Jamal Zarabozo – Contemporary Issues of Financially Related Technology

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			hamdulillah Al hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala and Amina Muhammad or Sherwyn 11 Hola, hola, Sharika
washerwomen Mohammed Abdullah, who would
		

			like to welcome inshallah to this is going to be a very quick review of some of the recommendations
of the 18th annual Imams conference for the assembly of Muslim jurists in America. And Inshallah,
what the portion that I'm going to cover is just the portion that is related to
		

			financially financially related technology that was covered in the most recent conference for for
Amgen Insha Allah, the goal inshallah is to make it a quick review of so hopefully, inshallah it
will be quick but easy to understand. So one of the first, so I'll just go in order of the different
topics that they touched upon and give you a quick summary of their conclusion. So the first one is
borrowing on interest for the sake of charity. And essentially, if you if you want to give money for
charity, and let's say, like use your credit card, and if you're not going to be able to create pay
your credit card off the proper time, then it's going to be an interest charge. So if you know, or
		

			you don't expect that you might be able to pay it off, then you don't get involved in interest, just
to do a charitable act. And secondly, they also talked about borrowing an interest in order to pay,
the obligatory is a cut. So it should be clear, you cannot use you cannot use interest or get
involved in interest to pay for charity. But that's also the same with respect to the obligatory is
again, you don't get into getting involved in a great haram like interest,
		

			to even to pay off your ticket. So if you if you are thinking of using your credit card, and you're
going to pay it over time to pay as a cat, this is incorrect. Even if you have to delay the payment
of this cat, this is going to be more proper and more acceptable, then then getting involved in
interest to pay your zakat with respect to issues like designing, designing business websites. So if
you are if you're working in that field, and it and so forth. So as long as the as the as long as
the website that you've designed a number one if it's not involved in Haram products, and there's
nothing haram about what you've set out set up about and what you're using to set it up,
		

			then then inshallah it is permissible. If however, the people then who are running that website,
after you leave after you design it, if they get involved in something haram, they say like they add
new products which are haram, then that is their responsibility that is no longer your, your
responsibility. A lot of times on websites in order to promote products, especially if you're trying
to promote a product that's let's say, like, produced by a non Muslim company, they're probably
going to have advertisements and things like this, which are going to have women in them. And those
women of course, are not going to do not going to be dressed appropriately. So the default obviously
		

			is that is that you're not supposed to have any of those kinds of pictures
		

			on your website, even to promote the product. However, what MJ has said here, they said if one is
forced to use such pictures, they should face or blur out the portions of the aura from the picture.
So if you have no choice but to use somebody come in and say from the company
		

			that shows a woman who and then you do your best to you're out those portions of the aura, the
portions of the woman that should be that should be covered. And there's some difference of opinion
among these guys if let's say like you're
		

			you're like selling a hand cream or something, right, and so you just have a picture of a hand or if
you're selling eye care products, and there's this picture of hair.
		

			This is a there's some difference of opinion whether or not that is acceptable. And I'm just says
here that the most apparent conclusion is it is exempted if there is a true need for it. So if there
isn't any need for that, then you avoid it. If somehow there is some kind of true need for it, then
you can then you can do it inshallah with respect to sales over the internet over the internet. So a
lot of the same
		

			law the same principles of any any basic sale if I'm going to sell something you to you and you buy
something from me. So there are some basic principles. The thing that I'm selling, it must be halal.
I must be the owner of it at the time of the contract. Our identities need to be need to be known.
And of course, especially when it comes to the internet, you want to
		

			be careful that you know the person
		

			ally that you're dealing with. And it is actually that person, not that somebody has like hacked
into their account. As we know, there's a lot of fraud and identity theft on the internet. So, you
want to you want to avoid that,
		

			when it comes to business contracts, you have an offer and acceptance. So, that offer and acceptance
should be the offer should be given the acceptance should come right after each after that, it
should be in one setting. But now when you move to the internet, you have a little bit different
possibilities. Number one, if you can conclude such a contract by verbal creamy communication, or
both verbal and visual communication over the internet, then that should be that should be fine.
Similarly, auction auction places like eBay,
		

			those sales will have the same ruling as the two parties being present with one another. Similarly,
other kinds of contracts of like getting a loan or being a guarantor or an agency, they also say
that that's going to have the same rolling as the two parties being president one again, as long as
there is this contact, communication, clear communication between the two parties. And, and as we
said, everything has to be done in one session. I mean, I cannot, I cannot let see, like offer you
my car for $1,000. And then one year later, when the price of the car maybe has gone up, you say
okay, I'll take it for $1,000. So, you have to have the, you have to have the offer, and the
		

			acceptance needs to basically follow immediately.
		

