Finding Halaal work in a non-Muslim country

3-5-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

Hi, I'm a student and I just moved to an unislamic country Australia due study reasons. I'm doing my masters from here. And inorder to save money for my tuition fee I need to save a lot of money; for that I need to work. When I came here I started working at subway & dominoes but I realise it now that "preparing and serving of halal food is unlawful". But I'm still confused in this, how can we earn halal income in this country. Everything involves unlawful activities. My question is if I can't find any other work, can I do it? My friend drives a taxi. Is that also haram because you will have to take customers to bars, clubs, liquor stores etc. that is also helping in doing the wrong this. Is it also wrong means in income in Islam? I'm very confused and don't know what to do. Please shed some information regarding halal jobs and dealing with these jobs in an unislamic state. Waiting for your answer Thank you

---

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

It is impermissible for the Muslim to work in a job that involves helping others to disobey Allaah, The Exalted, be it working in a restaurant serving forbidden food or drinks or a taxi driving people to places where prohibitions are committed. Allaah, The Exalted, says (what means): {…And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allaah; indeed, Allaah is severe in penalty…} [Quran 5:2]

It should be noted that in this regard there is no difference in ruling whether the Muslim is staying in a Muslim country or a non-Muslim one. A Muslim is obliged to have Taqwa (fear and consciousness of Allaah) wherever he is. Abu Tharr reported that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Keep to Taqwa wherever you are, and follow up a bad deed with a good deed which will wipe it out, and treat people with good manners. ” [Ahmad and At-Tirmithi]

It is impermissible for a Muslim to consume what is unlawful except in case of dire necessity or need that is almost as pressing as necessity; in this case, the need is regarded as a necessity in terms of deeming what is prohibited allowable. Studying is not considered a necessity; please refer to Fatwa 91257.

We would like to point out that living in non-Muslim countries incurs such hardships and problems upon Muslims. Therefore, a Muslim should seek studying or working in a Muslim country whenever possible. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 86405 about the ruling on staying in a non-Muslim country.

Allaah Knows best.