Business and Dealings

Fixing an Amount of Profit

Q: People invest money in a business that they call mudhaarabah. They give money to a company with the agreement that they will receive R8000 if they deposit R100 000, and they can take out their R100 000 at any time. What is mudhaarabah, and is this agreement permissible or not?

Government assistance

Q: Government employees in India and may be in other countries too, receive monthly pension post their retirement from active service, from the government funds till their death. Is pension, which is an income received from a source without having worked for it, haraam or halaal, going by the Islamic Ruling?

Life insurance

Q: Is it permissible to use Life insurance or medical insurance by LIC (which is run by the Government of India) like we use other benefits which the Government provides (e.g: Government provides money to people who are injured in an accident or for treatment. etc)

Business proposal

Q: I have been offered a business proposal to be a shareholder in a new company by a businessman who is going to be the financier of the business. The offer is as follows:

(1) Better my current salary where I am currently working.

(2) 30% shares of the business.

He is also basing this decision on my knowledge and contacts that I have on the nature of this business. We have both agreed to have everything in writing at the right authorities. Please advise on how I should go about doing it.

Partner Renting a premises in which he is a shareholder, and determining his rental

Q: There are four equal partners in a building. One partner is renting a premises within this building. This partner does not want the annual increase in rental to apply to him as it applies to all the other tenants. Is it permissible for this partner to enjoy this advantage over the other partners and the other tenants?

Working as a clearing agent

Q: I have just engaged in seaport clearing agency insha Allah with the aim of observing Shariah and sunnah. But I'm faced with the following questions.

1. Short payment to the government custom duty is common. Is it allowed? Short payment is paying for HONDA 1999 instead of 2003. Majority are involved in this  even the custom officers overlook this.  Contracting the clearing out makes the case worse as they will hide the short payment.

2. Also in the clearing offices people pay some amount that are already normal things over there but are without receipt. Are we allowed to
pay such money when we don't have options and its already their system. eg vehicle examnation officer will not leave his office unless such amount is paid. No special treatment will be given for ones job except that its their norm.

3. Police on the way also ask for money even after you have correct papers. Can we give them money?

Working in hotels

Q: I live in India. I am a hotelier completed years diploma in 2001. Since then have been working in hotels. Alhumdulilah I have been careful not to work in any hotel which has a bar. At 2008 I gave up working at hotels and at present I teach in a culinary institute teaching front office / house keeping / environment. At the same time I also got the opportunity to be  consultant for upcoming projects (hotels/resorts). As a policy I have
Been choosy not to be involved in any hotel or resort having bar. At present I am a consultant for a resort owned by a Muslim in kerala/india, it
Does not have a bar at the same time clients very often bring their own liquor and they consume. As well group travellers who come for corporate
Meetings they too set up bar counters and consume liquor as a group. The Resort employees end up serving them and helping them to set up bar counter. The resort does not charge anything for setting up the bar or lending the Staff members. In some rare cases the clients send resort employees to fetch liquor from outside. Again the resort does not charge the client. My role normaly is to spend four full day time in the resort morning 10 a.M. To 05 A.M. and four evenings from for average of 3 hours. I streamline the operations of the resort and recruit employees and train them. I use this money from the resort to pay back the loan taken from a friend for my sisters marriage. Can you advice whether I should do it or stop as per Shar'ia?

Working as a research analyst in a stock brokerage firm

Q: I wanted to ask a question about the job of research analyst in a stock brokerage firm or mutual fund. My degree major is finance so I want to know if working as a research analyst for any stock market company is halaal? Basically, the job is to do research on companies, look at their financial statements and analyse their performance and then give a recommendation on whether to buy the stock or sell it. I understand that investing in Shari'ah compliant stocks are allowed but I won't be investing. I'll just be researching and giving opinions. Also, I won't be researching on banks and insurance companies whose business is unlawful. So is this job halaal?

Forced to pay interest

Q: Is it haram to pay interest is one is forced to? For example if the government charges you a tax penalty and includes interest in it, is it haram
for you to pay it? What if you're writing a check on someone else's behalf, is it haram for you to write it?