Business and Dealings

Muslim civil engineer constructing buildings for armies fighting against Muslims

Q: I am working as a civil engineer. We deal with construction of buildings and other structures. Sometimes we have to work for the army of disbelievers (kuffar) who are presently fighting against Muslims. We have to construct buildings and other structures for them... Is it allowed for us to work for them although we have no intention to help them on their anti Islamic sentiment. Remember our land is under oppression.

Working on a search engine for Quraan translations

Q: What is the ruling for a software developer who receives a project in which he/she has to apply algorithms on a data set i.e. Qura'nic verses' translation. Lemmtatization,tokenization, stemming and bag of words techniques will be applied on translation in order to get the following result example:

First if one wants to search any masla from the Qur'an regarding a rukoo in namaz, the software will show the verses translation related to the rukoo in namaz only. Is it permissible for one to work on such project?

Presenting fake certificates when applying for a job

Q: I am working in a gulf country and I given some wrong certificates. I always doubt whether my job is haram or halal. I graduated applied to many companies but they did not choose me as I did not have experience. I gave a record of fake experience and some certificates and I did not show my actual graduation degree. I got a small level job. After getting the job, I informed the interviewer that I had given wrong certificates. Is my income haram or halal? 

Selling samples

Q: I am a Muslim and a doctor. In our country, Medical Representatives (all pharmaceutical companies) visit us with some physician samples daily and we receive it. Few of them we provide to some poor people, and most of them we sell it. By selling it we get some money. And we use this money for our personal use. As a Muslim is it halal or haram for us? 

Taking an interest bearing loan to start a business

Q: I live in a country where all systems of the government are un-islamic. Most of the time our non-Muslim counterparts enjoy all the benefits from certain policies of the government. For instance, the government set aside a multi-billion amount of money to help small, medium and large scale entrepreneurs with a single-digit interest loan, having a single-digit interest loan by a good entrepreneur is viable but for the Muslim, even less then 1% interest is haram.

Consider myself as a case study, I have a viable business idea and I spent almost a year finding a way and manner to finance it, by either interest-free loan, partnership or any Islamic accepted way but I couldn't get it. As a professional accountant I have a "masters degree in accounting and financial management". I know how to secure and manage the government loan but I doubt whether or not it is permissible in Islam when considering the above situation.

Women going out to work

Q: I am a shy, introverted Muslim woman. I do not like being around many people, I like to keep to myself. I love staying at home, but my family wants me to work. I cannot find a job that suits both my personality and me as a Muslim woman. And I do not have a skill, like sewing, to make use of and work from home. What should I do? Is it wrong to want to stay at home and not be outside?

Airtime Advance

Q: Vodacom has a service called airtime advance whereby a person can purchase R5 or R10 airtime on credit. After you purchase the airtime, then at a later time within a stipulated period, they will recoup the R5 or R10 plus an additional R1 which they term a service fee. Will this constitute riba?