Is it permissible to invest in gold/silver/platinum from www.bullionvault.com ? By buying fractions of these metal bars that are stored in a vault, rather than delivered.
They offer a very small amount of silver and one Euro and one Dollar as currency to customers that sign up. Would it be permissible to accept this? They say that it is to allow customers to trade and see how easy to use their website/app is.
I know that Minted app also exists but I think that Bullion Vault is more established.
Also,
Is it permissible to invest in physical coins, knowing that many of them have images of people, animals etc?
I cannot say a general rule for bullionvault.com but if you are going to buy gold and silver and let them store it on your behalf, then you must ensure that the gold is allocated to your name at the time of purchase. If you are buying unallocated gold/silver then this will not be permissible.
The way you have described the incentive seems permissible to my understanding.
I do not see any issues in these sort of coins. In the time of the prophet (pbuh) until much more later (even during the Abbasid period in Persia) Muslims would use coins with images of kings and animals.
What if the bullion is insured by western companies involved in Riba, would buying bullion from this site still be permissible? Our bullion purchase would involve paying the cost of the insurance.
In general, conventional insurance is not permissible.
If the website insures the gold at their own cost, then there is no issues. However, if you are also contributing towards the insurance cost, then it will be problematic from a shariah perspective.
You can still buy the gold from them if the trade fulfils all the parameters of shariah but, you just cannot pay towards the insurance to have the gold stored with them.
If one assumes the minority position that insurance is halal however does that make, would it be alright to purchase bullion or incur costs from the company understanding its insurers are involved in Riba based transactions.
Upon closer inspection of The Get Minted app, it says that insurance is included as part of the storage fees, so I do not see how different this is compared to Bullion Vault (unless I am missing something). Is The Get Minted app Shariah compliant or are you referring to another compliant company/way of holding gold in storage?
Also these companies bundle storage and insurance together in one fee so it is impossible to determine the amounts for each or to opt out, does this change the permissibility?
As far as I am aware, Get Minted has been certified as shariah compliant. However, I am not sure about the insurance fee applied by them.
The best thing would be to email them directly to enquire about the fee. They may be able to explain what is the fiqh rational behind it.
Salaam, I contacted Themintedapp regarding as to how and based on what ruling they charge insurance alongside storage fees for storing gold with them, they said a shariah advisor will contact me but it has been 2 weeks and I haven’t received an answer, if any one has any update regarding this matter it will be much appreciated.
Jazakallah
Amanah Advisors is the Shariah advisor of themintedapp. Amanah Advisors is my Shariah advisory firm.
In regard to this query, insurance is required for regulatory requirements. The FCA and open banking services make a certain level of insurance mandatory. Further, the vault where the gold is stored has a requirement of content insurance too for its customers.
From a Shariah compliance perspective, since the above two policies are mandatory, there is a concession in having these insurances in place as per the view of our Shariah advisory firm Amanah Advisors and many scholars.
Thanks for the clarification. Since insurance is required for mandatory compliance purposes, would it be correct in thinking that the Bullion Vault insurance charges are also permissible? Therefore, Bullion Vault is also permissible (they offer allocated gold), even though they have not been certified as such?
May Allah bless you.
Yes, if the insurance is a mandatory requirement, and the method of transacting the gold is also shariah compliant, then there is not issue in buying the coins from Bullion Vault.
Assalamualaikum to mufti
I have question that is if i see item for sale in on amazon say £30 and then i put for sale that same item on ebay for £50 if anyone buy from me on ebay and then i buy that item from amazon and ship to it to the person who purchased from me on ebay is that ok to do?
Jazzak allah