Q: I work for a company that imports fabric. In order to avoid paying the full customs amount, we change the amount of goods declared. For example, if there is a roll of fabric that is 150m in length, we tear the label off and write 50 yards by hand. Is this allowed?
Q: Is it permissible to use interest money to buy food for pets?
Q: There's a guy we know who is 34 (almost 35) year's old, single (never married), and has spent decades unemployed. He has also never had any real stability in his life as he has come from a broken home yet has managed to get some education, though while studying his studies was invariably being interrupted and disturbed by domestic circumstances and so his education wasn't of a decent quality. He cannot do anything about this now because his circumstances are still not ideal for him to re-study or train to be something else, and he would rather find work so that he can start living a normal life.
He has intermittently worked but only for very short stints throughout his life with the longest period being one job for 6 months and the rest between one and two months, but the gaps between them were significantly long, usually over a year or more. He has had many interviews but none successful apart from the unskilled, menial jobs he had managed to get, which were either temporary, subjecting him to unbearable environmental conditions, or haram. The system in the country he lives in is set up to punish people who are unemployed for substantial periods by making it virtually impossible for them to find work, intentionally creating an underclass.
As a result of this chronic unemployment, he has become seriously depressed and has been suffering mentally. In addition to his unemployment, it
certainly doesn't help being born and brought-up in a country that has ostracised and ousted him based on his ethnic, religious, and social background, and this has been among the factors that have made him feel compelled to leave that country.
As for his financial circumstances, his income is very low (unemployment benefit) and his rent is very high, so he is barely surviving, and has to
depend on people giving him food regularly, and with the economy not getting better, it can only get worse for him. He has very little saved, which a large percentage of will have to go to a debt because of his former flat mate who wasn't able to pay his rent, which led to both of them getting evicted. Although there is no immediate requirement to pay what's owed, he wants to pay asap because he doesn't want to remain in debt.
Being unemployed for so long, the government has forced him onto what they call "work programme", which hasn't helped him whatsoever find work even though it was set up to do so. However, what they call an "employment councillor" had mentioned to him that he doesn't know how to lie and that he, the employment councillor, got that job through lying, alluding that not lying was a factor that was preventing him from finding work. The employment councillor was not the only person who had mentioned lying as a successful tactic to gaining employment: a colleague of his once told him something along the lines of "it seems that you have to lie to get a job", and an acquaintance, who is also a teacher, advised him to say that he had the experience employers required as they wouldn't check up on it, after coming back from working abroad.
Recently, well just under a year ago, he did a course in teaching English that was free for him as he was and still is unemployed, so he could teach
abroad, specifically Saudi Arabia. He had heard that it was easy to get a job as a teacher there and they pay relatively well. Unfortunately, when he
had finished his course and started to look for work he noticed that all the jobs required 1 or more year's experience but most required at least two
year's or more.
It dawned on him that most of those people he knew or heard of going to Saudi Arabia and other countries to teach must have lied to get those jobs.
Countries like Saudi Arabia are investing heavily on foreign staff to teach their people; this also includes giving money to specific nations by
intentionally employing their citizens and promoting their universities, certificates, and citizenships.
He is committed to the religion and doesn't want to do anything haram but he does not understand why it has been so difficult for him to live and find work. We know that under certain exceptional circumstances it is permissible to lie; so my question is: does the circumstances of this man qualify as one of those instances whereby it is permitted to lie, so as to obtain and maintain employment and nothing more?
Q: I would like to know what is the sha'ree ruling on e-bucks. Many family people use it and I want to show them the sha'ree ruling.
Q: I have recently built a shopping centre and I have acquired a chain store as my tenant on the same premises. I have two other smaller stores, one being occupied and the other vacant. The tenant has requested that we lease out the other store to them to open up their own liquor store. Is it permissible to have them as my tenant and to collect the rent. Is this allowed in Islam?
Q: I am getting a job offer from company which provide medicine for birth controls and abortion and other medicines, shall I go for the job? Is it
permissible to promote products like these?
Q: I live in a country were car insurance is required by law. If one does not have car insurance, they will be issued a citation until they attain the car
insurance. Is it permissible for one to have car insurance in this circumstance?
Q: I would like to know which Azaan is referred to in the Quranic ayat which prohibits us from conducting any business after the Azaan of Jumuah, is it the first Azaan or the second which is given infront of the mimbar? Secondly what are the consequences with regards to the wealth earned after
the Azaan has gone?
Q: I am a graphic designer and I want to find out whether it is permissible to design logos for:
1. A bed and breakfast that will also use the logo for the wine and sausages that they produce. (In Italy, there are many bed and breakfasts located in the countryside that also produce and sell typical countryside products such as wines, sausages, etc.)
2. Non-Muslim clothing brands.
3. Can I design business cards and advertising material for businesses that may also sell haraam products?
4. Finally, is it permissible to design logos containing Christian religious symbols (such as the Christian cross, which is found in the flag and coat of arms of many Italian municipalities, or the cross of pharmacies)?
Q: A landlord makes an estimate of costs for effecting repairs to damages caused by a tenant on his property. Upon receipt of the claim from the landlord, the tenant makes payment without question. Subsequently, the landlord effects repairs to all the damage but the total cost turns out to be
much less that what the landlord had billed the tenant. Is the landlord obliged to refund the tenant the excess recovered?