Business and Dealings

Q:

1. Say I place advertisements for commodities that I do not have possession of. The advert will not mention that I do not currently possess such items. Anyone seeing the advert the will be given the impression that I do possess such items, but no lie/deception will take place. Then when customers contact regarding these products I will take down their orders, but not take payment. Only once I purchase and physically possess these items from my supplier, I will then contact the customers regarding payment. Is this manner of advertising commodities that I do not have possession of permissible?

2. After paying the supplier for the product, the supplier sends it to me via a courier company. Whilst this product is still travelling to me across the country in the possession of the courier company, but nevertheless after I have paid for the product, can I sell such a product to a customer?

Q: I lost money from my hand bag which I failed to zip up properly when in the shop. Will this lost money be counted as a form of sadaqa for me?

Q: I need my cousin to invest 50 000 for a service that I offer which is finding clients for private electricity pay as you go meters. My cousin is asking me to pay him back with extra benefits (cash) which I think is above the loan amount. Is there a special deal we can make to meet his requirements because I really need this as capital or is borrowing from absa shariah loans a better way to go?

Q: My cousin needs to buy transportation for his business and needs money. He said he will give a fixed small amount of money every month from his income until he returns my complete money. He will not accept the money from me for free. So is it permissible for me to accept the extra money that he will be giving me?

Q: What are the rules and guidelines that have to be followed for a bank to be Shari’ah compliant? When dealing with the bank, how do we judge whether the dealing is permissible or not?

Q: I am a student of engineering and in the last summer vacation I worked in a computer repair shop and I earned money by assisting , installing programs and anti-viruses (paid and free versions ). I also unlocked mobile passwords (may be stolen or not, i was not sure), and broke the anti theft systems of iphones, nokia mobile phones. i earned for about 500$ and from that money i was confused whether it is halaal or haraam. I told the customers that the program was pirated version and still they paid me for installing it. Now is the earnings from installing pirated windows, anti-viruses, and programs haram and if it is then I have already spent all of that money maybe 100$ in mosque and charity, and 130$ watch for my dad ,120$ microwave, then I thought that giving 130$ from my dads money will make it ok to get his watch used by him, hence my father gave me 130$ and I gave that in charity. Now I have a guilty conscious whether my fathers watch is halaal or not, please guide me. Will giving the same amount of money in sadqah of the things I bought from that 500$ will make it halaal. There were times I took money for some services like fixing etc, hence not all money was from pirated software and neither all of it is from unlocking locked smartphones and neither all of it was from pure fixing.

Q: My mom is kafir and is asking about Islamic finance. I to be honest don't know much about this subject and have heard that it is not actually so Islamic after all. I live in Australia. Please advice on this matter.

Q: I do not stock a certain brand of permissible underwear products. When customers query regarding these products, I refer them to a non-Muslim competitor who stocks these brands. I have found out that this competitor is openly gay and has a husband. He also sells a number of lewd underwear products and gay lingerie. He does not have a physical store. His products are shipped to customers. Is it correct to refer people to purchase from such a person?

Q: A Muslim relative is known to have been involved in taking drugs and alcohol. I do not know the source of his income i.e. whether he even deals in drugs or not. He has been in and out of rehab many times. I do not know his current condition. He sends a gift for me.

(1) Is this gift permissible for me?

(2) If it is not permissible, must it be given in charity without the intention of reward?

Q: A young aalim mentioned that it is permissible to take back a gift, although undesirable and in the hadith it is likened to a dog swallowing it's own vomit Is this correct? If I give someone a gift and give full ownership to the person I can take it back at any time?