Working in companies that have some Haram activities : working in holiday booking

Fatawa Question

As salamu `Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah Dear Dr. Monzer, Please help us answering this question. Jazaka Allah Khayran Best regards I am a travel agent and what I do for living is holiday booking. I have three questions : 1. Is it forbidden to book holidays for my clients in hotels that sell alcoholic drinks ? Yes, it is permissible because a hotel consists of several services / facilities, each one is separate and independent from the other and many guests in hotels that serve alcohol do not use alcohol and do not buy this service if it can be called service or rather dis-service. Staying in a room is a matter that is independent from drinking. Although as a resident in these hotels while traveling I like to ask the management to remove any liquor from the mini-bar inside the room, simply to make it a point that it is wrong to put liquor in guests rooms in respect to clients like me. I also like to avoid taking any snack in the area where liquor is offered. 2. Is it forbidden to book holidays for my clients when they are unmarried couples using the same room ? I see it very near to the prohibition and suggest to avoid it if you can. My reasoning is the following: a reservation is a part of renting the room, it is the first step of it. Renting a room to two persons, if I know for sure, that they are prohibited to be in A Khalwa (privacy alone) is not permissible. There are many common cases where you can avoid making the reservation in both names and instead you make it in the name of one person, then it becomes none of your business whom this person takes as a companion with him / her in the room. In such cases it is not prohibited to make the reservation in one name. There are cases where the law may prevent you from making any discrimination to an extent that makes it difficult to escape making such reservation as in the question, here you have to protect yourself against any legal violation by choosing the lesser of the two evils ! 3. Sometimes I book snorkeling and diving holidays. Is it forbidden since the clients will be in their swimsuits ; men and women together and other people probably watching ? Many diving suits are very similar to the new “Burkini” that covers all the body. By this I mean to say that not every diver / snorkeler necessarily uncovers parts of the body that should be covered. The rule is that whenever we are not absolutely sure about the prohibition permissibility remains the default. 4. If any of those is forbidden, can I use the money I made from my work during the past period ? Of course many of these activities dodge on the border lines, a fact that makes it highly recommended to increase the Sadaqah and other good deed to fellow Muslims, neighbors, charities and the like in application of the Verse that tells that good deed wipe out sins and mistakes. When it happens that a specific reservation you had to do, because of any reason, while you are convinced fully that as a use of your reservation a clear and direct violation of moral values and / or Shari’ah principles is done, a part of the commission on this reservation (that is above the direct normal price of the man hours and out of pocket cost you spent) should be given to Muslim charity. Thank you and Jazaka Allah Khayran.

Fatwa

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Publication Date

2009-09-14

Main Subjects

Economics & Business Administration (Multidisciplinary)
Islamic Studies

No. of Pages

1

Data Type

Fatawa

Language

English

Record ID

BIM-732221

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