Business and Dealings

Q: Some salesmen don't accept small change when we make a purchase. Example, I purchased a water bottle for 11 AED and I had 10 AED with me. I gave it to him and said that I will give the 1 AED later. He said ok and the next time when I gave him he said, "Its ok leave it". He is not the owner of the shop. He told me that since its a large industry, 1 AED doesn't matter.

In the college library there is a rule that if a person failed to return a book within a certain time limit, he had to pay a fine of 1 Rupee per day till the book was returned. I returned the book 2 days late and told them that I am late. They told me not to repeat it next time. They did not take the 2 Rupees from me. It was a librarian and not the owner of the college or library who told me that.

Q: Please clarify the following for me:

Generally, companies run through advertising and it thus plays a major part of many businesses. Therefore:

1. Some people specialise in doing the marketing/advertising for the company and get paid for their services.

2. Some people with computer abilities upload such ads on websites and get paid by the companies.

Are these types of jobs impermissible? If so, will magazines, radio stations etc. charging people for advertising also be impermissible?

Q: Am I allowed to sell a book I got for free?

I ordered a secondhand book online for a class I'm taking. It arrived very quick, and it looked completely new, not secondhand at all, but I no longer needed it as I had already bought the ebook. I put the book for sale online. What I usually do is sell it for 2x or 3x the price I paid, but still cheaper than the retail price. But then, a few days later, I got another copy of the book in the mail, and this one looked more like a secondhand book with highlights and stuff. I thought maybe the company made a mistake and sent me 2 copies, but I just remembered, about a month ago, I had filled out a form on the book company website pretending to be a teacher to see if I could get the book for free. I have done these before, and they never work, so I was just doing it for fun. My answers were absurd, with a fake name, institution, etc, and I thought it would eventually take me to a page with more security where I would have to provide proof of identification, but the form suddenly ended and it was submitted. I had completely forgotten about it, and there were no updates in my email about the book, whether my request was approved or whether the book was shipped. I still have a feeling that this company is likely the one who sent me the book. So, my question is, what do I do with the book? I didn't mean to get it like that, like I didn't think the form would work, but now that I have it, is it permissible to sell it?

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?