Telling the neighbor about his maid's behavior Fatwa No: 90086
- Fatwa Date:2-6-2005
My neighbor has an Indonesian maid who is roaming with boyfriends. Her employer and their children are out for work from 8.00 am till 9.00 pm or so. The maid allowed some strangers (men) into the house which I have seen with my eyes. When one of my neighbors told the employer about this the employer do not believe it and say all are not true. The maid is still doing it I do not know how to tell the boss about it as the boss of the maid is always siding the maid. Am I in the wrong for not telling about this to the employer? Please advice.
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 ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
In Islam we are urged to advise each other, and the Prophet considered advice as a very important factor as he said: "[The essence of] Religion is [offering] advice, [the essence of] religion is [offering] advice, [the essence of] religion is [offering] advice." [Muslim]
So whoever sees that this woman enables marriageable men to enter to the house, he is obliged to contest and express his objection to her and to them, and advice the landlord about it. If many people advice this landlord, he would ultimately deter this maid from doing so. If a Muslim is able to object and oppose an evil or change it and does not do so, he is sinful. However, if by changing an evil he is causing a greater evil, then it is more appropriate not to change it, as by doing so he is acting against the objective of the Islamic legislation in changing and minimising evil, and the person in such a case is not sinful by not changing it.
Finally, it should be noted that religious requirements should be taken into account when taking house maids otherwise that would lead to many afflictions and corruption.
Allaah knows best.