Can I Engineer Products Some Will Use for Haram Purposes?
Hanafi Fiqh
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
I would like to know the permissibility of a job I am interested in. The job is an engineering role making refrigeration/cooling units. The company sells these units to a wide variety of different industries. Most industries they sell to are halal (plastics, building HVAC, medical, etc.)
However, a few industries they sell to are haram, such as breweries and marijuana industries. The refrigeration units are general, but I would make specific changes and modifications based on each industry/customer. In other words, I would work with all customers, including the haram industries.
Is it permissible for me to take this job? What are the rulings regarding this kind of situation?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
It would be permissible to work as an engineer making refrigeration/cooling units for the companies you have listed, like plastics, building, HVAC, medical, etc., and where the refrigeration units will not be used to manufacture impermissible items and products.
As for manufacturing refrigeration units that generate impermissible products and items, like breweries, pubs, casinos, and clubs, it will not be permissible to work on a project where the refrigeration units will be going to these types of industries.
In the Hanafi school, the degrees of assisting another in sin are:
- Direct assistance in sin
- Indirect assistance in sin
- Possible cause for sin. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar; Nahlawi, Durar al-Mubaha; Usmani, Fiqh al-Buyu]
In your case, you can work as an engineer, but you should try to excuse yourself from working on a project where the refrigeration units will be going to the above industries.
Check this link:
What Are the Principles of Work and Assisting in Sin? [Video] – SeekersGuidance
Why not begin your search for knowledge by signing up for a course on
SeekersAcademy (seekersguidance.org)
I pray this helps with your question.
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey.
He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled into an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and Alimiyyah sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan.
He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for a number of years. He has taught hifz of the Qur’an, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to both children and adults onsite and online extensively in UK and Ireland. He was teaching at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences.
He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His personal interest is the love of books and gardening.
