Earnings and Support from Father's Forbidden Business
9-4-2002 | IslamWeb
Question:
I know a guy whose father is working and earning forbidden money by selling satellites which broadcast illegal things like forbidden shows, etc. The father has made a lot of money from this business. His son does not like this and tried to make his dad change the business in order to earn lawful money but the father does not care. The son is working for his father's company and takes his salary from him. The father is helping the son to get married from his own forbidden money and some of it is from the salary the son earned from his forbidden job - if it is forbidden salary.
So, what's the ruling here concerning the son: is his salary lawful or forbidden despite the son's objection to his dad's business and yet working with him? What's the ruling on the marriage in which some of its money is forbidden? Should the son leave his dad's business; note that the son will face some tough financial circumstances if he leaves his dad's business since the father is paying a nice salary to his son. Note: the son is an accountant - which is a lawful job itself - but the business is forbidden and he is doing some accounting work for this business.
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.
If the work of the questioner with his father is in the field of accounting to take care of usurious matters, then his work is forbidden for the Hadeeth of the Prophet who said: “Allah has cursed the one who consumes Riba (i.e. usury or interest), the one who gives it to others, the one who records it and the one who witnesses it (its transaction).” He added: “All of them are equal in sin.” [Muslim]
In the same vein, if the work is in any other forbidden fields, then it is also forbidden since it is a kind of cooperation in what is forbidden.
Allah Says (what means): {And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression.} [Quran 5:2]
Know that the severity of the prohibition in this case; i.e. working in a forbidden field, is less than the severity of working in the field of accounting to maintain usurious records since the Prophet equates the one who writes down the usurious transaction to the one who consumes it.
Therefore, the person in question (the son) should not work in the above-mentioned job and should not earn money through this work.
Instead he should leave this work and find another job and Allah will provide him with a better job.
Moreover, he should get rid of all the money he has earned through working with his father; neither should he take it for his marriage nor should he eat it. He has to spend that money in good fields keeping only the amount of money he will need for his compulsory expenses.
As for the money given by his father, if the whole money of his father is forbidden, then it is not permissible for him to take it and use it. But if the father's money is mixed between lawful and forbidden, then he may take it.
Anyway, it is safer to avoid such money.
Allah knows best.