Is selling books on Amazon Kindle permissible?

In Shari’ah, intellectual property and intangible rights are classified as Ḥuqūq (rights). Historically, these rights were not permitted for trade, as they were not considered transferable properties according to the Hanafi jurists. Since rights could not be independently transferred and retained by the counterparty, they did not qualify as Māl (valid property) for sale, as per Shari’ah, which necessitates the exchange of two properties.

However, with the progression of society, the concept of rights and their trade emerged. Certain rights became recognised as transferrable goods, supported by a growing social understanding and acknowledgment of their existence and utility. This recognition was upheld by social convention (ʿUrf), to the extent that individuals could assert and seek these rights in legal proceedings, with courts recognising and enforcing them. The ability to record these rights in official registers provided a means for their storage and retrieval, further solidifying their status as valid properties.

Contemporary scholars like Mufti Muhammad Taqi Uthmani and others argue that since many of these rights are documented and stored in legal registries, they possess legal existence akin to legal persons. Their presence in such registers establishes a permanent and fixed existence. The financial industry also acknowledges the existence and value of such intangible assets. Consequently, trading and selling these intangibles are deemed permissible.

The AAOIFI Shariah Standards also recognises the permissibility of intangible rights. The Shariah Standard No.42 on Financial Rights states:

“3/3/2 Types of rights to intangible assets: Rights to intangible assets are of many kinds, including rights to trade name, trading addresses, trademarks, commercial licenses; intellectual property, technical and industrial know-how, patents and copyrights.

3/3/3 Rules governing rights to intangible assets:

3/3/3/1 Rights to trade names, trading addresses, trademarks, copyrights, inventions and patents are the rights of their respective owners. These possess recognised monetary value in contemporary business and commercial custom. Since these rights are recognised and protected by the Shari’ah, it is not permissible to violate them.

3/3/3/2 Since rights to intangible assets are recognised as financial rights, it is permissible to dispose of or transfer them for consideration provided that such transactions are free of Gharar (ambiguity), deception and fraud.”

The rationale behind allowing a person to gain from intellectual property is thatthese rights remain attached even when the sale item is sold and transferred to others. Since the owner of these rights has rights attached to the sale item no matter where the sale item is and who it is owned by, the seller still has a connection to the sale item. It is that connection which opens the door for the seller to gain from transactions.

The UK Government website mentions:

Copyright protects your work and stops others from using it without your permission.

You get copyright protection automatically – you don’t have to apply or pay a fee. There isn’t a register of copyright works in the UK.

You automatically get copyright protection when you create:

• original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including illustration and photography
• original non-literary written work, such as software, web content and databases
• sound and music recordings
• film and television recordings
• broadcasts
• the layout of published editions of written, dramatic and musical works

You can mark your work with the copyright symbol (©), your name and the year of creation. Whether you mark the work or not doesn’t affect the level of protection you have.

Therefore, according to the principles discussed, if someone has authored a book and still holds some form of intellectual property rights to it, they are permitted to receive royalty earnings from platforms like Amazon Kindle.