07-25-2004, 06:31 AM
<b>Trading and earning:</b>
It is forbidden to consume riba (interest, usury); to engage in transactions that involve unknown goods, cheating and deception; to sell sheep in return for meat; to sell left-over water; to sell dogs, cats, blood, intoxicants, pork, idols, animal semen used for breeding purposes; to accept the price of a dog, because the price of anything that Allaah has forbidden is also forbidden, whether one is buying or selling.
It is forbidden to artificially inflate the price of a product which one has no intention of buying, as is done at many auctions.
It is forbidden to conceal the faults of a product when selling it; to sell anything after the second call to prayer on Friday; to sell something which is not in one's actual possession; to sell something before taking possession of it; to sell gold for gold or silver for silver, except like for like.
It is forbidden for a man to outbid his brother or undercut his brother; to sell fruits before it is known for sure that they are free of faults; to cheat in weights and measures; to hoard goods; to go out and intercept travellers coming from elsewhere for the purpose of trade – one should wait until they reach the marketplace, because this is fair and is in the interests of all concerned.
It is forbidden for a city-dweller to sell on behalf of a Bedouin (such as a resident of a city or country acting as an agent for someone who has come from outside) – he should leave him to conduct business on his own terms.
It is forbidden to sell the skin of an animal one has offered in sacrifice; for a person who has shares in a plot of land or a palm tree, etc., to sell his share without first offering it to his partners; to earn a living by means of the Qur’aan (like those who recite the Qur’aan for people and ask for payment in return); to wrongfully consume the property of orphans; to gamble; to engage in extortion; to offer or accept bribes; to steal; to pilfer anything from the war-booty, because this is stealing from the wealth of all the people.
It is forbidden to seize people’s wealth by force, or to take it with the intention of destroying it; to withhold from the people the things that are their due; to conceal lost property that one has found; to take lost property, unless one is the rightful owner; to cheat in any way; for a Muslim to take anything from his brother’s property, except with his consent, and whatever is taken by embarrassing a person is haraam.
It is forbidden to accept a gift in reward for interceding; and to accumulate wealth and distribute it in different parts of the world in such a way that a person becomes overburdened with it and does not remember Allaah.