Salam Mufti’s and IFG, I have made a mistake of earning money that may be haram - this is paid into my main bank account monthly. I have halal savings that family saved for me since young and wanted to ensure the haram and halal money is separate so I can invest the halal money and grow it, therefore I opened another bank account to ensure the halal money is separate and not mixed with money that may be haram.
Opening the new bank account was free and I done it from my phone using 4g as it’s a digital bank. Only thing is that I pay for my phone bill from my regular earnings which as mentioned may be haram. In hindsight I should have registered the new bank from my phone using wifi rather than 4g as the wifi is paid for by my family, but I didn’t think of this at the time (complete oversight/mistake).
I just wanted to ensure that the halal money in this new bank account is still fine to spend/invest as it is definitely pure, and that the transactions made aren’t haram or anything simply because I registered/created the new bank account via 4g paid from potential haram money. There’s no other way to spend/invest this halal money as I don’t want to move it back into my main bank account and mix it with haram funds, and I can’t withdraw it as it’s a digital bank. I may be overthinking this massively (I’m an over thinker!) so I just wanted clarity on this before investing.
I’d really appreciate a response so I can start my halal investment journey with the pure money I have. Thank you.
May Allah bless you.
My understanding is, and correct me if I am wrong, you are using the haram fund to pay for your telephone bill.
Haram money should not be used for personal needs, rather it should be returned to the original owner or, when it is not possible, it should be given away into charity.
So, not only you should keep on disposing of the haram funds from this particular account, but also if you are unable to link your telephone bill to an account with halal sources, then you should give away an amount equivalent to your bills from a different source.
May Allah accept your efforts in seeking halal earnings, and bless your future investments.
@Mufti_Billal Thank you, I think you may have slightly misunderstood. Specifically I wanted to know is the halal money in the new bank account I set up permissable to use? This account is not linked to anything haram. The only thing was that in order to actually create this new bank account and put my halal money into it, I had to create the bank account using my phone bill 4g which is paid for through potential haram money from my main bank account. The new bank account only has halal funds in, and the phone bill is not linked to the new bank account. So it was just a question regarding the way I had to set up this new bank account initially and if the money is fine to use as it is all halal.
Yes, the setting up of the new account is perfectly fine. The fund within it and its usage is not affected in any ways by the fact that, you used a phone bill linked to the other account.
@Mufti_Billal Thank you for the reassurance. Just one final question in regards to this:
The sim card that’s linked to the phone bill that is paid for with the haram money from my main bank account is obviously inside my mobile phone. Although it’s paid for with haram funds, the sim card physically being in my phone doesn’t make my halal money that is in the new bank account haram or haram to use either when I’m using the new bank account’s mobile banking app does it?
I think that I’m majorly overthinking this so it would be great to get your reassurance. On a separate note, I do intent to eventually start paying for my phone bill/sim and other bills with halal funds when I have built up enough to replace the haram money in my main bank account. Thank you and May Allah bless you.
@Mufti_Billal Thanks Mufti, I have one very final question on this topic:
If I’m wearing clothes that were bought with haram money and then I spend some of my halal money whilst wearing those clothes, is the halal money and the transactions I make with the halal funds still halal/permissible?
Again I’m probably overthinking. I seen a hadith somewhere stating something along the lines of ‘if a person is earning haram money and their food and clothes are haram then Allah wouldn’t accept their prayers’. So I just wanted to make sure haram clothing and anything else impure that I may have doesn’t also affect me spending my halal savings which I keep separate from the haram money. Obviously I know the haram money is wrong so I’m trying to replace it all by using my halal savings to start a business and invest in shares, but I keep getting these silly doubts in my head saying so many things may affect the halal money which I have, and this is stopping me from investing my halal money before I get clarity.
Ultimately, as long as the money I’m investing is halal/pure, is it accurate to think that nothing else will make the funds or their use haram to spend/invest because it’s already pure?
@Mufti_Billal Mufti could you please kindly respond to the last query I have on this topic above? ^ Your guidance on this would be greatly appreciated so that I have peace of mind and can start investing my halal money and begin the journey to leave all the haram behind. May Allah bless you for helping me!
Yes it’s still halal, but a sinful act to you haram cloths.
Yes you are right. If the capital you invested is halal, and the method you use invest it is also halal, then the income will be halal too. It will not be affected by other actions not related to the investment.
@Mufti_Billal Jazakallah Mufti! What do you mean by ‘method you use to invest’? Are you referring to shariah compliant stocks and islamic business ethics like honesty, fairness etc, or do you mean something else?
@Mufti_Billal Mufti could you please respond to the above query so I can ensure I’m abiding by a correct method when investing?
Also, based on your last response, I therefore take it that using things like a phone charger paid for with haram money to charge my phone and then using the phone itself to invest through is nothing to do with halal money and wouldn’t effect the investments etc.? I really appreciate the help you’re giving me.
@Mufti_Billal jazakallah! And regarding my last point above about investing on my phone but the phone has been charged with a phone charger etc paid for with haram money? Would charging the phone like this and then using it affect my halal money or its use? Thank you for replying as you’re really helping to clear up my doubts.