Fatwa ID: 04761

Answered by: Maulana Mohammed Kamran Abid

Question

Is the income as an Amazon affiliate halal?

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer

Amazon’s affiliate program, also known as Amazon Associates, is an affiliate marketing program that allows owners of websites, blogs, or social media accounts to advertise Amazon products on their own site using a special link that has a 24-hour open window for the customer to buy anything they want from Amazon. 

The website owner receives a commission on the purchase of the customer if they made a purchase using one of their links. Each category differs in the percentage of commission the owner of the website will receive with respect to the different products the customer purchased. 

If for example, a person has a website where they are selling Islamic books, the customer goes on this website and clicks on the link (provided by Amazon) which takes the customer to Amazon and the customer adds the Islamic book to their cart and continues shopping on Amazon. The customer then adds an item that is haraam, to their cart and proceeds to check out.

The website owner will get a commission from the Islamic book and the haraam item which was purchased because the customer used the Amazon provided link and purchased the two items in the 24 hours window. To get a commission from the Islamic book is permissible, but to get a commission from the haraam item (i.e. alcohol, beer, etc.) would not be permissible. (Raddul Muhtaar, vol. 6, pg. 63, Darul Fikr Beirut)

Amazon tracks the date each product purchased, the product purchased, and the website owner’s commission on it. So it would be easy to see which commission would be permissible to take.

Only Allah knows best

Written by Maulana Mohammed Kamran Abid
Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah
Darul Ifta Birmingham

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