Q: I bought a sale item from a chain store. I misplaced the sale document. I went to return the item. The store’s procedure is that if you return the item with a purchase slip they refund you what you paid. If you have no proof of purchase, they refund you the price of the item that is on the computer at the time. My question is that when I returned the item it was not on sale and the original price was on the system. It was an extra R50. Will this extra R50 be permissible for me to take?
A: Your query refers. It will not be permissible for you to accept the extra fifty rand. In a transaction that is cancelled, Shariah stipulates that you may only take back what you paid for the item. In this case you paid R50.00, hence you are only allowed a refund of R50.00. You should look at ways of returning the other R50.00 the store. For example, if the store offers gift vouchers, then buy vouchers to the value of R50.00 then destroy the vouchers. In this way the store would have got back its R50.00.
If you cannot return the R50.00, then give it our in sadqa to poor Muslims or non-Muslims
And Allah knows best
Mufti Siraj Desai