Praise be to Allah.
We congratulate you for your keenness to look for permissible work and your caution against falling into haraam. We ask Allah to increase you in guidance and piety.
You should understand that the matter is much easier than you think, and that Allah does not make things too difficult for His slaves with regard to this issue. If every person thought in the way that you think, there would never be any permissible work for anybody, either in the east or in the west, because the things that people do are interconnected, each one complementing the other, and undoubtedly some haraam elements may creep in. If we refused to do all actions because of the possibility that they may lead to other actions that are prohibited, we would never find any purely permissible action except in a few, rare cases.
Should we say to someone who sells mobile phones and other communications technology: it is not permissible for you to sell them, because some people are going to use them for haraam purposes?
Should we say to shopkeepers: do not sell women’s clothing, because some women will wear it in ways that are prohibited? Indeed, should we say to someone who sells food that some people will buy it with haraam wealth, or will eat it in order to have the energy to commit sin?!
Similar things may be said about working in the manufacture of printers, cars and computers, and making other things that are not free of being used in haraam ways.
Islam does not demand this of people, so long as the work is permissible in principle; whoever uses the product of that work for haraam purposes is the one who bears responsibility for his deed.
What we advise you to do is to look for work that is appropriate for you in permissible fields of work, of which there are many, praise be to Allah. All you have to do is avoid two types of work:
1. Work that is haraam in and of itself, such as working in pubs, dance clubs, riba-based banks, selling alcohol and pork, and other things that are prohibited in Islamic teaching
2. Work that helps in doing haraam things, on condition that this is helping in a direct sense, such as serving alcohol to those who drink it, or writing down riba-based contracts, taking part in building a church, and so on, which are actions that are direct precursors to doing haraam things.
But if the work may help in doing haraam things in an indirect manner, or it is the matter of mere speculation and possibility, then that does not make the job haraam, especially if a person is not intending to do something haraam in his work – otherwise every job that a person could do could possibly lead, indirectly, to helping in something haraam.
May Allah make things easy for you, grant you abundant provision from wholesome sources, and guide you to His straight path.
And Allah knows best.
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