Working in a freight company that may involve handling forbidden items

13-12-2013 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah Dear Sheikh A friend of mine works at Amazon in Germany. He puts packets on the band-conveyer. Some of these packets contain pornographical videos or alcohol. Is it halal to work there? In many cases he does not know the content of the packets. Most of the packets do not content anything haram. Is it halal to work there if he is able to avoid packets with haram content? May Allah bless you

---

Answer:

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.

The view that we adopt here in Islamweb is that it is permissible to work for organizations whose activities are permissible in principle but may include what is forbidden, provided the employee is not directly involved in the forbidden activity and his work does not involve aiding that forbidden activity in any manner.

Therefore, it is permissible for your friend to work as a package handler in this company on condition that he does not carry goods that he knows or has probable cause to believe that they are forbidden, like alcohol and the like.

Allaah Knows best.