Assalamualaikum, I have this company which I founded with four other Muslim brothers. It’s an online website which lists restaurants in the city of Dhaka Bangladesh as a result you can easily find restaurants in the area you reside. We take menus from the restaurant and take pictures of the interior and upload it on our website so that people can make a decision where to eat depending on price, distance etc. From the very beginning we have imposed Shariah law on the company as a policy and as a result we have banned all sorts of Sheesha/Hookah, Bars, or Music Cafés or Restaurants. Recently a restaurant owner contacted us as the Restaurant was not listed, When I was about to add it up I saw Cigarettes in the menu which you can also order. Seeing this, I decided not to add it as I take Smoking as Haram. Is this a wrong step I took? One of the co-founder was telling me Cigarette is neither mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, so he is taking it as makruh and wants to add the restaurant. Yes, the food of the restaurant apart from the cigarette should be Halal as Bangladesh is a muslim country so regarding the restaurant’s food he wants to add it. Hence this looked as doubtful issue and also since there is hadith regarding doubtful issue I kept myself away from adding the particular restaurant since people will get to see the “cigarettes” option in the menu. So the brother kept saying that this is Arrogance from me, and also should I let my muslim brother go on with his consensus in the company when I am in doubt? This brother is a very practicing brother but doesn’t want to follow Scholars rather he wants to go with Quran and Sunnah but I told him scholars doesn’t bring anything outside that scope. He doesn’t want to agree with me so Please if you could advise both of us regarding the 1) whole business model, 2) the cigarette issue, 3) adding the Restaurant that has cigarettes in the menu is ok or not.

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.

In principle, this work is permissible as it guides people to the restaurants which they need, and there is nothing wrong with this.

However, it is impermissible for you to promote smoking because smoking is Haraam (prohibited). We have already clarified the prohibition of smoking with evidence in Fataawa 81345, 81589 and 85441.

It is not necessary for there to be explicit texts in the Quran and the Sunnah about smoking, because the conditions of the people change and new matters arise, so the Sharee’ah set general rules by which to judge things, such as the rule: “There should be no harm and no reciprocal harm”, and so on.

It is strange that your friend claims that there is no evidence in the Quran and the Sunnah about smoking while at the same time he considers it to be Makrooh (disliked). Dislikeability is a religious ruling, so where did he get this ruling from? Does he have evidence of this from the Quran and the Sunnah?

Our advice to both of you is to help each other do what pleases Allaah and to develop your work so that it becomes more beneficial to Islam and the Muslims. You should not let the devil spoil the relationship between you two; Allaah says (what means): {And tell My servants to say that which is best. Indeed, Satan induces [dissension] among them. Indeed Satan is ever, to mankind, a clear enemy.}[Quran 17:53]

Allaah Knows best.