Business and Dealings

Q: I am going to rent my apartment. Someone handling the property told me that the tenant will give 2 months advance rent and security deposit.

1. Is it permissible to take the rent of one or two months in advance?

2. Is it permissible to take a security deposit?

3. Is it permissible to rent my apartment through this man or I should do the deal myself?

4. I have never seen the apartment, possession is not yet given to me, but I have paid the full amount during construction. Is all this fine?

Q: A person asks his friend for PKR. 100,000 in 2007 and his friend gave him 1,700 dollars as value of USD was almost 59 in 2007 in Pakistan. Now in year 2019 how much he has to payback as loan.

Q: I am an active stock investor, My question is that I invested in a company which was halal almost 2 years ago but as of now, it's interest bearing debt is 71.2% and before it was halal because it's interest bearing debt was less than 30% of it's market capital. I use a stock screener which showed it was halal.

So, what should I do in this case as it was halal at the time of investing; Should I sell it with profit because it was halal at that time? Should I sell it with no profit? or keep the stock in my portfolio until it becomes halal again?

Q: I want to know if it is permissible to work in the gaming industry according to Islamic law.

The gaming company in question has many popular games but those games contain some aspects of nudity, violence and crime related missions. The job is not a game developer per se, but some other software development work like tools development, server handling and all.

My doubt is that even if it's some other software development work, isn't it ultimately helping in the release of the game and thus should be prohibited?

Q: I did a partnership with someone and we both agreed that whatever profit would be generated, we would share it equally. We both partners have access to the bank account and we can withdraw money from the bank.

Now when the business has started generating profit, my partner didn’t share the profit with me. He uses money from the bank and when I ask for my share, he starts fighting with me. When I argue he says "you have access to the account, you can get your money". When I take out money and tell him, he fights. If I don’t inform him and get my share as decided, would it be sin?

Q: I have loaned a fellow Muslim money. She has disputed paying the total with no valid reason.

She has mailed me to say that she is willing to pay half of the amount due to me in 6 monthly installments. Am I obliged to forgive her?

Q: Spending on one's family on the day of Aashuraa, please give clarity who should spend? Should my children age 8, 14 and 19 be encouraged to spend out of their pocket money on our family?

Q: Could Mufti please provide clarity on the following: A widow has 4 daughters, 1 half brother and 1 half sister.

1. Can she draw up an agreement, while she is alive that once she dies, her wealth goes to her four daughters only?

2. Can she leave her money in the bank, give it to her daughter's, but use it in a case of an emergency and also collect the returns, but her daughter's will only have access to the money once she dies?

3. Does she have to actually give the money to the daughters now, and have no access or rights over it, if she wants to only give it to her daughter's?

4. If she leaves the money in the bank, how does the estate have to be divided once she dies?

5. If one of her daughter's die before her, can the children of that particular daughter still have their mothers share? If so how should it be done?

Q:

1) We have customers who buy on credit. Is it permissible for us to tell them that we will give them a discount if they pay before the due date? For example, the customer purchases goods worth R100 000 on a three month credit basis. The customer is told, “If you pay within one month, you will receive a 10% discount”. Is this permissible?

2) I owe someone money through a cash sale, and there were no terms given for payment. If I ask the seller for a discount saying, "If I pay you tomorrow, will you give me a discount? From R10 000, will you make it R9 000?" and he accepts to give me a discount, will it be permissible?

Q: What is the status of an investment where the profit is fixed according to the investment amount?

Example - If I invest R10 000 in "ABC INVESTMENTS" and they promise me a return of R500 monthly. Will such an investment be permissible?

If not, what should I do with the money that has been received as pay outs thus far?