Alcohol
A Brief Description of the Question:
A friend works for a trading company which dealt in oils, soap and general ration. This company has now started alcohol. This company has a sister company which deals in restaurants which do not sell alcohol. Both companies are under the same roof. My friend is a cashier and due to her concerns the boss has agreed to move her from the first company to the second. Can she work for the second company if it is under the same roof? And can I act as auditor for the first company?
The Answer:
Is it permissible to work in a place where alcoholic drinks are served and sold?
It is not permissible to work in a place like a pub or saloon where all of the income comes from alcoholic drinks. However, the state of places like restaurants and supermarkets where permissible goods are sold along with alcoholic drinks is different.
It is haram (forbidden) to buy, sell, carry and service alcoholic drinks. Therefore, it is not permissible to work in those departments of supermarkets and restaurants. However, it is permissible to work in the other parts like the kitchen in a restaurant. It is better to work in places where all of the income comes from halal (permissible) goods and services.
The religion of Islam did not prefer the way of abruptly eliminating certain bad characters and habits that were common in the community but used a method beginning from the minimum level that directed the affected people towards evolution in a certain way. For instance, the prohibition of interest is one of the latest decrees of Islam.
That wound in the commercial life was cured after people reached a certain level through the method of the Quran. Gradualism was accepted as a basis. One of the issues that gradualism was observed was the prohibition of alcoholic drinks. Alcohol was not prohibited at once; it was prohibited after three successive verses that were sent down at certain intervals by making people ready for the prohibition. So much so that, as soon as Muslims heard that alcohol was prohibited, they overturned all of the wine jars and poured them into the streets. 1
The prohibition was not limited to drinking alcohol only; Buying and selling, that is, the trade of alcohol was also prohibited. Our Prophet (PBUH) stated that alcoholic drinks were damned in ten aspects and said the following in a hadith: «Alcoholic drinks were damned in ten aspects: the drink itself, the producer, he who wants to produce it, seller, customer, carrier, he who makes others carry it, he who makes a living by the money earned from alcohol, he who drinks it and he who makes others drink it. » 2
A person who owns or runs a restaurant, club or a similar place that serves alcoholic drinks is one of the people that are damned. He is in the state of a seller and a person who makes a living by the money earned from alcohol. Therefore, it is not possible to approve of such a way of making a living.
There is no difference between being in a Muslim country and non-Muslim country regarding this issue. Although there is a fatwa (legal opinion, an answer to a question) by Imam Azam Abu Hanifa that it is permissible to sell alcoholic drinks to non-Muslims in a non-Muslim country, his student Imam Abu Yusuf states that a Muslim cannot sell alcoholic drinks even in a non-Muslim country and says: «Being a Muslim means to have accepted all of the decrees of Islam no matter where one is. A Muslim cannot do anything contrary to Islam. »3
Fatwa regarding this issue is in accordance with what Imam Abu Yusuf says. A Muslim cannot buy and sell something that Allah made haram (prohibited) no matter where he is. The decree is the same in Shafi sect too. Something haram is haram anywhere in the world.
Footnotes:
1. Muslim, Musakat: 67.
2. Ibn Majah, Ashriba : 6.
3. Ibn Abidin, Raddu'l-Muhtar, 3 :247.
Mehmed PAKSU (HALAL – HARAM)
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