Fathwa - Wages and duration of labor contract must be specified

Question
Dear Shaykh, Assalaamhu Alaikum My question is about working for my
mother who has a house and wishes to rent roomsin it. She agreed, and
as I need to earn a proper salary/wage, she agreed to pay me every
month from the rental profits, provided I look after the running of
the property. Mother has said that she doesn't want any of the profit
and would allow me to have all of it as a wage in return to fulfilling
certain work conditions i.e. deal with estate agents or advertise for
tenants. Deal with any repairs such as calling out electricians,
plumbers etcand paying them out of the rental profits. Deal with
paying bills out of the rental profits. And dealing with tenants'
complaints and ensuring that they have what they need. The amount of
rental income she could receive could vary in the year according to
how many rooms we fill in or how long the tenants stay. Some months
she may get £600 and other months it could be £1200 and then other
months it could be £2400 or even more etc. The problem here is how
should a work contract in Islam bemade between my mother and I? Should
there be a defined fixed period of a beginning and an end stipulated
(and renewed if necessary), and should she pay me a fixed wage/salary
as opposed to me accepting any odd amount that we are left with at the
end of the month for the same conditions required of me? And also
there may be times where nothing is required of me i.e. a month or two
may pass and the tenants have no need of me or there are no repairs to
be made or no bill to pay etc. Am I still entitled to my wage/salary
for this period within the contract? Is it permissiblefor me to except
whatever amount we receive in total profit at the end of the month,
every month i.e. £600 one month, £1800 the next month etc. for my
services on the basis that my mother has agreed to not wanting any of
the profit and has said that I can take all of it? Please advise me as
to how I should go about all of this insha'Allah.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify
that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad,
is His Slave and Messenger.
There is nothing wrong with working with your mother in running the
house for her, however, there should be a fixed fee and it is not
appropriate for it to be unknown, i.e. to be what remains after paying
billsand the like from the rental income from the rooms. In addition,
this income is not stable for itmay be little or much.
Anyway, you can agree with your mother to get a fixed salary and if
whatremains from the rent money exceeds it, she can give it to you as
a giftif she wills. Also, you haveto agree with her on a fixed period
of the contract and it may be onan annual or monthly basis, i.e. that
a specific sum of money for each month or so.
Allaah Knows best.

Fathwa - An item that involves Riba in PayPal and Alipay user agreement

Question
Assalamo alikom When I read PayPal and Alipay user aggrement I found
thoes items are not clear to me: PayPal 4.1 Balances. If you hold a
balance, PayPal will hold your funds in pooled accounts separate from
its corporate funds, and it will not use your funds for its operating
expenses or for any othercorporate purposes. PayPal will not
voluntarily make your funds available to its creditors in the event of
bankruptcy. You will not receive interest or other earnings on the
amounts in your balance. PayPal may receive interest on amounts that
PayPal holds on your behalf. Youagree to assign your rights to PayPal
for any interest derived from your funds. Alipay (Escrow) 9. General
Provisions 9.6 Alipay shallhave the right to assign this Agreement
(including all of our rights, titles, benefits, interests, and
obligationsand duties in this Agreement) to any of ouraffiliates and
to any successor in interest. Alipay may delegate certain of Alipay
rights and responsibilities under this Agreement to independent
contractors or other third parties. User may not assign, in whole or
part, this Agreement to any personor entity. So is this deal are Riba
(interest) ? kind regards
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify
that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that
MuhammadisHis slave and Messenger.
This condition is considered a forbidden Riba (usury and/or interest)
condition if the company deposits the balance of its customers in
Riba-based banks, and this is what appears fromthe question.
This company explicitly states that it receives interests from the
amounts deposited on behalf of the client. Under this agreement, the
client agrees to allocate to the company his rights in those interests
resulting from his balance (money deposited in the bank). Of course
these interests are not resulting from an Islamic Mudhaarabah or a
legitimate transaction whereas it is saved in a Riba-based bank as we
have mentioned. For more benefit on Mudhaarabah, please refer to Fatwa
148103.
The fact that the owner of the money does not take the interests
resulting from that for himself does not exempt him from sin, whether
hetakes the interest himself or that he leaves it to the company under
that condition.
Allaah Knows best.

