Buisness Ethics. Muslim - Non Muslim

[chase]

I am a Non Muslim builder and I am about to work for a Muslim family living in the U.K. I was wondering if there was an acceptable structure they can follow for paying for the work.

I normally ask for the customer to pay for the materials up front and then my labour on completion of work.

Some Non Muslim builders refuse to work for British Muslims because they are unable to understand Muslim approaches to business dealings. Sometimes builders have been offered significantly less than the agreed price at the end of the job and this has led to argument and bad feeling on both sides.

Could you please show me an acceptable/ethical structure to paying for minor building work that we can both agree upon and would be binding to both sides under a code of Muslim ethics .

[Abuz Zubair]

I am a Non Muslim builder and I am about to work for a Muslim family living in the U.K.

God help you chase.

Could you please show me an acceptable/ethical structure to paying for minor building work that we can both agree upon and would be binding to both sides under a code of Muslim ethics

Rule of thumb: Don't work for first generation British Muslims.

[Yasir]

Sometimes builders have been offered significantly less than the agreed price at the end of the job and this has led to argument and bad feeling on both sides.Perhaps you could consider drawing up a short contract/agreement with them, and refuse to continue work until your regular instalment or specific set costs have been settled. Don't leave it all to the end.

I normally ask for the customer to pay for the materials up front and then my labour on completion of work.I think you'll have to seek a way of meeting them 'half-way'. Many can be suspicious of departing with their money, lest the person they hire for a job turns out to be a rogue trader (and sometimes rightly so). Instalments at set dates or upon completing certain points in the job would probably work best.

[Umm]

There is a saying of our prophet that work is to be paid for before the sweat dries on the labourer i.e. I guess this means by the end of the day.

[chase]

Abuz: I hope that comment has an element of resigned humour in it! I have had a number of very positive experiences with British Muslims . Working for them is going to be a challenge isn't it.

Believe me, I have a lot more respect for your communities and beliefs than many of those of my own country.

This is the closest many of us get as a window into your lives and I want to enjoy and learn from it .

Yasir : This sounds a sensible way to progress. Is there any religious teaching that can act as guidance for us in this situation? Perhaps if more
of us can grasp such principles then we are all going to find it much more straightforward to do business.


Umm: That is a very succinct, and poetically beautiful way of summing up this issue. Thank you.


One more thing : I could not help noticing some idiot has left a very insulting message which Ibn Myatt has dealt with most eloquently. If I may I would like to add to what Myatt has said.

Any further ideas let me know.

[Abuz Zubair]

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[morbius]

I must say that in all my bussiness dealings with Muslims none of them ever tried to stiff me. They would always pay on time and full amount. Often they would insist to stay for lunch and were always fair when negotiating the price.

Of course, those were Serbian Muslims who hold fairness and honesty as the highest virtues a man can have. Whether British Muslims are anything like that I have no idea.

[waziri]

I must say that in all my bussiness dealings with Muslims none of them ever tried to stiff me. They would always pay on time and full amount. Often they would insist to stay for lunch and were always fair when negotiating the price.

Of course, those were Serbian Muslims who hold fairness and honesty as the highest virtues a man can have. Whether British Muslims are anything like that I have no idea.

And look how you serbs dealt with them in return you massacared them, women, children,elderly people,so what does that say about you serbs?

[morbius]

Must we talk about this again? I told you already, Muslim side was no better during the war.

And during the war all crimes against Muslims happened in Bosnia, largly because people there were angry with things that Mujahedeen were doing to Serbs.
Throughout the whole war over 300 000 Muslims in Serbia were not touched, no harm came to them from Serbs. There was only one incident when seven Muslims from Serbia were taken off the train and shot, but again it happen in Bosnian territory, not in Serbia. Those who commited this crime were leter put on trial and now are serving their sentence.

[waziri]

Must we talk about this again? I told you already, Muslim side was no better during the war.

And during the war all crimes against Muslims happened in Bosnia, largly because people there were angry with things that Mujahedeen were doing to Serbs.
Throughout the whole war over 300 000 Muslims in Serbia were not touched, no harm came to them from Serbs. There was only one incident when seven Muslims from Serbia were taken off the train and shot, but again it happen in Bosnian territory, not in Serbia. Those who commited this crime were leter put on trial and now are serving their sentence.

You know you dont believe that rubbish morbius,it is a well known fact that the serbs commited the worst atrocity in europe in modern history.You are only making yourself look a even bigger fool than you are by trying to deny it.

The mujahideen never targeted civilians there were no serb civilians in bosnia anyway,it was you fellow serbs who acted worse than animals.

[morbius]

You know you dont believe that rubbish morbius,it is a well known fact that the serbs commited the worst atrocity in europe in modern history.You are only making yourself look a even bigger fool than you are by trying to deny it.


And where exactly was I trying to deny this?
All I'm saying is that Muslim forces were not acting any better. When all the atrocities victims are counted Serbs do come out looking worse (mostly because of the huge body count of the Srebrenica massacre), but I can't see how one can say "We were the good guys in the war because we killed less civilians than the other side did".

The mujahideen never targeted civilians there were no serb civilians in bosnia anyway,it was you fellow serbs who acted worse than animals.
Well, I guess that this little girl was probably a soldier.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6562/1985/400/Danka%20Sekulovic%20-%204%20years%20of%20age.0.jpg
She was 4, her name was Danka Sekulovic. She was killed by Muslims on Sep. 13, 1992 in the village Bakic, near town of Foca (now called Srbinje). Cause of death: beating with a blunt object.

And I guess that her brother Predrag, age 7, was a soldier too.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6562/1985/400/Predrag%20Sekulovic%207%20years%20of%20age.1.jpg

You can find more pictures at
http://freesrpska.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=160&Itemid=1

But I guess when Serbs do such things they are animals, but when Muslims do them they are OK.

And now drop the subject and let chase have his thread back.