Trade

Selling cigarettes

Q: I live with my grandparents and they have a shop which sell mostly biscuits & they also sell cigarattes! (According to some sholars in my country cigrattes are makrooh, while I have heard some Arab scholars say its haraam).

I want to be on the safe side so, as I live in their house my concern is I use electricity/internet to learn as I learn online! Will my online earning be halal if I pay them later on for electricity/internet I use?

Sales person processing an order with silhouettes of animals

Q: I work as a sales processed in a bed factory. My work is halasl but one aspect is concerning me:

I recieve requests from customers to make bed labels which the company has already designed & they contain silhouettes of 2 animals - the silhouettes vary in size, most contain a head 1 mm in height but some larger.

Before I send the request to the printing company, the customer previews the labels where the silhouettes can be clearly seen. Would I be sinning by sending the online versions & also sending the request to the printing company to print?

Buying a car that was named after a zodiac sign

Q: Is it permissible to buy cars made by Ford as they have a car named “Taurus” which is the name of a zodiac sign. The company probably kept the name on the constellation of stars or name of zodiac sign. I don't know if people associate it with the zodiac signs or not.

Would it be permissible to buy this car (Taurus) from this company or any other car from this company (Ford) ?

Price change in an item that was ordered

Q: A Muslim company confirmed the price of a product with me at R1800. They said stock will come in a few months.

A few months later the product comes and they say I must pay R2200. I said that you confirmed the price at R1800. The company says that price was then, and now it changed because of USD exchange rate. But previously he confirmed R1800 and never mention USD exchange rate.

I waited months to buy it from them and did not inquire elsewhere because they confirmed the price and my order at R1800.

Please advise:

(1) Is their action as above permissible?

(2) If permissible, is it in conformity with Islamic values? I am annoyed because I waited to buy it from them specifically at their confirmed price. I could have bought it elsewhere all these months.

Purchasing airtime advance

Q: Is it permissible to take out airtime advance with networks such as Vodacom and MTN?

Your account gets credited with airtime and you don't pay right away, but you are charged an extra service fee to get the airtime as you do not have to pay for it right away?

Buyer unsuccessful in contacting the supplier to pay off his debt

Q: I am inquiring in regards to business items I purchased from a supplier on a loan at a Business Expo. We had a mutual agreement to pay for the items on a later date. The supplier had provided me with his contact details to pay him back.

I had lost the suppliers number and cannot locate the person which I got the business items from. Also, I tried going to the Business Expo next year but the person did not come back the next year. I have tried going there for the past 4 years at the expo and the person has not come there. I am not sure if he has any relatives or friends either.

Please advise what I can do in regards to the money I owe him.