Fatwa Explorer

Fatwa #143148 June 2006United States of America

Is it permissible for Muslims to own the following type of business and would the earnings from such a business be considered halal?

Question

Is it permissible for Muslims to own the following type of business and would the earnings from such a business be considered halal?  The business is located in a shopping mall.  The owners have two stores, one is a kiosk in the main hall area and another is a small shop across from the kiosk.  The main products sold in the kiosk are jewelry items of gold and silver and the store setting has miscellaneous western gift items, pictures of people; movie stars, rap stars etc., posters, T-shirts, sculptures and other specialty items for observance of western holidays. The following has been observed. 

  1. Several jewelry items being sold are (religious) crosses (such as worn by Christians) and some are actual depictions of the crucifixion with the entire figure of what is purported to be (God – a’ uthoo bilah) Jesus (Nabi Esa A.S.) on the cross.
  2. Some jewelry items are the only head - sculpture of  Jesus (Nabi Esa).
  3. A specialty line of jewelry for body piercing is also offered.  This is the type for places other than the ear lobes.
  4. It is fair to say that a significant amount of gold jewelry is for sale to men and is promoted for men to wear.
  5. In the store there are a few large size poster/pictures of  Jesus (Nabi Esa) and even one with a large Holy Bible depicted on it is available for sale.
  6. A number of items are animate objects like ceramic sculptures and dolls.
  7. They have a computer/camera system which is used to photograph images of people and transfer them onto T-Shirts which they also sell .
  8. There are several different employees who work there and all claim to be religious.  Two  are huffaz (one admits to having lost his hifz) and one led the taraweeh salaah this past Ramdhan in a well known Masjid.

A.                 It is obvious that many items sold are not of a questionable nature and permissible for women, etc., but my concern is that whether the above factors make this type of  business haram ???   

B.                 If not, is all or part of their income halal or is part or all the income considered haram ?  There is no separate arrangement for the income and sales transactions.  

C.                 Some people have even expressed that the sale of such religious items is an act of kufr and shirk.  Is this true ?  

D.                 If a person is invited to dinner at their home or if they send from to the Masjid for various functions, is their income halal and thereby their food halal.

E.                  What should be done in this type of situation. 

Answer

1. No blanket ruling may be offered for the business as a whole. Income derived from items of a permissible nature will be permissible whilst income from non-permissible items will not be permissible.

2. As mentioned (in 1) above, income related to items of a non-permissible nature will be impermissible.

3. Submitting to, venerating and showing honour to a salient feature of the Kuffaar will constitute Kufr. Although the selling of crosses, etc. warrants severe censure and rebuke, this act in itself does not constitute veneration and honouring of a salient feature of the Kuffaar. Therefore, in the absence of concrete evidence to the contrary, e.g. verbal affirmation thereof, one may not declare this act as act of Kufr. (Shaami vol.6 pg.745; HM Saeed)

4. If one is certain that majority of the host’s income is Haraam, then it is not permissible to partake of his food. (Ahsanul Fataawa vol.8 pg.103; HM Saeed)

5. One should politely refuse his invitation whilst diplomatically advising him regarding the nature of his business, turning to Allah in repentance and exploring other avenues of income.

and Allah Ta'ala Knows Best

Mufti Ebrahim Desai

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