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A new muslim girl (19 years) from XXX who embraced Islam few months ago. All of her family are christians and she is hiding her faith from them. She is the youth leader at their church and in order to avoid that as much as possible she started working in a beauty shop. She is asking what should she do if she was forced to go and work in the church? And what is the ruling on her working in the beauty shop when there is no other working opportunities available?
Praise be to Allah.
We praise Allah, may He be exalted, for having enabled her to embrace Islam, and we ask Allah to make her steadfast in adhering to it, and to grant her the joy of seeing her family and those around her being guided to Islam.
If she is called to work in the church, she should avoid that as much as she can, but if she is forced to do that then there is no blame on her. She should try to excuse herself from that as much as possible, by saying that she is tired and so on, and it is permissible for her to use double entendres or even lie if necessary.
She should strive to pray in a state of purity, and follow what we mentioned in the answers to questions no. 100627 and 153572 .
Working in a beauty shop involves many infractions of Islamic teachings, especially if that is serving disbelieving women. We have discussed these infractions in the answer to question no. 120891 .
If she can limit her work to doing only what is permissible, then there is nothing wrong with that. Otherwise she should look for another job.
If it is too difficult, and she can only find work in the church or in the beauty shop, then she should work in the beauty shop , because cases of necessity make that which is prohibited permissible until Allah makes it easy for her to find another job.
Undoubtedly working in the beauty shop, with all that it entails, is less serious than working in the church, because the infractions in the beauty shop are less serious than those involved in working in the church, because at worst, working in the beauty shop is a sin or helping in sin, whereas working in the church could appear to constitute shirk or help in shirk.
If she is working only to earn a living, and there is a trustworthy Muslim who could help her or sponsor her, without disclosing her situation, and without exposing her to trials and pressure, then this is what the Muslims must do.
We ask Allah to help and guide our sister, and to grant her relief and a way out.
And Allah knows best.