Is The Service of Facilitating Video Editing by Delegating the Work to Others Lawful?
Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Question
Is having a short-form video editing agency lawful or unlawful? Here is what I do: I get clients, and each client pays me ten dollars per video. I hire video editors and pay them $5 per video. So, I send them the videos of my clients, and they edit them, and I get a profit of five dollars per video without editing the video myself. This way, I might earn a lot of money working a minimal amount because I have people who work for me and get paid less than what the client pays me.
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate. May Allah alleviate our difficulties and guide us to what pleases Him. Amin.
What you have described is lawful, and Allah knows best. There are two permissible transactions in your description; treating them as two separate transactions is best.
One, the client’s payment to you for facilitating a video editing job, and, two, your payment to the video editors for their editing service.
Both transactions are lawful, and the fact that your facilitation service does not entail much effort does not affect the lawfulness of your facilitation service, and Allah knows best.
I pray this is of benefit and that Allah guides us all.
[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan.
Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Mawlana Yusuf Karaan, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.
He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has served as the Director of the Discover Islam Centre and Al Jeem Foundation. For the last five years till present, he has served as the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.
Shaykh Irshaad has thirteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic online learning and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy living and fitness.
