Title

Please advise if doing business with a Shiya is haraam or not? This is with regards to us providing them with a service and we accepting their money.

Question

Please advise if doing business with a Shiya is haraam or not? This is with regards to us providing them with a service and we accepting their money.

Answer

In the name of Allāh, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Assalāmu ῾alaykum wa Rahmatullāhi Wabarakātuh

It is obvious that the ultimate thing would be to restrict our dealings to Muslims only but this is virtually impossible. If we analyse the matter realistically, one cannot avoid dealings with non Muslims as we interact with them all the time. Nevertheless, this does not mean that we transact or interact with every non Muslim on an open mandate. As a Muslim it is our duty to uphold our honor by firstly investigating who we deal with and to what extent our association reaches.

In principle, it is not preferable, though permissible to have dealings with non-Muslims unless there’s a dire need to do so. Moreover, if the dealings are such that it becomes a means of disgrace for Muslims, then it will not be permissible to do such dealings. ^[1]

Mufti Muhammad Shafee Saheb (Rahimahullah) mentions in his Jawāhirul Fiqh that if there is no necessity to deal with non Muslims then the ideal thing would be to avoid it.

(Fatawa Hindiyyah, Vol.5, Pg.348, Rashediyyah)

(Jawahirul Fiqh, Vol.2, Pg.183, Darul Uloom Karachi) 

(Fatawa Mahmoodiyyah, Vol.18, Pg.43, Fāruqiyyah)

(Fatawa Mahmoodiyyah, Vol.19, Pg.546, Fāruqiyyah)

And Allāh Ta῾āla Knows Best
Wassalāmu ῾alaykum 

Ml. Ebrahim Desai,
Student Dārul Iftā

Checked and Approved by:
Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Dārul Iftā