Fatwa #4422728 February 2020Australia
Working for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard - Will my income be Halaal?
Question
Assalamu Alaikum.
Firstly thank for such an excellent site which is much needed. I really appreciate your assistance with this and May Allah swt reward you abundantly for your kind deeds.
I have had a and excellent job offer from a company just yesterday which I am seriously considering. I have some queries if my income will potentially be haram.
I know you must be quite busy but I have to give them an answer quickly so I would appreciate if you can promptly reply.
The company, job and people seem really nice and they have agreed to all my requests such as place of worship, extended lunch break for Jumma, etc.
I will try and explain what the company does and my potential duties will be.
The company develops/sells/supports hardware and software which allows their clients to secure credit card transactions. It basically protects the end users credit card details from any fraud and protects the client from getting into trouble and reduce liability. It also helps protect credit card issuers ( i.e. banks that issue these credit cards to their customers)
The company’s motto :
‘To specialise in PCI DSS Call Centre solutions enable businesses to deliver a premium customer experience while ensuring PCI DSS Compliance. Our solutions have been developed to securely capture customer payments in a compliant manner – either with the agent, webchat or via the IVR’
PCI-DSS is what this company does/implements. More details can be found below. The second link explains it quite well.
https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci_security/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Industry_Data_Security_Standard
Eg. The product is sold to a customer/company who uses it in their call centre.
End User 'A' calls the Customer/Company 'B' and either purchases something or pays a bill. If user A decides to pay using his/her credit card (which is being the norm), our product will securely capture the credit card digits without revealing the digits to the call centre agent and send these details to a payment gateway (that eventually authenticates with the credit card issuing bank) and returns a receipt back to the call centre agent or user A. At this point the payment is accepted or rejected.
This transaction could also occur through an IVR or webchat session (i.e without directly speaking with a call centre agent).
We store the credit card details securely and charge the Customer/Company A, a small fee for processing the transaction. eg 5 or 10 cents per transaction. We also make money on delivering payment or non-payment related calls to them, i.e similar to charging telephone line rental (but on a larger scale).
Installing our system will also help the customers improve profit as they don't have to spend money on other solutions to minimise customer service agents from copying credit card details of customers.
Other work involves auditing a customer’s environment to identify the risk level and how we can help minimise risk.
My job will be to install, configure, improve/develop and support the system. I am not directly writing the software but helping implement and also work very closely with the software developers to fix issues and add features.
Two questions.
1. Are there any issues that could arise from making money from the credit card transactions? I am worried that we are encouraging users to pay using credit card but at the same time protecting them as well. Also if a customer uses a credit card, we don’t know if they are potentially going to incur Riba eg, if they don’t pay off the credit card on time. Please note that I will not be directly handling any monetary transactions as my job is install, configure, improve/develop and support the system.
2. They have few insurance companies out of a long list as their customers with a potential of more coming on board as this is a target market. They may also get a customer who is a casino. I have mentioned to them that I am anti-gambling. In relation to this casino, they are only dealing with merchants/restaurants, gyms, hotels, etc that are part of the casino and not the gambling side of the business. They also assured me that they will not be targeting online gambling companies of any kind.
This is an Australian based company.
I have had an extensive search on your excellent site but I am still confused.
Looking forward for a response from you.
Jazak Allah Khairan and Walaikum Assalaam
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
We commend you for your sensitivity on earning halaal and abstaining from haraam. It is this attitude that brings Barakah (blessings) in one’s earnings.
Nabi (ﷺ) said:
عَنْ عَبْدِ اللهِ، قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: "طَلَبُ كَسْبِ الْحَلَالِ فَرِيضَةٌ بَعْدَ الْفَرِيضَةِ" (شعب الإيمان: 8367)
Translation: ‘Abdullah Ibn Masood (Radhiallahu Anhu) narrartes that Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, “Earning of Halal income is an obligation beyond other obligations.”(Shuabul Imaan: 8367)
In the enquired situation, your job does not directly assist in sin. Hence, it will be permissible for you to work in a company that develops, sells and supports hardware and software which allows their clients to secure credit card transactions.[1]
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.
