have one of those professional degrees, although I do fill the other requirements of age and minimum salary. Mine is a Bcom IT Degree, just not a professional degree like the ones required for the account. They required a degree certificate which I handed to them and they did accept it at the branch I went to. I'm torn as to whether it is haraam for me to have this account and whatever I have spent and use in this account is wrong or forbidden. The degree certificate I handed to the branch was my own certificate showing a normal Bcom degree. Should I be worried about this? Do I need to change my account? What about all the things I have used the account for? Apologies for the odd question. I did know at the time that it wasn't one of those professional degrees but it didn't occur to me that it might be wrong. This account also has fees and and these fees are automatically taken from the account as well.