Business and Dealings

Q: Can you do a business transaction with your spouse? E.g. the husband wants to buy a car. Can the wife pay for it and sell it to her husband with a profit on the sale of the car?

Q: An employment agency fee structure is as follows: As long as the employee works for the employer the agency will receive a percentage. Is this correct?

Q: I'm a 22 year old graduate student studying for my Master's in Physiology. I live in Cleveland, Ohio, USA and I was wondering if someone would be able to answer my question. I'm currently $124,000 in debt due to government loans, which charge interest. I was under the impression that under situations of necessity, the haram becomes halal, however I recently found out that the definition of "necessity" means life or death. I took out the loans so that I could complete my bachelor's and master's degrees. I'm planning on going to medical school in Fall 2014 and I will be required to take out even more loans (with interest). I found out that there's a military service program (HPSP - health professions scholarship program) for medical students in which the military will pay all tuition and fees, along with a monthly stipend, but will require 4 years of military service as payback. This will mean I will have to live without my family for months at a time. I'm planning on doing this program so that I do not have to take out further riba-based loans, and so that I can begin to pay off my current loan with my monthly stipend. However, there are other non-military programmes out there as well, but they will only forgive my loan after 10 years, which means I will be paying interest for at least 10 years. Also, there are some residency programmes that offer signing bonuses and partial loan forgiveness that might reduce the time required to pay off my debt to 3-5 years. Dropping out of medical school doesn't seem like a good option since I will end up paying the interest on my loan anyway. Any career besides medicine will most likely pay less, and thus take longer to pay off my loan (resulting in more interest). In the meantime, is there anything else I should do? I don't come from a wealthy family, and there are hardly any interest-free student loans offered for regular middle-class families. I guess, I can only keep asking for Allah's forgiveness and pray for a way out of this debt.

I'm sure there are many other Muslim students in America in my situation. I appreciate any answer. 

Q: I would like to study and become and electrical engineer. I live in the UK and working in this field means doing the job in domestic homes, factories, outside work, in offices and business, construction sites etc. Also men and women mixing is unavoidable. There may be a time (whether it's continuous or not) when I have a female client for a home domestic job, or an office company where men and women mix and whose company is something haram or a mix of haram and halal, like insurance or entertainment, restaurant that may sell alcohol. 

My question is: Can I still do this work for clients or provide them my services who may sometimes be women or a business which is haram, as the work may be varied; so one day at someone's home who is a woman or a business whose dealings are either haram or mixed, and another day with men and with a business that is halal for example?  Do I need to be picky? My job would be to just provide them with a service and my intention would be to earn a living. Would my earning be haram in any way?

Q: I have a part time maid working at my house. I have fixed a monthly salary with her agreement. I don't cut her pay if she takes off if she is sick or if I don't call her for a day or two. But if she travels for 2 months to meet her family, am I obliged to pay her for those months or not, we don't have any contract and she travels on her own expenses. Are there any other rules of shariah related to part time help that we should know of? She attends to three different homes daily.

Q: I hope you're in the best of Imaan and health by the grace of Allah Ta'ala. I'm a graduate with finance and economics Alhamdulillah. However, I find myself getting into a job at a conventional bank. I'm in a training program with 1 of the big 4 banks in SA to be placed as a teller or consultant. I know the severity of being involved with interest in all angles of such a transaction, so my heart pains & I feel very unhappy about the road I'm on at the moment. Allah Ta'ala has made me very conscious of Him in my actions. I thus want out of this position & if I were in a position to wait for a permissible job, I would do that right now. My family is not in that position. My dad doesn't have employment & my mum is not well now. I'd really appreciate your invaluable advice on a way forward. May you also please tell me what I can recite for my mum's recovery from cancer?

Q: My brother was the breadwinner of our home and he passed away. As I am the eldest child, I have to go out and earn money for our family, even though I am a woman. I have taken a job where I am forced to interact with males. What should I do?

Q: I have an account with absa and one with Standardbank. I receive interest from one account because of excess funds and from time to time I am charged interest from the the other bank. For example, this past few months, I received interest of R500 from Absa but I was charged to pay interest to Standard bank to an amount of R600. My question is: Can I offset it from the interest that I was given by another bank?

Q: I am a married woman with two very young boys and a husband. I bought a flat before I got married and have a mortgage on it. So of course interest is involved. If I rent, I will not be able to afford it as I live in london and rents can be as high as 1000-1300 pounds a month on a two bedroom flat, which is what I would need with my boys. My husband and I both work 3 days each but my husband has been off sick for most part of this year so he gets a minimal wage each month. Statutory sick pay I think. In this case I need to know what to do Islamically. Do I continue paying my mortgage and ask Allah Subhana wa ta'aala for forgiveness? I wanted to sell it and try to buy a house as its not big enough for my family. I can try to get a re-mortgage on this flat and extend it or sell it and try to buy a house rather than a flat. This is really bothering me because I don't want a war with my creator.

Q: Is dealing in futures via the stock exchange halaal or not?