			So the next topic that they discuss is buying and selling over the internet over or auction auction
sites. And as they said, you know, basically the same conditions apply as applied to any similar
kind of sale. And one of those conditions is that the item that, for example, I'm selling to you,
that item must be under my possession and must be my property. Now there is a type of sale, there is
a type of sale, which is, which is an exception to this. And this is what is known as a Salem or
Ford sale, where basically you're going to pay me now and I'm going to deliver later, but this kind
of this kind of contract is only acceptable if if the item that we are talking about is what is
		

			known as a fungible, it is it is something it is not a unique item.
		

			It is something that actually is being masked, reproduced, for example, and it's going to be easy to
available, I'm going to be able to obtain it, let's say like I'm going to give you so many iPhones
you're buying you're buying so many iPhones, for me, delivery is going to be after three months, we
give the exact specs of the iPhone, and you pay me now and I delivered to you later, this is what is
known as a Salam. And this is this is this is permissible as long again, as long as that is a
fungible item, it is clearly described. And it is well known that it should be it should be easily
available at the time of at the time of delivery. And this is useful for again, for internet sites,
		

			because then you can basically you can sell things which you don't necessarily possess right now.
But you are able to get it in a short period of time or whatever time you agree on to deliver it to,
to the buyer. So as they mentioned here, the the some ways and means of buying merchandise via the
Internet are the following. Number one is the customer in fashion where I own something and you buy
it from me directly. So it's in my possession, it's in my possession and I'm the owner, and then I
sell it to number two, you could offer again a Selim sale or Ford sale where you're delivering the
money to me now. And then I'm delivering the goods to you at a specific time, which we have agreed
		

			upon. Or there's also a brokerage brokerage sale or like a middleman sale where I'm basically
arranging the sale between you and two parties and working out the contract and so forth. And
assisting in the contract and I'm going to get a feel for a fee for my for my services. Or there's
also an agent sale where basically I'm just selling on behalf of somebody else. And whatever I sell
I get like a percentage or some stipulated payment of what I'm selling. All of those are permissible
and workable via the internet, the internet as well.
		

			However, there are some special cases that say like dealing in gold or silver. So the issue with
gold and silver is that it is a one of the one of the items that if if we're trading gold for
silver, for example.
		

			There's a hadith that describes it, it has to be a spot turn
		

			was actually asked to be spot transaction, I'm giving you the gold and you give me the silver.
Obviously, since gold and silver are different, the amounts that we exchanged don't have to be the
same but it has to be, has to be a spot transaction. So now if you're buying,
		

			if you're buying something over the over the internet,
		

			the how we're going to have this spot transaction, what is considered like one meeting
		

			where this is going to take place, I'm going to give you the money and possession and ownership is
going to be transferred to me basically, immediately.
		

			That what's that, what's that's what must must be done. So in other words, possession is of two
types, either I'm going to physically possess it, or I'm going to legally possess the word the the
ownership transfers to me immediately, and it's now in my name, and I can do whatever I want with
it. So if that's if that's going to be able to be done, even over the internet, that is, that is
fine. Any kind of delay, where I'm going to say like pay your money now and you're going to deliver
the goals later. This is not this is not allowed. Because again, this is a type. This is a type of
Riba. And and so therefore, something of that nature cannot be allowed when it comes to buying gold,
		

			or silver silver. The same applies to buying buying gold bullion, for example, there's nothing wrong
with owning gold bullion. And as we said before ownership is of two types, either I actually like
have our possession, possession slash ownership or ownership is of two types. Either I have like
physically in my hand, or basically I have, by law, I have control over that thing, and nobody else
has control over. So when you buy gold bullion, for example, they will specify let's say, like
you're buying gold bars, they will specify each bar that you're buying. And it's going to have a
serial number and so forth. So even if it you know, even if it doesn't, you know, even if they don't
		

			ship it to you, and you actually like keep it in the place where you borrow from, but the ownership
has changed completely to now it belongs to you, nobody else can touch it. And if you want to resell
it, immediately you're able to,
		

			you're able to resell it. But again, since it's gold bullion, the important thing is
		

			you have to make sure that it is going to be a spot transaction, you're gonna, you're going to give
them the money now and the chance and the ownership is going to be transferred immediately. You
don't have to physically take possession of it. But by law, it now has to be in your name. And so
this brings up obviously, since now we're dealing with the internet and buying gold and silver. So
if you're buying gold or silver, over the internet, if you're buying with a debit card,
		

			then
		

			the photo here says this is this is okay. But you cannot buy gold or silver
		

			or also cash like another another, you know,
		

			another currency, you cannot buy gold or silver or cash by using a credit card with deferred
payments. So, if in any way, you know there's a deferred payments between you and the credit card
company, then there's not going to be there's not going to be allowed. And they also had here the
question of if someone let's say like somebody wanted to invest in an ATM machine.
		

