Business and Dealings

Q: I want to invest in an Islamic investment fund. Its a bank in Pakistan. They have fatwas from a senior mufti but I still have doubts if its haram or halal. Please guide.

Q: Can we utilize saving bank accounts interest money to release non-habitual prisoners, advocate fees and legal aid staffs salary who work on this project either Muslim or Non-Muslim? 

Q: My Question is as follows. I want to start selling items on a website called etsy.com. It is a website were people can sell handmade items. The way it will work is that the website charges you a small fixed fee to list the item and then they take 3.5percent of the sale price once the item is sold. Also people can pay through paypal and they can pay with a credit card which means it they will be buying on account which will then be an interest transaction for them. Alot of people sell other items, some of which is haraam and alot of other stuff has to with other religions. It is permissible to sell through this website and would it be a wholesome way to earn a living or will it be better to find other avenues to sell goods?

Q: I am a web developer. I did a job of a website which has some relation with alcohol. I didn't know before I accept the job.

Details: I got a job more than 1 year ago to build a website. That is a "Tour website". I built it's structure, and they filled up their content themselves. After the first contract was done, they contracted me time to time for more small work of structure changing in the same website. Once I noticed that their tour package names are "... place BEER Package", "... place WINE Package" etc. I cannot remember, when exactly I noticed it. But, since I noticed "BEER,WINE", I'm confused about my earning from it.

Today I asked them: "Alcohol (Beer, Wine etc.) is involved with your business. Right?"

They answered: "Yes" "Not really though" "We sell the trip to places, we don't sell alcohol on our tours"

I asked them again: "Isn't your package price included alcohol cost?"

They answered: "" (they didn't answered)

Note1: The total is a big amount. The amount is not easy for me to sacrifice anytime. I need time to earn it. Otherwise I could sacrifice it without any question.

Note2: I follow Hanafi madhab.

Now my questions are:

1. Is it haram for me, what all I earned from that website work?

2. What should I do about the money I earned before I know about the alcohol involvement?

3. What should I do about the money I earned after I know about alcohol involvement?

Q: I always wanted to acquire the knowledge of Deen and live my life in the service of Deen. Unfortunately, until now, I have not been able to pursue Deeni studies. Currently, I am 23 years old and I don’t think I can pursue full time Deeni studies right now. So I am thinking about pursuing study and research in material science with the aim of serving Islam through this knowledge, and also with the aim of discovering solutions for some of the problems which humanity faces as a whole nowadays like global warming, pollution, lack of clean drinking water, etc.

1. Many Ahaadith mention the virtue of acquiring Deeni knowledge. If I study science, will I also receive this virtue? Will I be rewarded by Allah  for studying science?

2. Should I abandon studying and earning a livelihood and instead spend my life in serving Deen?

Q: I live in Belgium. I have a property. It is a restaurant. Now some poeple want to rent it. They are Belgian people they want to open it as a restaurant. They will sell haram meals like pork, alchohol. I will receive montlhy rent from them. Will that income be haram or halal for me?

Q: Can I buy any business property where the main business holder (who wants to sell his business now) took bank loan for his business?

Q: I work in the accounts dept of a company. We receive payments into our bank account from customers. Sometimes we receive payments but we cant trace who the money came from. After a few months if no one has come forward to claim the money we give it away in charity. My question is, can I give the money to a fellow employee of the same company who has some loans that they are unable to settle?

Is the answer the same if the employee is owing the loan to the company itself?

Q: We dealt with a certain supplier who stole our money and disappeared. We then hired a P.I. (private investigator) to track the supplier down and recover our money. The fee of the P.I. is R5000. Can we tell the P.I. to take his fee from the supplier?

Q: If a relative works for the bank in the computers department (networks, fixing computers, etc., not programming) then is his income 100%halal? Would it be advisable to eat his food?