Network Marketing and Pyramid Companies’ Activities From the Fighi- Economic Point of View

This paper tries to explain the history and causes of creation of pyramid companies
and also to analyze these activities from the Fighi-economic point of view. The
legitimacy of Income generation from such activities is examined in addition.
Analyses presented in this study, using the analytic-descriptive methodology, show
that the pyramidal firms are divided into two categories: healthy and unhealthy
pyramid companies. Unhealthy pyramid is named “Pyramid Scheme”. The target of
healthy pyramid companies, which have dedicated their work to marketing, is
profitability which ultimately contributes to economic growth, while the Pyramid
Scheme companies just move money and create opportunities to make profit from
this movement. It seems that this type of economic activities create economic
problems for the countries. In addition, it seems that it would be possible to evaluate
the pyramid activities from the Fighi point of view and shows that they are in
controversy with different Fighi rules. For example: the ambiguity of the nature and
name of the contract, the availability of fraud and the damage presence. In addition,
it seems that the general topic “gaining from invalid activities” includes such
activities. So, it is not accepted to make money out of such activities from the
Islamic perspective.