Business and Dealings

Q: Nashua mobile offers the following contract:

Insure your SIM card effectively against theft, loss or damage with SIMSure. Pay R4.20 monthly to cover your SIM card, and if it is lost, stolen or damaged, Nashua Mobile will replace the SIM card at no extra charge. Why fork out a large lump sum to replace your SIM, when you can pay a small monthly premium for ongoing peace of mind? Terms and conditions apply.

Is this contract permissible or does it fall under the category of haraam insurance?

Q: Mrs J used to sell goods on behalf of Mr A, on a commission basis.  After months of this trading, Mr A's sons began selling other goods to Mrs J's customers, Mr A then made a statement that his 2 sons will give Mrs J R1k each a month because of her these goods where being sold.  For over a year this was being done, where Mrs J received R2k a month, and commission on the goods that she was to sell.  In April of this year (2011), Mrs J asked for her commission of R8k which was due to her, Mr A then stated that over these past months the R2k a month was for her commission on the arranged goods as he did not make any arrangements for the R1k a month from each son. Mr A's son even said he was not aware that this had changed until his dad told him not to give the commission.  What is the Shariah ruling according to this? Is Mr A liable to still pay Mrs J her commission that is due to her, and then request the change in her part of this agreement?

Q: I wanted to sell my old mobile phone, but it has musical ringtones on it which have been there from the beginning as factory settings and can’t be deleted. Can I sell the phone in spite of that? What about selling it to non-Muslims, even though they might do haraam with the phone?

Q: One person is asking for Help for his sons health. We gave him (not only me but so many others also gave) some money. Later we came to know that, that person is a fake and he did not have any kind of problems and he doesn't have a child as well. Due to his bad lucky one day, I saw him and spoke to him. He was earning money like this for many years and when I was asked him didn't you fear Allah he said yes I do. When I told him that earning money like this is haraam, he gave me a wired answer. After hearing the answer I was totally confused and I am totally confused. He said if he earned 1 lakh money that way, he will donate some amount as a Zakaat to purify the money. In this way he will be earning halaal income. 

Is this true? He said if your earn money unlawfully like interest and many other sources, if you give zakaat or donate some money, it will purify the money. Please guide me?

Q: One of my uncle earned his money by begging and now he started the hotel business. Obviously the total money he invested in the Hotel was came from his last job "Begging". But he did all the hard work to make him successful man in the hotel business. I know he was doing charity to purify the money. Is this acceptable and will purify the money? By starting the business through begging did he do any sin?

Q: Is it permissible to earn money through selling pornographic videos and pictures and subscriptions to adult sites? If it is not permissible, what should I do with the money?

Q: As part of our marketing campaign towards promoting some of our products, we are looking at having a competition whereby the participant will have to correctly answer some questions to be entered into a draw for some prizes.

In the past, the entries would be sent to us by post. Now, we are looking at adding another dimension in which the entries can be sent to us by SMS. There will not be any additional charge for submitting the entry nor is there any entry fee. The only charge will be the standard SMS charge that is payable to the phone company. Would this be permissible?

Q: I wholesale a lot of the things I sell .As I do not have capital to keep stock on hand, I have few items at home. The way I work is when customers order, they pay and then I get the stock.

The reason I do this is because I had incidents where orders were placed and I got the stock and the people never came to collect. Someone told me now that I can't do this because I can't sell something I don't have. However my customers know that I get their stock once the payment is done. I do this also so that I don't borrow money and can't pay it back if customer doesn't take. I'm not misleading them to think that I have the stock they know I will get it after payment. Am I doing wrong? First my customer becomes regular I don't force payment before I get order as I know they will pay. It’s mostly with first time customers that I do not know. I deal over the phone I'm not in direct contact with the person and sometimes people are not honest so I'm just safeguarding myself.

Q: What is the ruling regarding copyright, etc?

Q: Will it be permissible to sell the Mandela five rand coin for more than five rands? The value of the coins depends on the grading of the coin which has a picture of Mandela on it. Some fetch up to R10 000.