Interest and Gambling

Interest Transactions

Q: Are any of the following Interest Transactions?

  1. If a person says "Buy this item for me when you go to the supermarket, it costs R40,but I will give you R50 tomorrow?
  2. Loan me R40, I will give you R50 tomorrow, the extra R10 is a gift?
  3. A person gives me R50 and says "Go buy this item for me, it costs R40 and you can keep the change?
  4. If the person insists on giving the extra amount even when I tell him that it is Interest, what should I do with that money?

Deriving benefit from the bank

Q: A person chooses to deposit his additional cash in the bank for safe keeping due to safety concerns. He has no intention of loaning these funds to the bank. Will these funds still be treated as a loan to the bank if he has no intention of loaning it to the bank at the time of depositing?

Income earned through leasing one's property to the bank

Q: Can you explain to me the reason why Ulamaa so severely condemn the earnings of banks? In today’s times, the majority of the wealth in banks is acquired through the deposits of people which are from halaal. Hence, if one leases out his property to a bank, the income should be halaal based on the principle that if 50% or more of one’s income is halaal and such a person has to give you a gift, you can accept it.

Using diners club lounges

Q: I have read the fatwa regarding ebucks and I am interested in finding out about Diners card. Many of our Muslim brothers have a Diners card. It is like a credit card, which they pay a yearly fee for, and the benefits are that one can use Diners club lounges in airports throughout the world. In these lounges meals etc are available as well as lounge /resting facilities etc

Losing competition data

Q: I conducted an online customer satisfaction survey, as incentive all those that completed the survey will be entered into a cash prize draw. Seven
respondents will win R1000.00 each. I lost the data containing the contact details of all those that completed the survey. I never even have the draw as yet. How Do I resolve this, this is my fault because I delayed in administering this payout and now I lost the data. We are trying to recover the lost data but things are not looking very positive.

Cheque book, paper clips, bank packets, rubber bands etc from the bank

Q: A person pays R 450.00 fixed bank charges a month. This fee entitles him to receive a cheque book, paper clips, bank packets, rubber bands and also covers other standard bank administration services.

  1. May he use the cheque book, money packets, paper clips etc if the value does not exceed the R450.00 bank charges he paid.
  2. If the value of these items exceed R450.00 p.m , may he utilise these items?