Islamic Perspective

Qn: Is network Marketing or to be precise the business of Gold Quest permissible in Islam?

Responding to the question, Dr. Monzer Khaf, Scholar in Islamic Economics & Financial Expert, states the following:

"If the object of sale is not gold, silver or currencies, doing business in this chain pyramid style is permissible provided full disclosure is given to customers. In most cases there is no complete disclosure. The amount of commission you get from sales to the level following, you (your customers) and the amount you get from what you called indirect sale (the customers of your customers) MUST BE KNOWN TO THEM. This kind of sale is clearly based on the Amana Sale. It requires full disclosure in accordance with the Shari'ah.

However, gold, silver and currencies are something different. Their exchange is called in the Shari'ah a Sarf contract. In Sarf contract there must be IMMEDIATE DELIVERY AND PAYMENT AT THE VERY TIME OF SALE CONTRACT.

Therefore, sale of gold, silver and currency cannot be done by proxy. Internet sale of these items requires shipment on the same day of charging the credit card or the purchaser account. If shipment is done on the same day it is permissible."

Shedding more light on the issue with special reference to clarifying the Islamic ruling regarding the legitimacy of the transaction carried out by a company called "Gold Quest", Dr. `Ali Muhyy Ad-Din Al-Qurra Dhaghi, professor of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Shari`ah Qatar, states:

"In fact, Gold Quest Company is mainly involved in trading in gold via the internet. This trade is carried out in a certain way that goes against the teachings and the stipulations of the Shari`ah. Here are the reasons behind this saying:

1. The transaction involves delaying the delivery of the gold for a certain period after making the deal in which a buyer pays a certain amount of money for a quantity of gold that he receives after a span of time. This really contradicts the stipulation of the Sunnah. In his Hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says: “Sell not gold for gold or silver for silver unless when you do so on the spot and unless they are equal in quantity.”

Based on the above Hadith, Muslim jurists stipulate that, in order to be valid, the delivery should be made on the spot without delaying any of the two objects of the transaction.

2. This transaction does not cope with the main objectives of the Shari`ah that aim at securing the social and economic welfare of Muslims. The very aim of these transactions is the benefit of a group of brokers who actively work for the marketing of their goods.

3. The price of a gold mould is very expensive and there is a form of defraud. The gold sold in these transactions has no historical value or certain advantage.

Based on the above mentioned, it has become crystal clear that such a transaction is no more than a form of devouring people’s money without right. Almighty Allah says: “O ye who believe! Squander not your wealth among yourselves in vanity, except it be a trade by mutual consent, and kill not one another. Lo! Allah is ever Merciful unto you."" (An-Nisaa’: 29)

Almighty Allah knows best.

Needs feed back or some thoughts any body?

Hope you all have heard CPM Leader V. S. ACHUTHANANTHAN'S remarks about Smart City, upcoming in Kochi. He wants all the people behind this project in jail.

Also Mr. O. RajaGopal has made a statement that (Deepika.com, 13th May 2005) the smart city would open doors for Terrorists from Dubai to our country. He has also "discovered" that the Smart City proposal has come from a Private firm in Dubai, who caters to Terrorists. Note that he made this statement when everybody knows that this project is a proposal from Dubai Govt. and it is going to be a tie up between Kerala Govt. and Dubai Govt. Authorities.

Also in this regard Mr Achuthananthan had made a statement that "If Dubai Govt is the partner in this project, our Central Govt. must be informed that a country's representative is coming and proper sanction to be taken from the Central Govt." (He don't know even now, Dubai is a state in UAE, not a country)

This kind of politicians will ruin our State. They have no vision for future. Its all cheap political games for their gain. If the project comes up, Kochi will be the most happening place in India. At least 20,000 people will get a job out there directly. All major IT gaints, like Microsoft, IBM, CISCO will have their offices in the proposed project.

Also when the BMW (Automotive Gaints) came to our state for starting their plant in Kerala (Kochi), Kerala was totally dead for two days (Unfortunately on the same day they came) due to HARTHAL. Even they tried to set up the plant in Kerala itself due to so many positive factors they had seen in Kerala. (Cheap labour - compared to Germany, Access to the port than any other states, and so many other factors) At last what happened, they flew away with their life in hand to Karnataka who welcomed with their whole heart. Also you must know that Tamil Nadu is welcoming all foriegn companies that visits India to start the projects. One more thing in this regard, when Microsoft Chairman visited India, he went to only one state - Andhra Pradesh (Chandrababu Naidu). All knows the reason!!!

He wants all Keraliates to be remained in bullock cart period. Then only he will get the supporters to kill and die for the party.

Dear Friends, you know something about that great leader.

He has a son called Arun Kumar. He did his MCA from TKM College of Engg, Kollam. He was one of the worst students in his class. After completion of his course, he was made as the MD of Coir Coprn, Kerala. You may be wondering what relation Computers have with Coir. But at that time CPM was in power. So they are both related. After that he went to DUBAI as an IT Consultant.

So what now V.S. needs is, to make his son as the IT director of Smart City, when the next Govt. comes into power. But Smart City authorities had out rightly declined that he will never become the director. So our leader want to scrap the entire project.

