Is a lunch invitation extended by a supplier company to an engineer at a contracting company considered permissible or forbidden (halal or haram), and should he accept it in the future or continue to refuse it, applying the standard of the hadith: "What is the matter with an agent whom I send, and he says, 'This is for you, and this was given to me as a gift'? Why did he not stay in his father's house or his mother's house to see whether anything would be gifted to him or not?"?

The fundamental principle is to prohibit gifts to employees, based on the hadith (definition) of Ibn al-Lutbiyyah, unless the company or employer permits them, in which case the gift becomes from the company to its employee. Sheikh Ibn Jibreen issued a fatwa (definition) permitting an employee to accept money from the owner of the goods as long as the employer knows and approves, because that encourages the employee in his work. Therefore, gift invitations should be refused unless the company is consulted and permission is granted.