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Fatwa CenterRuling on using former employer's contract template in business
Question
Salam.My friends and I have decided to start a business and we have formed a company. One important aspect of the business is that when we get a client which would be another business, we send them a contract that they should sign which stipulates the terms of use working together.The problem that I have, is that this contract which we send to them, my friend copied it from his former employer which was in the same industry and we used it as a template for our own business contract i.e we changed the name to be our company name and we changed the rates and we edited/removed things that we didn't seem necessary for our company. So I'm wondering if the money we would earn from clients signing this contract and the clients paying us for services rendered would be halal.JazakAllah Khair
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The money earned in exchange for a particular job is ruled by the permissibility or prohibition of that work. If the work is lawful (halal), then the earnings from it are also lawful (halal), and vice versa.
The permissibility of earned money has nothing to do with the template (sample) of the contract that you obtained from another employment contract model. Rather, it is separate from it and has no effect on the earnings.
As for your viewing and benefiting from the sample contract that your friend brought from his previous work, if this was done with the permission of the employer, as the question implies, then you are not sinful for this. If it was done without his permission, and you knew or thought most likely that he would forbid you from viewing it, then it was not permissible for you to have access to it. What your friend did in this case would be considered a betrayal of the trust that was entrusted to him. In any case, this does not affect your earnings from your lawful (halal) trade.
Allah knows best.
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