Working for the Indian Administrative Service
14-3-2011 | IslamWeb
Question:
i am from india. my question is regarding IAS(The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative civil service of the executive branch of the Government of the Republic of India) JOB. i want to know whether this job is suitable for a muslim or not. 1. since this is a govt. job, the person has less time for his family and almost no time for doing DAWAH. in this context is this a good job for a muslim. 2. and since u have to maintain the code of conduct by wearing a uniform and u cant keep your pant/izar above your ankles. 3. and besides this the govt. pays salary by transfering the amount into the employees account. and obvioulsy there is no bank account whish is interest free..(may or may not be interest free) so in these contexts is IAS a suitable job for a muslim.
Answer:
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.
If working in such a service does not involve any religious prohibitions, then it is permissible to join it; the fact that the country is non-Muslim is not a problem because it is permissible for a Muslim to deal with a non-Muslim in matters that do not involve religious prohibitions. ‘Aa’ishah 
said: “The Prophet died while his armor was mortgaged to a Jew for 30 Saa’s (A Saa’ equals approximately two and half kilogram) of barley.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]. Besides, the Muslims used to deal with non-Muslims in various kinds of transactions without any objection.
There is no doubt that if a Muslim finds a job that gives him time to be with his family or practise Da’wah (calling people to Allaah), then it is more appropriate to join such a job. But if he does not find another job and he needs a job, then he may join this job and do his best to meet his religious obligations. He may also try to practise Da’wah at his workplace, in which case, he should call to Allaah in a wise manner so that Allaah may guide some people thanks to him.
As regards wearing clothes below the ankle, if this is done out of pride, then this is forbidden according to the agreement of the scholars. However, if it is not because of pride, then the scholars differed in opinion about this; some are of the view that it is disliked and some others are of the view that it is forbidden and this last opinion is the opinion that we adopt here in Islamweb.
Hence, if a Muslim is not in need of this job and he is obliged to wear clothes below the ankle, then he should not join this job but if he needs it, he may join it and he should fear Allaah as much as he could. Thus, when he finishes his work, he should wear clothes above the ankle. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 83793 and 84967.
As regards keeping the salary in a bank that deals with Riba (interest and/or usury), then it is not permissible for a Muslim to resort to this if he has the choice in the matter, but if he is forced to do so, then he is not sinful, but if he can save the salary in a current account, it is not permissible for him to keep it in a saving account. This is because necessity is valued according to its proper value. For more details, refer to Fatwa 90054.
Allaah Knows best.