Its normal that parents loves their wards. But why should they sacrifice a nations interest for thier gains?

Another thorn is KARUNAKARAN. He had made crores of Rupees by looting our state. His son Murali has more than 1000 acres of land in Kerala and has stakes in almost all buildings in Calicut.

Next comes PINARAYI VIJAYAN. His daughter did her education from one of the leading institution in Tamil Nadu, which takes heavy capitation from students (Owned by Matha Amruthanandamayi). You should know that this same Pinarayi does not want Private Eductaion institutions in Kerala, because they take capitation from students. But he can send his daughter to other states and can provide good education to his child. What is their problem if somebody spends money for capitation for their children and make them study. These people don't have any problem if this lakhs and lakhs of money goes out of Kerala. The educations institutions are spending crores to set up buildings and facilities to teach the students and don't they have the right to recoup at least a part of that each year. Even they don't think the no. of opportunities have been increased for the Kerala students to study in the our state for Engg and Medical courses.

Dear Friends, these politicians are making all of us big fools. They all want their pockets to be filled; their children should get good eductaion and jobs, but least bothered about the common man of our state. God gave our state everything, but did not give us someone to guide us properly.

Its time to revolt against these kind of dirty politicians. Do it now before its too late. Let us give our children a beautiful place to live, which we all dream about. 'Pen is mightier than Sword'. So forward this mail to all Mallus you know. Lets start a new revolution.

Our motto is 'KICK ALL THESE LEADERS OUT OF KERALA".

Tips worth millions but for free he he he (against Gold Quest)

Some thoughts on the subject

""The Arab news clippling has been advertised as a Fatwa by many of our freinds that our business is Haraam and I dont blame them because it really looks like one on the face of it. But to know the exact stupidity in the clipping we will have to go a bit deep into it and that is what I am trying to do in this mail.""

It was also mentioned in the arab news same clipping by the end

"It should be noted that the company may produce a ruling, or a fatwa, saying that its business is acceptable in Islam. I have not seen the ruling, but we should always remember that a scholar gives his ruling according to the question put to him. It may be that the question which was put to the scholar concerned was deliberately ambiguous, or it might have withheld certain material facts, or it may be that the company produces only a part of the ruling that suggests that its business is acceptable. Before judging whether this ruling is correct and relevant to the business in question, we need to look at the question put to the scholar and the ruling given in full."

As it says in the above paragraph a fatwa can be produced only after learning what is this all about. may be he was answering to a qn or just answered based on the details given to him as it says above. even though stupid as an eg , one eg i can give as to the extend of study these scholars do to produce a fatwa is that they are still studying for 10 years wether to grand women the right to drive in saudi arabia. so no one just conjures up a fatwa, its given after serious study. the GQ co may have presented certain facts and asked to give a ruling and based on that may be some one has given a ruling.

""It aims to sell a product for a high price, and wants the customer to sell similar products to others, giving him a commission when he gets a particular number of customers. As per the Merriam Webster Dictionary, Numismatic means : the study or collection of coins, tokens, and paper money and sometimes related objects (as medals). ""

The article said "a product" and nothing about numismatic coins. thanks for the elaborate meaning of the word but why are we hung up on coins alone , this particular co has a range of products all of which is high priced.

Getting back to coins how many of these coins are in circulation or how many of these so calles exclusive range of products are in circulation. we should understand by simple sense of mind that if some thing is readily available in market on demand its not at all a collectors item or some thing "exclusive" where as lets say a ming vase only 4 or 5 of its kind is what is called as exclusive or collectors item. the auction of gold quest coin and watch on ebay gave the result - no bidders :)

http://www.ebay.com.sg/viItem?ItemId=3974313683http://www.ebay.ph/viItem?ItemId=4986272176

In the sites provided for checking the price of numismatic coins i found that the prices are more or may be same as that of gq but there is one thing that is also there in that site. there are only 750 or some times less than 1000 issues of the coins and more over the coins mentioned in some are from the 18th century which makes it more valuable. when does the gq coin which is minted each set not less than 10000 nos even become numismatic or a prices pocession. how numismatic is that ???? and some of the coins are issued by some bogus or just an organization (eg:Knights of Malta-Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem) for coins of kennedy etc. how can they issue these coins and be numismatic or valuable !!! these coins should be related to the person in some way that makes it unique and worth collecting.

"Numismatics

In April 1997 the "king of American coins"--an 1804 U.S. silver dollar--commanded $1,815,000, a record price for a single coin at public auction. The dollar, one of 15 known, was part of a complete collection of U.S. coins that had been assembled by the late Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr., of Baltimore, Md. Eliasberg's 1885 trade dollar sold for $907,500, a record for the series."

The answer for this eg is found in the eg itself. The particular coin in subject was one of 15 known, so naturally a collectors irtem as to GQ coins they are mass produced in 10000 and i doubt if it ever will fetch at least the same price they spend buying it.

