Can I Stay a Co-Founder When My Partners Use Impermissible Marketing?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

A few friends and I co-founded an online tuition company. The service itself is lawful, but our marketing increasingly uses unveiled women, film actors’ images, trending film dialogue, and background music. I have raised my concerns several times; one founder said he would look into it, and the next advertisement was made the same way. I am a co-founder who invested no money; my contribution is work: course development, system management, admissions, and marketing. I am considering staying but limiting myself to roles I am comfortable with and refusing to create, approve, or take part in the marketing I object to. Can I remain a co-founder and earn from the company? Does contributing work rather than money affect the ruling? What is my responsibility after advising them repeatedly? Must I leave? And what about income from students who came through those advertisements?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

May Allah reward you for your steadfastness. May He bless your work and your company through your presence in it, and may He make you a source of inspiration for your colleagues.

In the Shafiʿi school you may remain a co-founder and continue to earn, as long as you take no part in creating, approving, or funding the unlawful marketing or any other unlawful act of the business. The core of the business is tuition, which is lawful, and your income is compensation for lawful work. Only those involved in the advertisement share its sin. The actions of some people in one department do not make the whole business unlawful.

Your Share Is a Return for Lawful Work

Contributing work rather than money does not weaken your position; it strengthens it. In our school, a partnership (sharika) formed on labor alone is invalid, so what you receive from the company is, in the school’s own terms, compensation for the services you provide. [Nawawi, Minhaj al-Talibin] Course development, system management, admissions, and lawful marketing are all lawful work, and a wage for lawful work is permissible. [Shirbini, Mughni al-Muhtaj] The only income you must refuse is anything tied specifically to the advertisements in question.

Refuse the Marketing, and Say So in Writing

Helping a sin along is unlawful when you provide the means by which it comes about, knowing how they will be used. The jurists extend the same rule to any dealing that leads to sin. [Nawawi, Minhaj al-Talibin; Shirbini, Mughni al-Muhtaj] Accordingly, making the unlawful advertisement, approving it, and directing another to do it are all unlawful. As long as you avoid the unlawful, your part in the lawful work is untouched. Put this in writing, as a term of your agreement, so that you never have to fight the same battle twice.

Your Responsibility and Its Extent

Since you have advised your partners several times, you have fulfilled your responsibility. Imam Nawawi (Allah have mercy on him) says that a person is required to advise and warn, not to make sure others accept it, and this duty remains even if you think it will be ignored. [Nawawi, Sharh Sahih Muslim] Continue to object, with wisdom, whenever a new advertisement comes up. After that, you are only responsible for your own actions.

You are not obliged to leave the company. The business itself is lawful, even if some partners are doing wrong, and the school treats such a partnership as disliked rather than forbidden. [Qalyubi, Hashiya] You must leave only if you are forced to take part in the marketing or if staying means your name is used to support anything unlawful. If you find a similar opportunity without these issues, it would be better to take it.

Fees from Those Students Are Lawful

A student who saw one of those advertisements, enrolled, paid, and was taught has entered a valid hire contract for a lawful service, and the fee is clean. Whatever ruling falls on the advertisement falls on something outside that contract. Imam Shafiʿi (Allah have mercy on him) said of selling grapes to a wine presser, “I dislike it, and I do not annul this sale.” [Nawawi, al-Majmuʿ] If that sale stands, tuition sold to a student who watched a video stands more easily still.

Keep doing the work that is plainly lawful, keep your objection on record, and ask Allah to guide your partners and all of us. The company is blessed to have a founder who fears Allah in his life and his business dealings.

And Allah knows best.

Irshaad Sedick

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