Q: I stay in a rented apartment which is being shared between six people including me. A few days ago my friend (ex-roommate) had come to stay at our place for few days, and as a good gesture my other roommates allowed him to stay, but due to some unavoidable circumstances his stay got extended by a week and hence my other roommates asked me if he could pay us a small amount as he is staying longer and facilities such as Electricity and water is being used by him. So I told my friend that he will have pay a small amount, he said how come we are asking him to pay and all, so I told him we will discuss it later in the evening as I was getting late for the office, meanwhile he messaged my other roommate and enquired with him why we want him to pay the share. Now that conversation went little wrong and later he confronted my roommate and had a quarrel with him in abusive language, that he won’t give the rent share and said we are cheap kind of people who are asking for rent and left our place after that, later on he posted about this incident in a whatsapp group where all my other friend s are present and they all stared to scold us for asking him for rent share and the conversation here as well went wrong and people stared to abuse each other and I’m being held responsible for everything. Now my question here is:
1. Are we wrong that we are taking rent?
2. Has the person did the right thing by posting about the incident on that whatsapp group and abused us?
3. What could be done in order to neutralize the issue.
A:
1. It was not wrong.
2. He has aggravated his crime and sin.
3. You do not have to pay attention to this. He needs to correct himself.
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)