Q: I want to sell a piece of land. The total price is R1.5 million. The buyer will pay me a 33% deposit as an upfront payment and the rest within 6 months, and then only will I hand over the land papers and land to him. If the purchaser fails to give me 67% within these 6 months, the sale will be cancelled and the purchaser will lose the 33% deposit. Is this clause permissible (forfeiting the initial deposit)?
Q: I am standing at a stall in a madrasah and selling things for the madrasah such as sweets, etc. The items do not belong to me but to the madrasah. Can I purchase items for myself from the stalls, or would this be impermissible since I would, in essence, be the buyer and the seller at the same time?
Q: If I don’t have stock in my business, can I sell the goods? For example, a client comes and purchases a load of bricks and wants it delivered to his house. He pays us for the bricks and delivery, and though we don’t have it in stock, we accept the money. We then collect the bricks from the brick manufacturer and deliver it directly to the client’s house. Is this permissible?
Q: I bought a batch of stock at a certain price. Thereafter, the price of the stock items went up, causing the market value to increase. Can I raise my price on these items, even though I am still selling stock from the old batch which I bought at the lower price?
Q: I am a car dealer. I am not involved in finance. However, I accept different forms of payment, such as cash, EFT and via a card machine. Is it permissible for me to decide the price of a vehicle depending on the customer’s form of payment? The bank charges me 3,25% (for a credit card) and 1,75% (for a debit card) of the total amount if the card machine is used. Can I add this percentage onto the original price of the vehicle? If so, does it have to be the exact amount the bank charges me or can I round off or add to the amount as I desire?
Q: I’m an architect. I design residential buildings for my clients and take design consultancy in return. Yesterday, a marketing team visited me. They were selling LED lights. A single light costs $10. They offered me a discount of 20% if I recommend the lights to my clients. They also said that if I sell the light at full price to my clients, they will transfer the remaining 20% discount into my account. If I give a 10% discount to my clients, they will transfer the remaining 10% into my account. Also, it is in my authority to give a full 20% discount to my client. Is this arrangement permissible?.
Q: I work as an engineer and my job requires me to get quotes for items we need to purchase. I agree to a quote based on the price and the delivery date. For example, if I need to buy piping, I will get three quotes.
1. Quote A says our price is $10 per foot and we will deliver by May 5
2. Quote B says our price is $5 per foot but we will deliver by May 16
3. Quote C says our price is $2 per foot but we will deliver by May 28
I select, for instance, Quote A, and the terms are agreed upon. Now, sometimes a company misses the agreed upon delivery date. If they miss the date by 1 or 2 days, we don’t have any problems, but sometimes, they miss the delivery date by 2 weeks or more. In this case, we tell the company that we will not pay the full price and that they must discount the price that was initially agreed upon because they did not meet the agreed upon delivery date. Is this permissible?
Q: I went to a tailor to have a few kurtas sewn. My friend was supplying me with the fabric to sew the kurtas. However, the problem was that I didn't know how much of fabric I would require, and the tailor was also unable to tell me the exact amount that he would need for the kurtas.
I took the roll of fabric from my friend and gave it to the tailor. The tailor said that he would sew the kurtas, and after sewing them, he would tell me exactly how many metres of fabric he used. My friend told me that he would charge me R80 p/m for his fabric. According to our arrangement, I would only pay my friend for the fabric after the kurtas are sewn.
Is this arrangement permissible? If not, how should we have structured our deal, bearing in mind that I did not know, in advance, the exact amount of fabric that will be required?
Q: Please advise regarding online affiliate marketing programs:
Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing in which a business (the merchant) rewards an “affiliate” (marketer/advertiser) for each customer he brings to the business by his own marketing efforts. For example, Company Z (the merchant) sells only kitchen appliances online. They run an affiliate-marketing program where Umar (the affiliate) can advertise the merchant’s website on his own website, or other places on the internet – all for a monetary remuneration. Umar puts up an advertisement for Company Z on his own website. The following options are available for Umar, please advise on their permissibility:
1. Pay-per-sale (also called cost-per-sale): In this arrangement, the merchant site pays an affiliate when the affiliate sends them a customer who purchases something from the merchant’s website (in this instance – kitchen appliances). Some merchant websites pay the affiliate a percentage of the sale and others pay a fixed amount per sale. Is this permissible?
2. Pay-per-click (cost-per-click): In these programs, the merchant site pays the affiliate based on the number of visitors who click on the link to come to the merchant’s site. Even if the visitors do not buy anything, the affiliate will still be paid for referring them to the merchant’s site. Is this permissible?
3. Two-tier programs: These affiliate programs have a structure similar to multilevel marketing organizations (also known as “network marketing”) such as Amway or Avon, which profit through commission sales and sales recruitment. In addition to receiving commissions based on sales, clicks or leads stemming from their own site, affiliates in these programs also receive a commission based on the activity of other affiliate sites which they refer to the merchant site. Is this permissible?
4. Questions 1 to 3 above are in the instance of a merchant selling only permissible items i.e. kitchen appliances. Other merchants, like Amazon.com for example, sell a wide range of products, like furniture, electronics, clothing, books, TV’s and movies etc. The difference with such merchants (those that sell both halaal and haraam products) is that irrespective of what the affiliate may have advertised (i.e. something halaal), if a customer is to purchase anything else on account of the affiliate’s link that got him/her onto the merchant’s site, the affiliate will still receive a commission on the sale of such non-affiliate advertised haraam products. For example, Umar advertises only plumbing equipment for Amazon.com with an affiliate link on his website. A person follows this link, purchases the plumbing equipment, but also continues browsing the website and also happens to purchase a haraam video game. Umar now earns a commission on this as well. Thus, his total payout is partly based on the commission from the haraam video game and the commission from the permissible plumbing equipment. Umar is supplied with a detailed breakdown (‘earnings report’) of this total commission from the merchant. He thus knows that, for example, of his $10 total commission earned, $7 is from the direct link to the plumbing equipment and $3 is from the unintended/indirect sale of the videogame commission. By advertising the plumbing equipment, and accordingly bringing the customer to the merchant’s website, Umar did not aid or support the purchase of haraam in anyway. It was solely the discretion of the customer in purchasing the haraam. Will the entire $10 be permissible for Umar?
5. If it is impermissible for Umar to accept the commission from the sale of the haraam item, should he give the commission earned from the haraam item in charity without the intention of reward? Can he continue to earn money through advertising while taking out the commission earned from haraam items and give it in charity?
6. Some merchants pay the affiliate a predetermined percentage based on the type of product sold. Is this, the predetermined percentage that varies per the fixed product categories permissible?
(In all instances, the actual advertisements of the affiliate will not have any animate objects, music, etc. or anything impermissible associated with it at all.)
Q: I dealt with one of the Islamic banks in purchasing a car. I purchased the car from the dealer and even paid a certain amount of the car upfront to him. Thereafter, I referred to an Islamic bank and asked them to assist me purchase the car. I even informed them that I already paid a certain amount for the car. The bank accepted to assist me and made me sign the form of acting as their agent of purchasing the car from the dealer. After the necessary paperwork was completed, the bank paid the dealer the remainder amount that I was owing and made me sign an agreement with them to buy the car from them. In exchange of the money they paid to the dealer, they sold the car to me with a profit. Is this contract which I entered into with the Islamic bank Shari’ah compliant?