Can I Sell Books Online?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question 

I want to start an online bookshop. In the proposed model, the books are not the bookshop owner’s property. They can be found for free from a specific source online. Is such a business lawful?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate. 

May Allah alleviate our difficulties and guide us to that which is pleasing to Him.   

If the books are someone else’s intellectual property, it would be unlawful for you to sell someone else’s intellectual property without their express permission. [Usmani, Bay’ Al-Huquq]

If the books are free from any extant copyrights, and people are willing to pay for them for some reason, then it would be lawful, and Allah knows best. [ibid.]

Please see the following extract from a work on the topic by Mufti Taqi Usmani (may Allah preserve him):

https://www.albalagh.net/qa/copyright.shtml

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 pursuing his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy living and fitness.