Trade

Selling livestock without taking possession of the livestock

Q: I've been doing livestock for the past year, I wholesale and retail livestock throughout the year and I try to do everything in the best of my ability and in the halaal way.

Yesterday I came across someone who told me the way I'm running my business is haraam.

I'm From Durban and I get livestock from Northern Cape, Free State and Eastern Cape. So when I wholesale throughout the year as customers want animals, I order from the different farmers and get it delivered directly to the customer. The farmer will send me a video, I will send the video to my customer and if he is happy then I will confirm the order with the farmer and get it delivered to the customer.

Qurbani time the farmers know that I take alot more animals so they call me or video call me and tell me they have this amount of animals for me and keep it aside. Basically they book it for me and as I get customers I call them and tell them to send this amount of animals from my lot to the customers location. I haven't personally seen the animals. The farmer does send me videos and video calls me and I don't have time to go and see them.

Is it permissible the way I trade? If not, then all the money I earned and consumed is haraam and how do I go about fixing this issue? Please advise me.

Using Bay'as Salam to make a dropshipping business halaal

Q: I would like to know more about Bay'as Salam and how I can use this to make my dropshipping business halaal?

When a customer places an order, the supplier ships the product directly to the customer. You pay the supplier the wholesale cost of the product, and you keep the difference between the wholesale cost and the retail price as your profit. In a Salam contract, the buyer and seller agree on the price, quantity, and delivery date of the product. The seller receives the price of the product in advance, providing them with the necessary funds to produce the product. The buyer then takes delivery of the product at the agreed-upon future date. I would like to know if the above information provided on salam will allow me to use it in the dropshipping context as mentioned in the first paragraph.