Business and Dealings

Q: Can a Muslim business sell un-halaal products (meat etc.)? The business is located in a non-muslim community.

Q: Will it be correct to pay taxes and duties imposed by govt. in India (such as income tax, sales tax, service tax, dutis on commodities etc.) from interest given automatically on ordinary saving accounts by the banks in India? Particularly where a bank account is compulsorily required.

Q: There is a certain car tracker company that charges an installation fee of R1400. Thereafter, they charge a monthly fee of R120. If one’s car gets stolen and the company cannot recover it, they will give him the amount that his car is valued at in cash. However, if the car is recovered later on, one will have to return all the money that one received from them within 14 days. If one does not return the money within 14 days, then for each day that passes thereafter, interest will be charged. Is it permissible to take out such a contract?

Q: I have some question related to contract related to property/plot/house purchasing and selling. Kindly guide me from the perspective of Hanafi Madhab on the matter.

Detail and questions are described below.

In our country we have a Real Estate Company, its business model is that they acquire huge area of land in an area where they build city infrastructure/facilities on them and then sell plots and sell houses built by them in that area to customers.

The buyer signs a contract with this real estate company to book a plot of land or to book a house which the real estate agent builds for the buyer.

Based on the contract the buyer pays an initial non refundable booking fee to the real estate company and starts paying in instalment an amount to the real estate company laid down in the contract on intervals for example instalment amount every 3 months for 3 years.

During the contract there is no indication of the allotted location of the place where the House or plot of land will be to the buyer. The real estate company announces the general area after the contract has been signed and allocates the plot numbers which is then distributed randomly to the buyers. (The buyer gets the area of plot of land or house based on the contract.)

The real estate company allows the buyer who signed a contract with them, for the area of plot or house, to transfer the contract to another person. This second buyer then pays the remaining installments to the real estate company in case there are remaining installments to be paid to the real estate company.

1. Can a person sign into a contract with the real estate company for a plot of land or a house to be built by the company based on the details above?

2. In case it is haram or Makrooh to sign into such a contract and a person has already signed it can the person sell this contract to another person
with or without a profit ? And what should the person do to atone for the mistake?

3. Can a person sell the unknown plot/house to another person by transferring the contract for the unknown plot/house without a profit or with profit based on the market value?

4. If a person had the intention of not selling the unknown plot/house to another person and then due to an unforeseen financial reasons wants to sell the unknown plot/house to another person can he do that without a profit or with profit based on market value?

5. After signing a contract with a real estate company for a house I have heard from people that the real estate company has forcefully grabbed some land from individuals. And I have also read about government claims on some of their land. Based on the above information kindly advise if i shall also be responsible for this land grab in front of Allah ? And how to atone for this mistake. I am willing to loose the amount paid till now to the real estate company if this is the ruling for this case.

6. The House is not in my possession yet and I am still paying the installments based on the contract. With this knowledge is it advisable to sell this contract for the house to someone else without a profit or with profit based on market value ?

In case there are no issues with the real estate company I some queries below.

7. Once the plot/house has been allocated to the buyer in the contract with the real estate company, can the buyer transfer the contract to another person without a profit or with profit based on market value in the case where the possession of the plot/house has not yet been given by the real estate company to the original buyer ?

8. In the case if the original buyer has paid all the installments in the contract to the real estate company for the plot/house and possession of the plot/house has not been given to this original buyer, during this period can the original buyer sell the contract to another person without profit or with profit based on the market value?

9. In case the original buyer is in financial difficulty and didn't intend to sell the plot/house contract to another person and has paid all the installments to the real estate company. The possession has not been given to this original buyer by the real estate company yet. Can the original buyer sell the contract to another person without profit or  for a plot of landwith profit based on market value?

Q: Is it permissible to include in a lease agreement with a commercial tenant that they will be responsible for the following:

1) Monthly municipal rates which will be billed by the Municipality to the landlord. These charges will be passed on to the tenant.

2) If at any time during the lease agreement there are any increases by the municipality in rates, the tenant will also be liable for such increase.

Q: I am a working girl. Just one month ago I started working into travel agency and according to government regulations we have to charge 1.45 % government service tax on hotels and 4.35% on completed package on the products we sale to the clients so recently have sold a complete package but while making the bill for the package my boss has told me charge only 1.45 % while the real charge is of 4.34% tax so now I wants to know whether it is right or wrong. I am just an employee there and I work for a salary but I want to know wether the salary I get will it be counted as halaal to me or not. Because every employee gets there salary from the profit which the company makes and they do their business in this way. The salary is jaaiz for me or should I leave the job?

Q: I have recently heard that in order for the sale of meat/fruit/ items sold by weight to be halaal the buyer either has to be present to see the item being weighed or has to ask for R200 worth of mutton instead of 1 kg of mutton. I order my meat from a butcher telephonically and order by weight as I am generally aware of the meat prices. This is then delivered to my house and later paid for. In this instance is the meat halaal as I have been told it is haraam?

Q: My family's financial condition is very severe nowadays. And here in India, I'm not getting a job anywhere in the companies because of my beard in spite of being highly qualified. My parents have some how gathered up money and also through a relatives' link have got me a job in U.S. And as I have to appear for visa interview, my parents have said me to trim the beard to less than a fistful length just for the visa interview and not to cut the beard afterwards as after reaching there it isn't going to be a problem inshallah. They're very sceptical that if I appear the visa interview without trimming, the interviewer might presume me to be a "radical Islamic fundamentalist" and reject me. And all the last pennies invested on me will turn to zilch. Also there isn't much hope here in India to get a job as I have tried to get one since last 3 years. Considering my financial condition, will it be allowed for me to trim my beard to less than a fistful length just for this occasion? Even I'm very reluctant to do it but my financial condition and the state of my family is such that I'm forced to entertain such vile ideas. Please advise me.

Q: A company where I shop at has given me a loyalty/rewards card whereby I earn points for products I buy and I can then use these points to buy other products. In other words these points are used to buy the products instead of cash. Is this permissible?

Q: I have taken a medical plan given directly by the hospital for my wife for the duration of her pregnancy. They provide this plan for each trimester. Can it be taken or is it the same as insurance?