AoA,2 questions.1. Iam experienced but for a long time unemployed,now have a offer to work for company whose main business is banking.I came to know that its non-banking subsidiary , bank continuum and deals in stock share market. Is permitted to work there? 2.I intended to not to ask anything from anyone and to be away from usury. life brought me to stage where I started asking money from relatives and above bank job. Why things go in opposite in life?kindly advice to overcome affliction.Thanks

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

We will start our answer with your last question as to why things go against the will of a person, and why a person is afflicted with something opposite to what he wishes. We say that a person may wish that something happens and be keen on having it while that thing is bad for him while he thinks that it is good for him, due to his ignorance about the consequences and the outcome of things. It is for this reason that Allaah says (what means): {But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allaah knows, while you know not.} [Quran 2:216]

For example, a person may be keen on achieving something of this worldly life, and it may be that what he wants to achieve will cause his destruction and misery while he does not know, and had he known that, he would not have been keen on achieving it. Therefore, one should not think that if he does not achieve what he wants, this is a punishment for him.

Even if this were a trial for him, then a trial could be for raising one’s status and being among those whom Allaah selects; indeed, the high status is not achieved except by trial and affliction. It is for this reason that when the Prophet was asked: “Who are the people who face the toughest trials and hardships?’’, he replied: “They are the Prophets, then the most pious people and then those less than them (in terms of piety); a man continues to be afflicted according to (the strength of) his religion: if he is firm in his religion, his affliction will be increased, but if there is weakness in his religion, then his affliction will be made light for him, and the affliction does not leave a believer until he walks on the earth without having a sin.” [At-Tirmithi and others]

On the other hand, if one thinks about the virtue of being patient when afflicted, he will consider hardships an easy matter; Allaah says (what means): {And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient. Who, when disaster strikes them, say, “Indeed we belong to Allaah, and indeed to Him we will return.”} [Quran 2:155-156] Allaah also says (what means): {You will surely be tested in your possessions and in yourselves. And you will surely hear from those who were given the Scripture before you and from those who associate others with Allaah much abuse. But if you are patient and fear Allaah- indeed, that is of the matters [worthy] of determination.} [Quran 3:186]

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 83577.

As regards working in banks which deal with Riba (interest and/or usury), or companies that are bank affiliations and subsidiaries of such banks, then it is not permissible to work in them because Riba is forbidden and it is forbidden to help in it, as the curse that is reported about it is not restricted to the one who consumes Riba or the one who gives it to others to consume; rather, it also includes the one who helps both of them; for more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 81451 and 81504.

You stated that the company is the bank affiliation that deals in the stock market; therefore, it is not permissible for you to work in it unless you are obliged to do so because you do not find a way to earn your daily bread or the daily bread of those whom you are obliged to spend on except by working in it. So, once the need is fulfilled and you are no longer in necessity, and you find a lawful and permissible job, you will no longer be permitted to work in it.

Similarly, begging is not permissible except for three kinds of people with some considerable conditions which are clarified in a Hadeeth narrated by Qabeesah Al-Hilaali that the Prophet said to him, “O Qabeesah, begging is not permitted except for one of three (categories of) people: A man who has incurred debt (as guarantor to reconcile blood with) for him begging is permissible till he pays that off, after which he must stop it; a man whose property has been destroyed by calamity which has smitten him; for him begging is permissible till he gets what will support him or provide him reasonable subsistence; and a man who has been smitten by poverty, the genuineness of which should be confirmed by three knowledgeable persons of his people; for him begging is permissible till he gets what will support him, or will provide him subsistence. Besides these three, O Qabeesah, begging is forbidden, and one who engages in such consumes that which is forbidden.” [Muslim]

Allaah Knows best.