Is It Permissible to Buy and Sell Online?
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
Is an online sale conducted through a website or texting app, where offer and acceptance occur via text, halal and valid in Islam?
Answer
In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
Yes, it is valid to buy and sell by concluding contracts online or through text messages.
You can find below the detailed rulings regarding online offers and acceptance according to the AAOIFI standards:
Expressing Offer and Acceptance in Online Financial Contracts
5/1 Expression of offer and acceptance in online contracts can be in any form that indicates the consent of the two parties to conclude the contract.
5/2 When the offering party sends through a website or e-mail a message containing all the rights and commitments pertaining to the contract in question without retaining the right of withdrawal if the message is accepted, that message is considered as an offer.
5/3 When the offering party sends the electronic message through a website or e-mail without indicating all the rights and commitments relating to the contract in question, or when he stipulates a condition that he should have the right of withdrawal even if the message is accepted, the message is considered to be an announcement or an invitation for contracting rather than an offer. In this case a process of offer and acceptance has to be done.
5/4 When the contract is concluded through website, clicking on the acceptance icon is considered as acceptance in the strict Shari‘a sense if the system in the website does not require confirmation of acceptance. If the system in the website requires confirmation of acceptance in any way, acceptance does not take place without making such confirmation.
5/4/1 The Institution that provides its services on the website should include in the system a step for acceptance confirmation as a precautionary measure against dealers’ mistakes.
The Shari‘a Basis for the Standard
Permissibility of concluding online financial contracts is due to the fact that such contracts do not involve any impermissible aspect. They carry no difference from traditional contracts except that the means used for their conclusion are different. If, in principle, contracts as such are allowed as long as they observe the rules of transactions in Shari‘a, it is only natural that the means whereby these contracts are concluded become allowed as long as they conform to permissible rules of contracting.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found. Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others. He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