Recruit and Refer

Predictable difference between the literary meanings but when it comes to GQ its the same.i refer some one to the co so that the co can take him into co's commission scheme just like you. if this is not prospecting for joining the co which is also the same meaning as "recruit" or as we say in recruiting circles the "word of mouth recruiting". surprised that they cannot see the similarity here.

""We do not "Recruit" people. We "Refer" people. Recruit is normally what is done in Pyramid schemes which are illegal and you pay and dont get any product. You pay for joining the business and you are paid money by the company for making people pay money for joining the business but the new members will not get any product for the payment.""

Most of the pyramid schemes offer their people a product to join the business and that too at a hyped up price . co's which do network marketing are those companies who need to make a lot of profit in small period of time, which according to business laws is unethical and thats why GQ is banned in many countires by the chamber of commerce.

Pyramid schemes, also referred to as "chain referral", "binary compensation" or "matrix marketing" schemes, are marketing and investment frauds which reward participants for inducing other people to join the program.They may be disguised as games, chain letters, buying clubs, motivational companies, mail order operations, or investment organizations. And they also say you dont have to work, contrary GQ says u have to work,well u will work till ur end to be in some middle (if lucky) or at the bottom of the line hoping you will make profit.

""The culprits are the customers who give wrong ideas to the new customers and ask them to go recruiting without learing what they are supposed to do in this business.""

Its not the customers since they are given the false hope of a business oppertunity like mentioned in the above scheme to "refer" people to make commission. well in pyramid also if u dont "refer" people under you , you are not going to get commission. here also its the same since if u dont "refer" pople to buy the co products its not going to get you commission and hwo does a GQ member prospect you - by saying that you can make a lot of money by working for this co and sellings its products to people and then referring some one else - why doesnt people realise this is the same as a typical pyramid scheme.

""Many muslims are going into Terrorism which Islam is strongly againist and because of that Islam is having a bad name in the outside community. Would you blame Islam if the Muslims are not following it the right way? ""

Terrorism and Islam is a much debated subject. its said for a muslim to help is fellow muslim and fight against oppression.we are supposed to fight or the so called "jihad" or struggle. it can be any type, by voicing ur oppression and figthing against them with arms if u are weak and they are strong and inflict bodily harm. if they say that is terrorism then they are wrong. attack an american settlement in some place and see how they respond. i do not wish to justify what people do killing innocent vicitms, but we should know that there are victims on both sides and we are also human beings and we also have the same rights as them in this world.Let me ask you simply if you are blind folded and tied up while your wife and family is searched and you home destroyed and taken you into prison and they torture you and then release you what are you going to do about it. at least you will throw a stone at the people who did this to you the next time you see them, well ............. Lets not go into that area since its an entirly different set of idelogies and there are predictable difference between people in this.

This cannot be compared to GQ in any way .muslims are becoming terrorrist for a cause or reason not monetary and joining a GQ's reason is to make money from "referring" more people in ur co by deceit and false promises. how glorified is that !!!!

In general GQ is illegal and not allowed ISLAM based on the reasons given in the article

1.It sells a product at an exorbitant price.A customer would not have paid such a price for it unless he hopes to regain it by recruiting more customers;

Its a huge price to pay for a coin which is produced more than 10000 times which they claim to be numismatic when its just another mass produced stuff. and why are we buying it simply b'z we hope to gain lot of money by "referring" more people to buy the same coin.are the people buying this coins aware that they are produced in 1000's. no full disclosure is there and that alone makes this business not permissible for the point of view of islam.

""Many of the customers will fail to recruit enough new customers to regain their money outlay, which means that they lose their money and get a product which they do not need.""

Simple diagram to make my point that its the same as any pyramid scheme and doomes to fail

Lets assume there are only 150 people in this whole world then as per GQ's binary OR what ever plan

Co owner You 5 in right 5 in left

These 5 in right and left should get 5 each for them as well; so

25 in right 25 in left

In the next structure these 25 should have 125 on each left and right for them whih is impossible since as per our assumption of 150 people we already have used up 62 people (including owner, you) and remaining is 88 which wont even fill the next right structure

So in the second level 8 people from right and the whole 25 people in left stands ungained and no one else to join and the money you have earned as "referals" and "hard work" is some body elses money which u took by deceit or false hope or promise that they can also gain. THIS IS THE SIMPLE PROOF THAT GOLD QUEST IS A PYRAMID SCHEME . how much ever they deny this they cannot refute to the fact that at some point when the chain breaks the people at the bottom of any sided structure are the ones who will be losing their money and the money you gained as commission is their money.

a simple thinking in this can prove that GQ or any other similar schemes are a big doom.

And the quote given in the end suits all the people who are in the scheme just by sheer belief and dreams of material gain that they drag their families and relatives into it first and then friends and in a matter of time it will all go.we cannot convince these people since they all are blinded by the prospect of riches. the opening statement when i was dragged into for a GQ presentation against me was "how old is ur father and why are u letting him work at this age ??"

class, psychological, approach but it was cheap way to present a company and its product . well i dont care if my dad is working or not but if i tell him to quit working he will kick me, that i am sure.

the sri lankan incident link is this

http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/89307/1/85

enjoy!!!!