I hope you can advise me about this matter. I am a young man, twenty-one years old. I am studying in business college and my father works in tourism (in the private sector, in one of the resort cities). He is an electrical engineer and works in the village as the director of the engineering department, which means that he is responsible for everything that has to do with electricity, staring with light fixtures and ending with water pumps, and including refrigerators for storing wine, lights for dance halls, televisions, etc. He receives a high salary for this work, four thousand Egyptian pounds.

As well as studying, I was also working in a restaurant – just because I liked the work, not because I needed to. When I wanted to become independent and start a small business of my own, I could not find anyone except my father from whom to take the money I needed. But I was not sure as to whether my father’s money is halal or haram, so I consulted one of the shaykhs who are known to be of Ahl al-Sunnah, and he told me that as his money is mixed, it is not permissible for me to take anything of it except for essential things such as food, drink, clothing and tuition fees. As for what I need as capital to start my own business, it is permissible to take it from him as a loan. But now my father wants to help me as a father, and work alongside me in the store. Sometimes I would leave the store to him and go and take care of the store’s needs and my own needs. In this way my father started to learn about my work and was able to run the store by himself. This is where the first problem arises … I used to keep precise records of what I took from my father, but since he joined me in the store, things have become mixed up. My father sometimes takes money from his own pocket and puts it in the till, or buys goods for the store from his own pocket. This can be kept track of with a great deal of effort, but what I cannot keep track of is the fact that he may buy food for the house, then he finds that the store needs it, so he brings some of what he bought for the house and puts it in the store, without my knowledge and without consulting me, and without telling me how much it cost so I can repay him.

The second problem is that he is not happy with the idea of my returning the money to him, he regards it as my money and my brothers’ money, and he is working and bringing this money for us, so he will never accept the money being returned to him.

The third problem is that he is not convinced that his money is haram – if it is haram. He thinks that it is the kind of “necessity which means that forbidden things are permitted” and his government job pays only 400 Egyptian pounds – not the difference. We are a family of five, two of whom are studying in university. He thinks that the wealth of the state is all haram because the state deals with riba-based loans and imposes taxes and allows trade in alcohol, so everyone who works has some haram element in his income. My question now is:

1- What is the ruling on my father’s wealth? Does the principle of “necessity which means that forbidden things are permitted” apply here? If that is the case, is it permissible for us to make use of his haram earnings because he is looking after us?

2- How can I work out how much money my father has contributed to my business, when he himself does not know how much it is?

3- How can I return this money to him – if I have to return it – if he refuses to take it? Is it permissible for me to insist and to pay back the debts I owe to the people to whom it is owed?

4- What is permissible to me of my father’s wealth? If he dies, is it permissible for me to inherit his wealth?.

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