Renting a Store for Selling Wine

21-1-2002 | IslamWeb

Question:

What is the Islamic ruling for a landlord "Property Owner" who owns a grocery store that he leases to a tenant. The store sells beer and wine. The property owner receives the rent monthly.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is forbidden for the owner of a grocery store to rent it out to the one who sells wine. The rent he gets on that is also forbidden. Doing so is a real cooperation in committing sin and transgression. Allah Says (what means): {…but do not help one another in sin and transgression…} [Quran 5:2]

If he has rented it out and does not know that the tenant will sell wine, then he has to vacate the store after knowing the fact; in which case, the owner would not be charged with an offense on what has happened.

If he knows that wine is forbidden in the Sharee’ah through the Quran, Sunnah and the consensus of Muslim scholars, even though he rents it out for selling wine, he commits a major sin and transgresses the limits set by Allah. So, he has to sincerely repent from that sin and get rid of that money by spending it in charity. It is forbidden for him to use that money.

For more benefit on the prohibition of alcohol in Islam, please refer to Fataawa 81900 and 81389.

Allah knows best.