Fathwa - Criteria of currency exchange online

Question
Assalam-u-Alaikum! I am doing Online E-currency Money Exchange
Businessand Brokery. Online E-currency exchange including these online
accounts or payment processor: Liberty Reserve, Payza & Paypal etc.
Liberty Reserve is an online e-currency account or payment processor
where we can send and receive money only but cannot deposit money
directly to our Liberty Reserve Account &cannot cashout directly from
Liberty Reserve Account to our bank account or credit or debitcard
instead we can contact any online international exchanger for cashout
money recommended by Liberty Reserve or a local exchanger living in
our country. Its mean, in bothcases, cashout and deposit money, we
must have to contact any exchanger whether it is international
exchanger or local exchanger of our country or any individual, and
both international and national exchanger will take some fees in order
to cashout or deposit your money to your BankAccount, Card or Western
Union etc as per request. This is Liberty Reserve Terms of Service.
Now, this is what I do: 1) For example: Dollar ($) rate inPakistan,
today is 100RS. Someone want to deposit$100 in his liberty
reserveaccount or want to purchase $100 of liberty reserve, he contact
me to buy and I have a local exchanger of liberty reserve, which sell
me 1 Dollar($) per 103RS ($ today is 100RS but he selling in 103RS by
making 3RS his profit, by considering all of his feesand taxes as he
deposit by some exchanger to hisliberty reserve account). Now, I
purchase $100 in 103 RS rate and sell to another party $100 in 106RS
rate, by making 3RS profit per Dollar($). Now, tell me is it profit
permissible for me? Can I continue my this exchange business? And
Ihave party, which can sellme daily $100 in 95RS and I can sell to
another party in 100RS by makingmy profit. So, Can I continue this?
Both parties seller and buyer know the current rates oftoday of
Dollar($). I am hardly waiting for my answer... Jazakallah
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify
that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad,
is His Slave and Messenger.
If the transaction of exchanging currencies and selling them for
eachother whether between you and the company or individuals adhered
to the Islamic guidelines, then there is no blame onyou regarding that
transaction and the profits you get from it. The most important of
such guidelines is that the exchange should takeplace in the same
meeting of concluding the contract hand-to-hand, physically or in a
non-physical way, and amongst its non-physical forms is what was
stated in the statement of the Islamic Fiqh Council:
"Among the non-physical forms of receiving the value that are
permissible are the following:
1- Transferring money into the agent's account in the following ways:
a. When it is deposited into the agent's account, directly or via wire transfer.
b. When the agent makesan immediate currency exchange contract with
the bank in case of buying one currency for another on behalf of the
agent.
c. When the bank – on the instructions of the agent – deducts a sum
ofmoney from another account in a different currency, whether it is in
the same bank or another bank, to the benefit of the agent or another
beneficiary. The banks should pay attention to ensuring that they act
in accordance with the principles of Islamic exchange. The delay in
transferring the money before the beneficiary is actually able to take
possession of it may be overlooked for the usual amount of time that
such transfers take in the banking system, but it is not permissible
for the beneficiary to dispose of the currency during this grace
period, until the bank transaction takes effect in the sense that it
becomes possible to actually receive that sum of money. [End quote]
Also, it is stipulated whenselling currency for the same currency to
be of equal amounts along with what we have stated that the exchange
must take place in the same meeting (i.e. being hand to hand).
However, if the currencies are different such as selling aDollar for
Rupee, then it is only stipulated that theexchange must take place in
the same meeting, and not be of equal amounts. Accordingly, there is
no blame on the company if it sells 1 Dollar for 103 Rupees rate, and
there is no blame on you if you sell 1 Dollar for 106 Rupees rate or
more, even if that is greater than its value in the market because the
most important thing is that the exchange takes place in the same
meeting if currencies are different. We have pointed out the
guidelines of dealing in currency exchange online in Fatwa 88034,
soplease refer to it.
Allaah Knows best.