			If that ATM machine is in and they say that it's possible to do this, you get an ATM machine that
doesn't deal with credit cards, then that's going to be okay. If you do if it deals with credit
cards then basically you're assisting and riba we are interest based transactions. That's not going
to be it's not going to be allowed. But if it's an ATM machine that doesn't deal with credit cards
then it is permissible. You could even put it in a mosque for example they say of course it should
be away from the
		

			place of prayer that the masala so you're not doing actually business
		

			business inside the mosque itself.
		

			cryptocurrency is another topic that they discussed. So first and foremost, any cryptocurrency that
you're thinking of investing in, you have to make sure that it is legit. There's a lot of fraudulent
cryptocurrencies out there a lot of scams out there. So you have to make sure that it is legit.
Since cryptocurrency is a type of currency again, if you're going to buy it, you have to make sure
that it is a
		

			it is a spot transaction. And then they discuss, of course, before even getting to that the question
of is it something actually even permissible or not? And they point out that the evidence that it is
permissible or stronger than the evidence that it is permitted. There's a number of scholars have
brought up kind of issues with it. That should be prohibited in
		

			They give a whole list of like concerns that they have. But actually those objections that they
have, they could be applied even to many of the currencies around the world. So they don't really
have any strong objections against
		

			against cryptocurrency. So therefore, the conclusion is that it seems to be permissible, although
I'm here as a no way, when you say it is permissible, they're not telling you that they're not
encouraging you to invest in it. And they also again, once again warn you and tell you that you
should take all precautions when it comes to getting involved in these cryptocurrencies. And when it
comes to cryptocurrencies, the taking possession of it again, I mean, there's no such thing as the
actual actual coin, right. So taking possession of it is when basically when your name is added to
the blockchain as essentially the one who is the owner of this, of this currency. Similarly, when it
		

			comes to mining,
		

			cryptocurrency, there's two basic ways, there's now new ways also being added, but the two basic
ways of what is known as proof of work. And the other one is called Proof of stake.
		

			Proof of Work is Bitcoin and then proof of stake by Nance and Aetherium. They use those, for
example. So this is basically where you are minting the user terminating all the no maintenance
involved, you are trying to produce new cryptocurrency coins.
		

			And essentially,
		

			the main difference between proof of work and proof of stake is that and proof of stake you're
actually putting in some, some investment some money in the first place, and you get stakes. And
this increases the chance of you basically being selected as the essentially like the winner.
		

			The new coins are going to be
		

			produced by different people trying to solve a puzzle. The first one who is able to solve that
puzzle is going to get rewarded by cryptocurrency. So the proof of work is safer from a shooting up
perspective, because there is no question of possible riba being involved. And it is like what is
known as Jehovah or reward contract, where, basically, if I say, you know, I lost my car, I lost it,
let's say I like lost my camel, perhaps hopefully, I don't lose my car, but I lost my camel, you
know, whoever finds it, I'm going to give him $500 That kind of that kind of contract is allowed is
called the gyla or award contract. And, and proof of work. Cryptocurrency mining is very similar to
		

			that. And and should be, except, should be acceptable.
		

			Sometimes you can, you can do crypto currency mining on your own, or you could or you could join a
pool of people. You have to be cautious though, when you join a pool of people if you are,
especially if you're putting funds up, if you are, let's say guaranteed a specific return like a
payment, this will not be acceptable because it will be liberally, essentially, whenever you're in
Toronto financial partnership, you know, your returns your return cannot be fixed, it has to be
based on wins and losses, profits and losses. And so we have to avoid being assigned a fixed, fixed
return.
		

			Another big thing nowadays, of course, is smart contracts. You have to make sure that any anytime
you're dealing with smart contracts that the don't involve anything haram, which is going to be
difficult
		

			in the way that has been used in different platforms.
		

			So they need to be inspected very closely if you are let's say investing in one of those platforms
and so forth, what kind of contracts that they are actually getting to finally they discussed non
fungible tokens or NF T's and here they say this requires some detail. The default ruling concerning
things is that a miscibility so if the NFT is representing something that is permissible, then it's
then it's okay if it especially if it has like real meaning or value to it, some kind of use of but
if it is representing something that is haram, let's say like pictures of women and so forth, or
doesn't have any use of product, if it doesn't have any use of work, then it's not really much more
		

			than like bragging rights, in which case, it might be just a waste of money and we've been
prohibited from wasting money.
		

			So that is, as I said, very quickly, a review of all the different topics that I'm covered related
to financial issues in the most recent 18th and the 18th Annual Conference of Amgen, I pray
Inshallah, that this was beneficial and hopefully helpful to you Inshallah, and
		

			inshallah hopefully inshallah we'll see you at the next conference robotic Allah
		

			subhanho wa Hamdi kosher illa Allah wa Stouffer going to relate was an American Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh