The Ruling on Benefitting from a Bank’s Debit & Credit Card Rewards’ Program

January 20, 2023 by Sajid Umar Leave a Comment

Question:

What is the Ruling on receiving rewards banks give to their depositors for using their debit and credit cards?

Answer:

باسم الله والحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن والاه

Firstly, regarding the rewards in relation to debit cards; the relationship between a depositor and a bank, from an Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) standpoint, as per the view of the majority of contemporary Islamic Scholarship, is one of a lender (loaner) and borrower (loanee), with the depositor, in effect, being the lender, and the bank, in effect, being the borrower.

As a result, according to Islamic Law, when someone establishes a bank account and deposits money into it, they are actually lending the bank the money because the bank does not place the money in a safe-keeping box for the depositor, as should be the case in a safe-keeping transaction, but instead uses it for other purposes, with a promise to pay back the deposited amount to the depositor upon a set of agreed terms and conditions.

Islamic Ruling on Receiving Referral Fees offered by Businesses as part of their Referral’s Program?

January 19, 2023 by Sajid Umar 2 Comments

Question:
What is the ruling on receiving referral fees offered by businesses to their clients as part of their referral’s program?

Answer:

باسم الله والحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن والاه

May Allah reward you for your question.

In terms of the program in question; then as long as there is no fee to be paid to be a part of the program, and the relationship between the business offering the referral reward fee and the customer acting as the referrer is not one of a lender and borrower from an Islamic Jurisprudence perspective (for example: NOT between a bank and its customers), the referral fee paid to the referrer will be deemed PERMISSIBLE, and the contractual arrangement between the two parties will be equivalent to the Ja’aalah contract discussed in the books of Islamic Jurisprudence, which is considered permissible by the vast majority of the Islamic Jurists (may Allah have mercy upon them).

Regarding the rewards given by the business to the referee for signing up for the referral program, this is also ACCEPTABLE and will be viewed as a gift from one party to the other from the perspective of Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh), provided that the two parties do not have a lender-borrower relationship as previously stated.

Q&A: Is using photoshop or other similar programs to beautify photographs of the living permissible?

May 7, 2015 by Sajid Umar 4 Comments

Question:

Is using photoshop or other similar programs to beautify photographs of the living permissible? Using these software products is something I am good at and now have been told it is impermissible. Some lecturers are using images of themselves which from my experience are photoshopped. Is there a difference of opinion about this?