Business and Dealings

Loaning money on interest

Q: Could you please explain to me what is interest, riba and usury. If one has the talent to do a halal business (by Allah) and no money, and other has money but he can't do business, the one who is giving the money to the first person for the business and asking him to give a profit of 50% and at last he should return his money. Does this come under interest/riba/usuary. If yes then how should the business situation be dealt with. What does one do if one did that, and falled in a loss.

Accumulating interest money

Q:

1. Is it permissible to use interest earned on a bank account to donate to charity?

2. If so, can you then invest the interest earned into a separate bank account so as to let it accumulate so an even bigger amount can be donated in charity?

3. If not, what are some of the many ways in which one can dispose of interest received?

Seller changing his price for different customers

Q: We chose a cow for qurbaani. The seller is charging other customers R38 per kg. When he sent the bill to us, it was R41.50 per kg. My husband queried it and the seller responded that he has his own system of working out the cost which he does not have to explain, and we can cancel the purchase if it is not suitable to us. Is it permissible for him to conduct business in this way?

Working at massage centres

Q: I'm a Sri lankan living in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Due to some reasons I discontinued my job for last few weeks and now am jobless, but now I have got an opportunity to work at a massage center in the city with good payments and I don't know what kind of services do they provide and also I feel like it could be a prostitute center so is it ok to go and work with them? Sorry for my bad English hope you'll understand what am trying to say.

Merchant Cash Advance from Shopify

Q: I want to know about the Merchant Cash Advance from Shopify is halal or haram. Below are some details about the advance money they give, A merchant cash advance is a lump sum (called the amount received) that you receive from Shopify Capital in return for selling to Shopify Capital a set amount of your future sales revenue (called the total to remit). The amount received is deposited into your business bank account, and then a percentage of your daily sales is remitted to Shopify Capital until the total to remit has been completely remitted. For example, Shopify Capital might advance you $5,000 to purchase $5,650 of your future revenue, with a remittance rate of 10%. The $5,000 amount received would be delivered to your business bank account, and Shopify Capital would receive 10% of your daily sales revenue until the full $5,650 total to remit has been remitted. There is no deadline for remitting the total to remit to Shopify Capital. The daily remittance amount is determined by your store's daily sales, since the remittance rate is a percentage of your store's daily sales. The remittance amount is automatically debited from your business bank account. Shopify Capital is offering advance amounts between $5,000 and $50,000. The total to remit and remittance rate depend on your risk profile.

Paying income tax with interest money

Q: I live in India, and employed in a company. I get my salary in cheque which would be deposited to my 'saving account in the bank'. It generates interest after every two or three couple of months according to the norms. I pay income tax on my salary and if the interest that is generated reaches a particular amount then I have to pay tax on that also. My question is: Can I use that interest amount in exchange of the income tax I pay?