Business and Dealings

Q: Can a person exchange the same item like example dairy milk chocolate nuts with dairy milk chocolate raisons (the flavours are different) or is this classified as interest?

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?

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? 

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? 

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.

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?

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?

Q: I want to start working for Uber Eats as a delivery driver, but I am afraid that some of the orders may be for haraam food. One of my friends told me that I will be able to view the orders on my phone. In this way, I will be able to view all the items in the order and can then ensure that I only accept to deliver orders that are for halaal food. If this is true, can I take the job?

Q: In business, we sometimes suffer great losses when our debtors fail to pay us. To secure ourselves against these losses, we take out credit guarantee (CGIC).

How it works is that I tell CGIC, for example, that the general amount of money owed to me by my debtors at any given point is approximately R40 million. They will then provide me with credit cover and charge me 0.6% p/month of R40 million. When any of my debtors fails to pay me, then as soon as 90 days pass, I issue a letter of demand to the debtor and also inform CGIC. If the debt is not settled by 120 days, CGIC takes over the debt and tries to get the money from the debtor through legal means, etc. They then pay me 70-75% of the debt amount.

Because CGIC is a form of insurance, they also charge an excess i.e. they will not cover the first claim up to R200 000 per annum.

Is credit guarantee (CGIC) permissible in Islam?

Q: I asked the bank to change my account from profit and loss to current account and stop sending profit to me. They told me that they cannot and told me to make a new account, which I cannot do due some reasons. It is okay if I give the interest money to poor people?