Trade

Downloading an e-book for free

Q: If any author kept his book (not Deeni) on certain rate to download online (book for sale), the same book I get from another source some other guy downloaded before and posted on his site or from torrent. Is it ok to download that books and read it and get knowledge from it and it helps for my career. If the author is dead and the caretaker selling the book online. Can I download it from another source, I don't know weather they buy or just download it illegally and posting it for free.

Adding the condition "goods belong to the seller until paid for" in a sale

Q: Please advise on below:

1. Many companies state at the bottom of their invoice "goods remain the property of the above company until fully paid for" What is the status of the goods?

2. Is it amaanat or does ownership pass on to the purchaser? Is such a condition permissible?

3. Will the sale be faasid if such a condition is added?

Using Google TEZ to make money

Q: Google recently launched an application named TEZ where transactions can be done between banks to banks. Google TEZ also provides some great offers such as scratch cards, and other offers when we use that app or refer friends to this application. We can be able to earn some money through referals and transactions. Can I participate in this referal programs and transactions so that I can earn some money through that (intention is to earn money) . Is this money halal or haram? I have done transactions only because of getting money or gift cards or scratch cards which contains some money, for this I transfer some money to my friends account and he returns the same money after getting those gifts, is this criteria halal or not?

Using a gray market phone

Q: I bought a brand new xiaomi smartphone in 2016. But the next year after I checked on government regulations website, my phone was "indeed" proven illegal. Illegal here means imported without any permissions from the government (not stolen, I already know the rules about stolen items). So no doubt about this. This leaves me questions:

1. What is the ruling for anything that we bought, we didn't know it is illegal at the beginning, but then it is proven illegal afterwards? (again, illegal here = "avoid taxes" not stolen items)

2. Am I allowed to continue using this or should I get rid of it?

3. What level of investigations should every Muslim do for each business transaction like this?