Question
Assalamu Alaikum Mufti Sahib, I would like to ask for your guidance regarding a potential business investment and whether it would be permissible according to Islamic law. I am a Muslim and am considering becoming a partner in a restaurant that primarily serves non-Muslim customers. The restaurant would sell a variety of foods, but pork products such as bacon, ham, or pork sausage would also be included on the menu. Examples of similar mainstream businesses would be McDonald’s, Subway, or other restaurants that sell both permissible foods and pork products. There would be multiple partners in the business. I would be a passive/investing partner and would not work at, manage, or operate the restaurant. One of the other partners would be a non-Muslim and would actively work in and manage the restaurant and oversee its day-to-day operations. I personally would not purchase, prepare, cook, handle, or serve pork. However, as a partner, I would receive a percentage of the overall business profits, which would include revenue from all products sold by the restaurant. Could you please advise me on the following: Is it permissible for me as a Muslim to be a passive partner/investor in this type of restaurant? Does it make a difference that the partner who will actually operate and manage the restaurant is non-Muslim? Does it make a difference that I personally will have no involvement in handling, preparing, cooking, or selling pork? Does it make a difference that the restaurant primarily serves non-Muslim customers? If most of the restaurant’s food is permissible but a portion of its sales comes from pork products, is it permissible for me to receive a share of the overall profits? Would the ruling change if my investment is structured as a minority/passive ownership interest? If it is not permissible to share in profits from the pork sales, could my share of the business be structured so that I only receive income attributable to permissible products? Also, please suggest if there is a way to spell it out in the agreement with partners. Are there differences of opinion among recognized scholars or schools of fiqh regarding this type of passive investment? If so, could you please explain the positions and which view you consider strongest? I am asking because I want to make sure the investment and the income I receive from it are halal. JazakAllahu Khairan for your time and guidance. Kind regards, Hanan +13062619271 A resident of Oakville
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salamu alaykum wa-rahmatullahi wa-barakatuh.
Brother in Islam,
It is commendable that you wish to confirm the permissibility of the investment before committing to it.
In principle, a partnership is a contract in which each partner is an owner of a share of the business and its assets, and each partner's profit is a return on the whole business. Pork is not considered a valid commodity according to the Shariah for a Muslim. The same applies to carrion and to every other food that is unlawful for a Muslim to consume, such as the meat of an animal not slaughtered in the prescribed manner. None of these count as wealth in the eyes of the Shariah. They have no legal value for a Muslim, so a Muslim may not own them, sell them, or take a price for them, and he may not appoint another person to sell them on his behalf. A price taken for what is not wealth is not a lawful price, and it does not become lawful by passing through a partner or a manager. When a Muslim becomes a partner in a restaurant that sells pork, he becomes, in proportion to his share, an owner of the pork that is purchased, a seller of the pork that is sold, and a recipient of its price. The fact that a non-Muslim partner handles the pork does not change this, because in a partnership every partner acts as an agent for the others, and the operating partner is selling on your behalf as much as on his own.
Accordingly, it is not permissible for you to enter this partnership as long as non-halal is on the menu, whether your share is large or small, whether you are active or passive, and whether the customers are Muslim or not. Your personal distance from those items does not remove your ownership of it, and your minority interest only reduces the amount, not the ruling.
As for the suggestion of ring fencing your share so that you receive only the income attributable to permissible products, this does not solve the problem. Profit in a partnership is a share of the profit of the business, not of a chosen line of products, and even if the accounting were separated, you would still be a part owner of the inventory and of the business that sells it.
The schools of law agree that a Muslim may not trade in pork and may not partner in its sale. The differences among contemporary scholars concern only the tolerances applied to listed companies with incidental impermissible income, and those tolerances are a concession for a situation of no control, not a licence for a partner who is setting up the business.
The clean path is to make your entry into the partnership conditional on pork and other non-halal being removed from the menu, which many restaurants serving a general clientele manage without loss. If the other partners are not willing, then we advise you to put your capital elsewhere, and Allah will replace it with something better.
Allah knows best
Mufti Mirza-Zain Baig
And Allah Ta'ālā knows best.
Answered by
Canadian Centre for Islamic Research and Iftaa
Affiliate of Darul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah
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