Working as programmer in shipping company Fatwa No: 354970
- Fatwa Date:10-9-2017
I work for a shipping company as a programmer. My job requires me to create a program which takes in information about the item being shipped and stores it somewhere else. I do not see what items are being shipped nor who is doing so. I just make the program that will automatically do this job. In this program, I am required to provide fields, such as the shipper's name, address, etc., and also information about the item being shipped, such as weight, size, etc. One of the fields which I must put in the program is called the "insurance amount". This field will contain the amount which the shipper paid to insure the item. Is my work haram?
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
Your work as a programmer in a shipping company, designing a program through which information about the shipped goods is entered, seems to be permissible, because in principle working in creating programs and systems that may be used in both lawful and unlawful activities is permissible unless it is known for sure or it is predominantly thought that the program will be used for unlawful purposes.
Therefore, there is no harm in the work which you mentioned unless the company's activity is related to shipping what is impermissible to be shipped; in which case, it would be forbidden to help it in doing so, and you did not mention this in your question (whether the shipped goods are lawful or not).
Allah knows best.