Future or Forward Business Contracts and Options in Islam permissible or not?

[maverick83pk]

Dear Learned Joseph A. Islam,

Please let me know whether future or forward business contracts a.ka. options are permissible in Islam or not? What guidance do we find about it in the Holy Quran?

What exactly is a Future or Forward Business contract? Following example might be helpful in explaining it:

You know that there is a real-estate somewhere of worth USD 1000, you pay USD 100 as down-payment and book the property for yourself and promise the Real-estate owner that you will pay the remainder in 3 months time. Now after a month of the initial payment, someone comes along and pays you USD 150 and takes the ownership of property's file and pays the remainder amount of USD 1400 to the real-estate owner and owns the plot for himself, as he is quite confident that the worth of this property will increase in near future!

The query: Is the Profit that you earned i.e. USD 150 - USD 100 = USD 50 permissible quranically or not?

Regards,

Nabil Arshad Farooqi

[maverick83pk]

Someone please answer my question