Employer’s stock options : an employee stock option

Fatawa Question

Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh, I have been searching a lot for the right place to ask my question. I hope you can help me. First of all, I would like to say that I converted to Islam recently and my question is related to the job I held as a non-Muslim. However, I received on my bank account the money from my employee stock option as a Muslim. Explanation : the company I worked for is ………………… Inc.. This company is a world leader in consulting on strategy and finance for other companies. The range of clients being consulted is very large including Halal and Haram companies. However, I worked as a back office clerk and had no direct relation to clients. The Company automatically offers an employee stock option to every employee with the aim of relating the employee to the companies’ results. The Company places this money in a fund which is managed by another company, the HSBC group. As an employee you could choose which type of stock you wanted according to risk and performance criteria of the different stocks or as I did, you could not do anything and there would a default choice (the least risky). Examples of names of the stocks : eonia, jp Morgan emu, euro stoxx 326, msci word ex emu. When I left the firm, the value of my stock option was on my consent transferred to my bank account 6 months later, June 2006. By then I had converted to Islam. Thus as a Muslim my question is whether I should look at this money as Halal ? I am confused about whether the fact of being Muslim and non Muslim is relevant and also whether there is something I have not understood or missed out on. My question is whether I can consider this money as purely Halal or could there be some aspect that god almighty Allah (SWT) might dislike or are these just thoughts of mine own coming from an intense dislike towards Haram activities ? I?m completely aware that this money did not come out of my own acting or wish, and that I am not responsible for the acts of the company, however, I would like to be sure that this money is Halal before using it. May Allah (SWT) reward you for your effort. Jazakum Allahu Khairan for your constant help

Fatwa

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Publication Date

2006-09-05

Main Subjects

Economics & Business Administration
Islamic Studies

No. of Pages

2

Data Type

Fatawa

Language

English

Record ID

BIM-790532

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