Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
I am currently working as a financial auditor and have asked to ensure that none of my clients relate to the alcohol industry. They have respected this request, however recently I have been put on a packaging company and some of their customers are alcohol companies. I am not really involved with any alcohol company directly, but I am auditing one of their suppliers. Is there any blemish in this regard on my part?
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.
It is permitted for a Muslim financial auditor to audit a company that has some dealings that are Islamically-impermissible, because (a) the work the auditor is doing is itself permissible and (b) they are not directly assisting the company in doing that which is Islamically impermissible.
What you are doing is from praiseworthy scrupulousness, in that you strive to avoid auditing companies whose primary line of activities is impermissible. As for companies with some impermissible or questionable operations, it is not reasonably possible to avoid them.
This is the fatwa of leading contemporary scholars, and is in line with the principles of “assisting in sin” in the Hanafi school.
Faraz Rabbani