What is the ruling on buying shares from the electricity company?

The questioner : I bought shares from the electricity company.

The Shaykh : What did you buy?

The questioner : Shares in the electricity company, shares in the electricity company.

The Shaykh : Yes, yes, I understood.

The questioner : And I don't know whether these shares are lawful or forbidden.

The Shaykh : You know that it is an electricity company.

The questioner : Yes, I am an employee there as well.

The Shaykh : May Allah guide you. Be patient with me.

The questioner : Yes, please go ahead.

The Shaykh : The electricity company collects money and then distributes it to the shareholders. Where is this money deposited?

The questioner : In the banks, of course.

The Shaykh : Okay, and up to this day you do not know that dealing with banks is not permissible.

The questioner : Of course, I know, but as for the shares, they tell us that they are lawful, that is what they say.

The Shaykh : I am asking you a question. Do you know that dealing with banks is forbidden or not?

The questioner : Forbidden, without a doubt.

The Shaykh : Okay, since you know that this dealing is forbidden, and you know that this company and all other companies that deal with banks, then the dealing is clearly forbidden. In summary, it is not permissible for one to buy these shares.

The questioner : Yes, Shaykh, but I bought them about yesterday. A colleague gave them to me for a cheap price, so if I sell them tomorrow for a slightly higher price, I would take the extra amount.

The Shaykh : No, go back to the sale with the one who sold them to you.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Go back to him, go back to the one who sold them, and he will return the money to you.

The questioner : Okay, even if I sell them to someone else.

The Shaykh : No, do not profit.

The questioner : Okay, if I sell them to someone else.

The Shaykh : No, do not profit. Just go back and take your money.

The questioner : If I sell them to another person, I take what is mine, and what do I do with the rest?

The Shaykh : .

The questioner : Ah, meaning it is not important to sell to another person.

The Shaykh : I don't know if you can do without it, since the money is cheap.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : If you can do without it, give it to some of the poor, and that would be better.

The questioner : Meaning I take what is mine and the rest to the poor, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh : What do you mean, the rest?

The questioner : For example, I bought them for sixty dinars.

The Shaykh : I am telling you, it is not permissible to profit.

The questioner : No, I bought them for sixty dinars, I bought them.

The Shaykh: All right.

The questioner : Is it permissible for me to sell them now for eighty?

The Shaykh : This is what we are talking about. May Allah guide you. If you bought for sixty and sold for eighty, did you not profit?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : I am telling you, do not profit.

The questioner : Ah, what do I do with the twenty?
The student : Distribute them.
Another student: ...

The Shaykh : You sold now and profited.

The questioner : No, I bought them for sixty and now they are probably worth eighty.
The student : It is like a currency that went up.

The Shaykh : Be patient. May Allah guide you. We will be in a problem, a new problem will open up for us. It is not that they say it went up.

The questioner : O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : My brother, did you sell or not?

The questioner : I have not sold yet, but probably now, as you heard, I would profit about twenty dinars.

The Shaykh : Do not profit. We are telling you. May Allah guide you.

The questioner : I mean, to whom do I distribute the twenty?
The student : Shaykh, his intention is that he will sell them at their capital cost.

The Shaykh : I am telling him, do not profit, and he is telling me, to whom do I distribute them?
The student : ... .