Is My Income Halal Working for a Water Park in a Non-Muslim Country?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

I am a Muslim working in a non-Muslim country as a structural technologist for a water park company, preparing structural drawings for waterslides.

I’m concerned because water parks often involve immodest dress, which seems almost certain in the environment my work helps create. Does my job or earnings become haram due to the immodesty associated with water parks?

Answer

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

Your job is to prepare structural drawings for waterslides. This aspect of your job is permissible, and the income from this is also permissible. You are not sinful or aiding sin if the final structure, upon completion, is used by people who are immodestly dressed.

Your main task is to design a water park recreation that serves a beneficial cause and promotes goodness, not one that encourages indecency. The presence and use of some people wearing indecent clothing are incidental and secondary concerns and are individual choices.

Best People are Those Who Benefit Others

Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “The believer is friendly and befriended, for there is no goodness in one who is neither friendly nor befriended. The best of people are those who are most beneficial to people.” [Tabarani, Al-Mujam al-Awsat]

The permissibility of income depends on the nature of the work itself. Your income will be considered permissible (halal) as long as the work is permissible and you fulfill the required tasks. [Zayla‘i, Tabyin al-Haqa’iq]

Permissibility Rooted in the Nature of Core Work

As a guiding principle, income is permissible if the core work is halal and free from prohibited activities. Personal action of others and indirect involvement don’t automatically invalidate income.

And Allah knows best.

[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

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Mawlana Ilyas Patel has received traditional education in various countries. He started his schooling in the UK and completed his hifz of the Quran in India. After that, he joined an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied secular and Aalimiyya sciences. Later, he traveled to Karachi, Pakistan, and other Middle Eastern countries to further his education. Mawlana has served as an Imam in the Republic of Ireland for several years and taught the Quran and other Islamic sciences to both children and adults. He also worked as a teacher and librarian at a local Islamic seminary in the UK for 12 years. Presently, he lives in the UK with his wife and is interested in books and gardening.