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Is our taking out an agreement with Amazon, advertising and then taking the agreed percentage in commission from Amazon upon the sale of items, permitted or not? Please also clarify the permissibility of taking commission when the item purchased by the customer is different from the one we advertise. In such a scenario, we would not have put up a link for the sold item, although we would have kept in mind that the customer might prefer and purchase a different item from the one advertised on our specific link.
According to the
details in the question, if you advertise a permissible product on Amazon,
without lying, deception, etc., your advertising and receiving a commission on any sale will be permissible (when the purchase method on
Amazon does not oppose Islamic law). It will be permissible whether the product
purchased is the one you advertised or another one on Amazon.
According to the
principles of Islamic law, if a person makes an effort and spends time selling
another individual’s item and succeeds in getting it sold, it is permissible
for him to take customary wages and commissions for the effort expended.
According to the details you provided, you undertake an effort to upload informative and persuasive content relating to products, gather reviews, and market products to sell them. Expending such time and effort in facilitating the sale of products online is work considered worthy of remuneration in our society, and giving and receiving commission for this is an established practice. You are deserving of the customary commission for such effort upon the sale of items.
Imam Aḥmad Razā Khan said:
If he spent his time
in expending effort on behalf of the seller, he is only deserving of the
customary wage i.e., that amount that would be given for such labour. He will
not find more than that, however much more the seller may have agreed. If the
agreement is for less than the customary wage, then this lesser amount will be
given to him, as he agreed to relinquish the extra amount.