Business and Dealings

Q: I was legitimately claiming help with medical costs from the UK government for years. They assess whether you are eligible, by asking for details about your income and savings. Then in 2017 my father deposited some money in my account, and told me it is for his future investment. It wasn't my savings. In order to cover up this money, I lied when asked about my savings. I received help as usual, for two years in which I told untruths to the government. Now Allah has shown me the error of my ways. I understand lying is deplorable and I am feeling full guilt for claiming in an unlawful way. It does say that claiming wrongly can earn a penalty, so i fear that my lies mean I owe them money. Rest assured, however, I was still eligible for help with costs as my real circumstances hadn't changed. My question is: do I have to pay back the medical costs? I don't have the money to pay all of those costs I claimed help with. Yet I'm afraid this counts as debt and I won't get into jannah.

Q: I would like to know if it is permissible to purchase teaching resources from the company Learning Roots. Their books and resources have pictures of humans/animals but with the faces blocked out or blurred.

Q: Is it permissible to lease one’s property to a conventional bank?

Q: A bank in the US is offering an automatic reimbursement of foreign ATM fees on their checking account. **The reimbursement is in the form of cash, deposited directly into the client's bank account.** Would it be permissible to accept the reimbursement, given that the bank also earns from mortgage interest from people who take mortgages from the bank?

I ask because services such as deals and discounts on 3rd party products through the bank are considered haram. However, in this case, the bank itself is providing reimbursement of fee for a service that is typically charged by other banks.

Q: Whats the ruling about Bitcoin? Is it halaal or haraam?

Q: An antique was gifted to us by the father of a friend who later was revealed to be a crook. He cheated us out of business and various mechanisms. We were unaware at the time he was an employee. This antique was gifted to us by the father of the crook who does not have good relations with his son who has gone astray. It is fully certified and carries the paperwork of authentication at Ministry of Tourism level. Hence our confusion and 2 scenarios:

1. Is it permissible to sell this antique and use the money for ourselves, since it was from the father and not from the son? Is it jaiz to assume a father might be like his son, the warning of making lawful things prohibited as in Surah Tahrim comes to mind. As well as the warning of acting on unfound suspicion as in Surah Hujarat. The father could be completely innocent.

2. If it is not permissible to use the money from the sale of the antique out of suspicion and caution, its not pure enough for sadqah either. Can it be used to pay off debts incurred by the scheming of this ex-employee? Kindly advise what to do with the money once the antique is sold. How may it be spent?

Q: I want to ask question about the personal work on job timings.

I have been working in a university as a software developer. During the job timing I'm working on my own work. Because the total university work that I got takes me only 2-3 days. The rest of the month I am free.

Can you please tell me the work that I have done during my job timing is haraam or halaal?

Q: My question is about online earning. Is earning with Link Shortener sites halaal?

Link Shortener sites shorten our links and put ads on it. Whenever someone click on that link, he first see's ads then he goes to the real site. These sites put ads on our links and pay us. When people see the ads, it makes revenue and sites share revenue with us. So is this earning halal or haram?

Q: I have one issue being raised in our family regarding the share in a family business.

I will tell you a short introduction about the business condition.

I am the elder son in my family. My father wants to resolve this issue on behalf of our family and my cousins. My father has 5 brothers and my late grand father passed away about 20 year ago. Afterwards, all the brothers joined the business equally. No one withdrew their share from the business. Every expense was mutual and every purchase was mutual. Both my uncles and my father's sons are included in the business some years after the death of my grandfather.

As we and our cousins were young and mature when joining, later we put our efforts and experience in the family business at the same level as our uncles were doing. Only two elder brother's sons are in the family business.

One thing to note is that my uncles did not agree to do other business because they only agreed to expand the family business.

One of my cousins has 4 sons and he wants to separate the business but now my uncles (my father's brothers) are saying that my cousin has no share in the business because he was included in the family business on behalf of his father. Everyone can see my cousin's and my brother's efforts and the expansion they made to the family business and that effort was not possible by any employee.

We gave new ideas of doing business which was successful for the expansion of the business. We made new businesses and branches in profit running positions.

My uncles are denying our efforts that we did in the business and they are saying that we, the cousins have no share in the business because it was 5 brothers who were partners in the business.

Please note: My cousins gave 20 years in the business and my brothers gave 16 years in the business.

Please tell us if we are eligible to ask for our share from the business and if so, what is the Islamic ruling in this condition. They used us for so long in the business and we never thought that we were not part of the family business. We were doing all this effort for them only.

Are the 5 brothers the only shareholders? Two of them joined the business at the same age when one of my cousins joined the business because they are about same age. All the brothers are still in a working position and active members in the business, none of them are sleeping partners. My father has done more than his share and is still working.

Q: A person bought a car in instalments, he sent mangoes to our home. Can I eat the mangoes?