[1] جواهر الفقه (ص447-448)
ما قامت المعصية بعينه هو ما كانت المعصية في نفس فعل المعين بحيث لا تنقطع عنه نسبتها بفعل ذلك الفاعل المختار وذلك بثلاث وجوه: الأول أن يقصد الإعانة على المعصية. فإن من باع العصير بقصد أن يتخذ منه الخمر أو أمرد بقصد أن يفسق به كان عاصيا في نفس هذا البيع بهذه النية والقصد كذا من آجر بيتا بقصد أن يباع فيه الخمر فقامت المعصية بعين هذه الإجارة مع قطع النظرعن فعل فاعل مختار لاقتران هذه النية كما مر مصرحا في الأشباه وحظر رد المحتار والثاني بتصريح المعصية في صلب العقد كمن قال بِعْني هذا العصير لأتخذه خمرا فقال بِعْتُه...فإنه بهذا التصريح تضمن نفس العقد معصية مع قطع النظر عما يحدث بعد ذلك من إتخاذه خمرا...والثالث بيع أشياء ليس لها مصرف إلا في المعصية...ففي جميع هذه الصور قامت المعصية بعين هذا العقد والعاقدان كلاهما آثمان بنفس العقد سواء استعمل بعد ذلك في المعصية أم لا سواء استعملها على هذه الحالة أو بعد إحداث صنعة فيه فإن استعملها في المعصية كان ذلك اثما آخر على الفاعل خاصة
جواهر الفقه (ص449-452)
سبب محرك للمعصية بحيث لو لاه لما أقدم الفاعل على هذه المعصية كسب آلهة الكفار بحيث يكون سببا مفضيا لسب الله سبحانه وتعالى ومثله نهي أمهات المؤمنين عن الخدوع في الكلام للأجانب ونهي النساء عن ضرب أرجلهن لكون ذلك الخدوع وضرب الأرجل سببا جالبا للمعصية وإن خلا عن نية المعصية كما هو ظاهر عن شأن أمهات المؤمنين ونساء المؤمنين.
وسبب ليس كذلك ولكنه يعين لمريد المعصية ويوصله إلى ما يهواه كإحضار الخمر لمن يريد شربه وإعطاء السيف بيد من يريد قتلا بغير حق ومثلها سائر الجزئيات المذكورة سابقا فإنها ليست أسبابا محركة وباعثة على المعصية بل أسباب تعين لباغي الشر على شره...فالقسم الأول من السبب القريب حرام بنص القرآن قال تعالى ولا تسبوا الذين يدعون من دون الله فيسبوا الله عدوا بغير علم (الأنعام)...القسم الثاني من السبب القريب أعنى ما لم يكن محركا وباعثا بل موصلا محضا فحرمته وإن لم تكن منصوصة ولكنه داخل فيه باشتراك العلة وهي الإفضاء إلى الشر والمعصية ولهذا أطلق الفقهاء رحمهم الله عليها لفظ كراهة التحريم لا الحرمة كما في سائر الجزئيات المذكورة سابقا فإنهم قالوا إنها تكره كراهة التحريم كما صرح به في الخانية جزما واختاره كثير من أرباب الفتوى ومن أطلق عليه لفظ الجواز فيحمل على جواز العقد بمعنى الصحة دون رفع الاثم كما هو معهود عند فقهائنا في مواضع لا تحصى...
وأما السبب البعيد كبيع الحديد من أهل الفتنة وبيع العنب ممن يبتخذه خمرا وبيع الآجر والحطب ممن يتخذها كنيسة أو بيعة وكذا إجارة الدابة لمن يريد سفر معصية وأمثالها إذا علم فتكره تنزيها
امداد الاحکام: 4/386-390