Question # 595: Salam aleikoum brother, Thanks for the clear answer. I recently found out that it sometimes takes longer than 3 days. This is because payments are not processed on weekends. So, if the customer pays on Monday and I have the money on Thursday, I am allowed to ship on Monday. But if the customer pays on a Thursday, I don’t have the money until Tuesday. That is 5 days because working days don’t count on weekends and nothing is processed. Am I allowed to ship in this case as soon as the customer has paid and I am aware of it? Or is the limit 3 days? But in both cases, I already have the money before the customer receives the package. Further, I read that you said the money being in the Shopify balance is sufficient. But if payment is made on Friday, it won’t appear in the Shopify balance until Tuesday. If I wait that long, 4 days will have passed; add the normal shipping time from China to that, and it becomes too long for the customers. Of course, I don’t want to do anything haram. The best option would be to ship once I have received notification from Shopify that payment has been made. Is this allowed? Because it really comes down to nothing more than processing time. And no debts are being accumulated between the two. The last question, Chargebacks, holds from shopify and refunds: they are unavoidable; a hold can result from a Shopify check and a chargeback or refund if a customer is dissatisfied with the product. Does this immediately make dropshipping with a Salam contract prohibited?

Bismi-llahi r-raḥmani r-raḥīm,

Assalamu ‘laikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

All praise and thanks are due to Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم).

Dear questioner,

First of all, we implore Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) to help us serve His cause and render our work for His sake.

Shorter Answer: Brief weekend or processor delays do not by themselves invalidate the Salam arrangement. Once Shopify confirms the customer has paid in full, you may ship without waiting for the payout to reach your bank; the delay is a technical banking matter, not a juristic one. Chargebacks, holds, and refunds are unavoidable features of modern e-commerce and do not automatically invalidate the Salam contract, provided you maintain clear terms, accurate product descriptions, and responsive customer service to minimize disputes and faithfully fulfill your delivery obligation.  Also, please refer to Question # 594: Dropshipping Under Salam: Payment thru Shopify and Disclosure Rules.

Long Answer: First, the IIFA Resolution No. 85 (2/9), issued by the International Islamic Fiqh Academy of the OIC, explicitly permits a brief deferral of the Salam capital for genuine practical reasons. Salam capital should, in principle, be received promptly during the majlis al-aqd (attendance of the parties). However, it is permissible to defer it for two or three days, on condition that the period of deferment is neither equal to nor above the date fixed in the Salam contract. The spirit of this ruling is that the deferral must be due to genuine necessity and outside the control of both parties, and weekend banking closures may fall within that practical reality.  Classical scholars who discussed brief payment deferral in Salam were concerned with one thing: that the delay not become so prolonged that it resembles a dayn (debt) owed by the buyer, effectively turning the contract into a sale of one deferred obligation against another. So, if the seller is not voluntarily deferring anything, the customer has paid unconditionally. The money is committed and irrevocable on their side. The extra day or two is purely a structural feature of the banking system.

Second, and more decisively, this entire question is resolved by the Islamic Fiqh Council’s ruling on electronic payments, whereby immediate payment of the price in the meeting of the contract occurs if one deposits the money in the account or by bank transfer; the resolution of the Islamic Fiqh Council recognizes that where a sum of money has been credited to an account, either directly or through a bank, this is a valid form of possession. This means that when the customer completes payment on Shopify, regardless of what day of the week it is, the Salam capital is generally treated as having been received once the payment is confirmed and credited in a juristically recognized way. The Shopify payment notification is therefore the relevant threshold: it indicates that the customer’s payment has been successfully initiated or accepted, and in many cases that is sufficient for receipt from the customer’s side. You may ship upon receiving that notification, provided the payment is final and not merely tentative. The Friday-to-Tuesday settlement delay is entirely a matter between Shopify and your bank, with no bearing on whether the Salam price has been received from the customer’s side.

This is the strongest and most practical ruling, and it is consistent with the spirit of all the scholarly positions reviewed. The customer has no remaining financial obligation; no debt exists between you.

As for the question about chargebacks, holds, and refunds making Salam dropshipping haraam, the simple answer is No, they do not make it categorically prohibited; but they require careful attention. The Salam condition is that the price be received fully and unconditionally at the time of contract, in which case chargebacks, holds, and refunds each deserve a separate look:

Refunds:  Once a sale contract is concluded without a cancellation clause, it is binding on both parties, and neither of them has the right to cancel it except with the consent of the other party — this is known as Iqaalah (reversal of a sale, or consenting to let the buyer cancel the sale and get his money back). It is recommended for the Muslim to accept to grant his Muslim brother Iqaalah if he asked for it. So a refund is simply a mutually agreed Iqaalah, the dissolution of the original contract, which is not only permitted but encouraged. It does not invalidate the Salam structure. In other words, a refund is initiated after the contract is concluded, usually because the seller failed to deliver as agreed. This does not invalidate the original Salam contract; it is simply a remedy for breach. Salam contracts can be canceled by mutual agreement, and the buyer recovering their money in that case is juristically normal.

Shopify holds: These occur when Shopify temporarily withholds your payout due to risk assessment. Importantly, this is a matter between you and Shopify, not between you and the customer. The customer has paid fully and irrevocably. The hold does not affect whether the Salam price has been received from the buyer’s side. It is similar to a bank placing a hold on a deposited check: the payer has paid; the bank’s internal process is separate.

Chargebacks: This is the most sensitive case, because a successful chargeback reversal could theoretically mean the Salam price was not ultimately secured. However, the IIFA Resolution addresses the situation where a seller genuinely cannot fulfill his obligation, and provides a structured resolution: in case the selling party fails to deliver the goods subject to Salam on the maturity date, then the buyer may, at his discretion, either wait until the goods are available or cancel the contract and recover his capital.

A chargeback that succeeds after the goods have already been shipped represents a dispute after the transaction, and Islamic contract law is clear that such post-contractual disputes are resolved through Iqaalah or other agreed remedies, not by automatically invalidating the original Salam structure. Chargebacks are an unavoidable feature of all card-based e-commerce and cannot be individually predicted. The scholarly principle of ‘umum al-balwa (widespread unavoidable circumstance) is relevant here; scholars are generally lenient on conditions that are structurally unavoidable in a given commercial environment, as long as the seller is not deliberately exposing themselves to unnecessary risk. The practical safeguard is to ensure your product descriptions are accurate, your delivery times are clearly stated, and your customer service is responsive, because the vast majority of chargebacks and refund disputes arise from unmet expectations, which is also precisely what Salam transparency requirements are designed to prevent. A well-structured Salam dropshipping store that meets its disclosure obligations will naturally reduce chargeback risk.

In summary, these risks do not make Salam dropshipping haraam. They are inherent to modern e-commerce and are manageable. What matters is that you structure your store to minimize them and that you fulfill your delivery obligations faithfully.

(The above reply is based on the following resources:

  • The International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA), headquartered in Jeddah, KSA
  • Islamweb.net, a website belonging to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in the State of Qatar)

Allahu A’lam (Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) knows best) and all Perfections belong to Allah, and all mistakes belong to me alone. May Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) forgive me, Ameen.

Wassalaam