Designing and marketing for a insurance based company - Is this permissible?

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

Brother in Islam,

Your concern for the permissibility of the job in reference is an expression of your Iman and Allah consciousness. May Almighty Allah grant you Halal and wholesome income. Aameen.

When determining the defining factor in whether it is permissible or not in engaging in a specific occupation, one will look at what the job entails.

According to techopedia, web design is defined as a web development process for creating a website that focuses on aesthetic factors like layout, user interface and other visual imagery in order to make the website more visually appealing and easy to use. In order to create a winning design, Web designers need to think about their audience, the purpose of the website and the visual appeal of the design.^[1]

According to another source, the primary objective of a wed designer is to work on the appearance, layout, and, in some cases, content of a website. Appearance, for instance, relates to the colours, font, and images used. Layout refers to how information is structured and categorized. As the keystone of a web designer’s output is a site that wins and fosters the trust of the target audience, removing as many potential points of user frustration as possible is a critical consideration.^[2]

With regards to website marketing, it is used to promote a website and hopefully get more traffic to a website. More traffic translates to better on-line advertising placed on the website.^[3]

Allah Ta’ala says:

ولا تعاونوا على الإثم والعدوان

Translation: “Do not support one another in sin and transgression.” (Qur’an, 5:2)

Since you are directly involved in developing and designing insurance-based systems and software, your job for the insurance company will be impermissible.^[4]

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Mahmood Suliman

Student Darul Iftaa
Gaborone, Botswana

Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.

(2020-02-25) 

^[1] https://www.techopedia.com/definition/10009/web-design

^[2] https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/web-design

^[3] https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/w/website-marketing.htm

https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/what-is-web-marketing/

^[4]خلاصة الكلام في مسألة الإعانة على الحرام

مسألة: إجارة بيت ليتخذه بيت نار ـ أي معبداً للمجوس أو بيعة ـ أي معبد لليهود ـ أو كنيسة ـ أي معبد للنصارى ـ أو يباع فيه خمر بالسواد لا يكره؛ وهذا عند أبي حنيفة، وقالا: لا ينبغي أن يكريه لشيء من ذلك؛ لأنه إعانة على المعصية، وقد قال الله تعالى: {وتعاونوا على البر والتقوى ولا تعاونوا على الإثم والعدوان}، ولأبي حنيفة: أن الإجارة على منفعة البيت، ولهذا يجب الأجر بمجرد التسليم، ولا معصية فيه، وإنما المعصية بفعل المستأجر، وهو مختار فيه لقطع نسبته عنه

بدائع الصنائع في ترتيب الشرائع(5/ 233)

(وَمِنْهَا) بَيْعُ السِّلَاحِ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْفِتْنَةِ وَفِي عَسَاكِرِهِمْ؛ لِأَنَّ بَيْعَهُ مِنْهُمْ مِنْ بَابِ الْإِعَانَةِ عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَأَنَّهُ مَنْهِيٌّ، وَلَا يُكْرَهُ بَيْعُ مَا يُتَّخَذُ مِنْهُ السِّلَاحُ مِنْهُمْ كَالْحَدِيدِ وَغَيْرِهِ؛ لِأَنَّهُ لَيْسَ مُعَدًّا لِلْقِتَالِ فَلَا يَتَحَقَّقُ مَعْنَى الْإِعَانَةِ، وَنَظِيرُهُ بَيْعُ الْخَشَبِ الَّذِي يَصْلُحُ لِاِتِّخَاذِ الْمِزْمَارِ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُكْرَهُ وَإِنْ كُرِهَ بَيْعُ الْمَزَامِيرِ