Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Recently we went to a restaurant, everyone was Muslim inside as well as the apparent manager or owner who gave us salaams and assured us the meat was Halal. One of the brothers who was with us stated that he wouldn’t eat meat from this restaurant because there is music being played, and the brother who greeted us (who is probably the owner) shaves his beard.
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
There are two issues here:
- the legal limits;
- what piety (taqwa) and recommended restraint entail.
As for the legal limits, one can assume that the food itself is permitted if the Muslim says it is and there isn’t cause for reasonable surety otherwise.
However, going to a restaurant where music is being played is blameworthy. Choosing to be in a place where there is sin taking place when it is not unavoidable is blameworthy and undignified (khilaf al-muru’a); going to or remaining in a place of sin’ (such as a bar or night club, and other places whose primary purpose is vice) is haram and a serious sin indeed.
If, without thinking ill of others, circumstances make one doubt about the reliability of the owner’s claims, then piety entails not eating at such a restaurant.
The grandson of the Beloved Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), Sayyiduna Hasan ibn Ali (Allah be pleased with them), narrates from his noble grandfather, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), that he said,
“Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt.” [Tirmidhi, Nasa’i, and Ahmad; Tirmidhi deemed it soundly authentic (hasan sahih), and this was confirmed by other hadith masters]
Imam Bukhari narrates from Hasan ibn Abi Sinan, one of the Followers (tabi`i, of those who met the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)), that he said,
“I have seen nothing easier than scrupulousness (wara`): leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt.” [Bukhari, al-Jami` al-Sahih, Bab Tafsir al-Mushabbahat’]
Imam Bukhari mentioned this in his chapter heading, which is where the careful fiqh of this great imam is. (Much of this, however, is lost or butchered in the poor English translation.]
The Beloved Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) explained the reason and wisdom behind the limits and recommended restraint that his guidance enjoined: going beyond limits and leaving restraint were the ways past people became distant from their revealed guidance and finally lost it; these were the reasons for their becoming more worldly, and made them forget the remembrance and guidance of Allah Most High; these matters darkened and clouded their hearts, until the light of faith dimmed and was lost.
It was thus only befitting that the guidance of Allah’s Beloved (peace and blessings be upon him) enjoin clear limits and recommend believers to have restraint and scrupulousness, to guard their hearts from losing the way of guidance; from worldliness; from heedlessness; from all matters that dim the light of faith, as Shah Wali Allah al-Dahlawi explains in his Hujjat Allah al-Baligha.
May Allah give us success to be of those of piety, devotion, and true love for Allah and His Beloved Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him, his family, companions, and followers).
Faraz Rabbani