Evolutionary claims aboutantibiotic resistance and immunity

Evolutionists propose that the resistance that bacteria develop
against antibiotics, and the immunity that some insects develop
against DDT are evidence for evolution. They claim that these are
examples of acquired resistance and immunity, brought about by
mutations thattook place in the living things exposed to these
substances.
In both bacteria and insects, these characteristics are not properties
that were subsequently acquired against DDT or antibiotics as a result
of mutations. Some of these living things possessed these
characteristics beforethe population as a whole was subjected to
antibiotics or DDT. Although considered a pro-evolutionistperiodical,
Scientific American, makes the following confession in its March 1998
issue: "Many bacteria possessed resistance genes even before
commercial antibiotics came into use. Scientists do not know exactly
why these genes evolved and were maintained."
As may be seen, genetic information that procures resistance had
existed prior to exposure to antibiotics and cannot be explained by
evolutionists; this proves the falsity of their claim.
The fact that resistant bacteria were present years before the
discovery of antibiotics is expressed inMedical Tribune, itself a
remarkable scientific publication, in its December 29, 1998 issue. The
article is concerned with an interesting event: In a study carried out
in 1986, the corpses of some sailors who fell sick and died during a
polar expedition in 1845 were found preserved in ice. Some common
19thcentury bacteria types were found in the corpses and when they
were tested, researchers were surprised to find that they were
resistant to many modern antibiotics that were not developed until the
20thcentury Ce.
It is a well-known fact in medical circles that this sort of
resistance was present in many bacteria populations prior to the
discovery of penicillin. Therefore, it is absolutely deceptive to
postulate the resistance of bacteria as an evolutionary development.
How, then, does the so-called process of "bacterialacquisition of
immunity" take place?
Resistance of Bacteria to Antibiotics
Bacteria have numerous variations within their types. Some of these
variations harbour the genetic information to be resistant to
different drugs, chemicals or other substances. When the bacteria as a
whole group are exposed to a certain type of drug, those that are not
resistant to that drug are destroyed whereas those that areresistant
survive and get the chance to reproduce more. The non-resistant
bacteria soon disappear from the population and are replaced by those
that are resistant, which then rapidly reproduce. Eventually we end up
with a bacterial colony made up only of individuals that are resistant
to that particular antibiotic and from then on, that particular
antibiotic becomes ineffective against this bacteria type. The crucial
point is that the bacteria are still the same bacteria and the species
is still the same species.
It is important to note here that, contrary to the claims of
evolutionists, there is no evolutionary process taking placein which
non-resistant bacteria mutate and convert into resistantbacteria
strains by being exposedto antibiotics and thus acquire new genetic
information. What istaking place is only a weeding-out of particular
bacteria variations from a population of resistant and non-resistant
variations that co-existed from the very beginning. This does not mark
the emergence of a new bacteria species: it is not "evolution". On the
contrary, one or more of the existing variationsdisappear, which is
quite the reverse process since genetic information is being lost.
Immunity of Insects to DDT
Another issue that evolutionists seek to distort and offer as evidence
for evolution is the seemingly "acquired" immunity of insects of DDT
that we mentioned earlier. This immunitydevelops in the same manner as
bacterial resistance does to antibiotics. Immunity to DDT can by no
means be said to have been"acquired" by individual members of the
insect population. Some of the insects were already immune to DDT.
After the discovery of DDT, insectsthat were exposed to this chemical
but did not have this inherent immunity were eliminated from the
population, which is to say, they became extinct. Those that were
immune-- and originally these were relatively few in the population --
increased in time. Eventually, the entire insect species became a
population whose members were all immune. When that happened, DDT
ceased to be effective against this species of insect. This phenomenon
is commonly, but misleadingly, referred to as "insects' acquisition of
immunity to DDT".
Evolutionist biologist Francisco Ayala admits this fact by saying:
"The genetic variants required forresistance to the most diverse kinds
of pesticides were apparently present in every one of the populations
exposed to these man-made compounds."
Being well aware that the majority of people do not have anopportunity
to learn about microbiology nor do researches in it, evolutionists
employ plain deceit where the issues of resistance and immunity are
concerned. They frequently bring up these examples as very important
evidence for evolution.It should be clear by now, that neither the
resistance of bacteria to antibiotics nor the immunity of insects to
DDT provides evidence for evolution. What theydo provide, are good
examples ofthe distortion and hoodwinking methods that evolutionists
have recoursed to in order to justify their theory.
To conclude, one clearly sees the falsehood the evolutionists are upon
and this leads to the fact that Allaah is the Creator of all things
and not evolution.