Question Summary
Is it considered disbelief for a person to have an account with Amazon (which has blasphemous content)? How should one go about advising others to leave Amazon?
Question Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
May Allah Most High bless you for your avid concern.
To answer your question, some fundamental issues must be understood. Being a subscriber or having an account with an organization does not mean that one condones all the organization’s actions.
With that being said, the subscriber (in this case) is not accountable for all the content that Amazon offers, whether that content is sinful or out-right disbelief; that is, as long as the subscriber is not directly involved in the sinful elements offered.
Objecting to Wrongs
The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Religion is showing sincere concern.” [Bukhari]
Showing sincere concern is enjoining one’s fellow Muslims to remain steadfast on the straight path and advise them when they turn to disobedience. However, when exactly is this applicable?
The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Whoever amongst you sees a wrong, let them change it with their hand; and if they are not able, then (let them change it) with their tongue; and if they are not able, then with their heart. And that is the weakest of faith.” [Muslim]
Who Must Object and How?
The scholars understood this narration to have been a general principal at the time of the Companions (Allah be pleased with them) but conditioned in the times thereafter.
The condition for the latter times is that the wrong must be something the is unanimously disapproved of in the Sacred Law – not something in which there is a valid difference of opinion. Furthermore, the wording of the narration indicates two things: firstly, that the obligation of changing a wrong is a communal obligation, and secondly, that one must have a method that is conducive to the improvement of the situation, hence the word ‘change.’ [Mulla ‘Ali Qari, Mirqat al-Mafatih Sharh Mishkat al-Masabih]
Is it a Wrong That One Can Object To?
Although your viewpoint that one should not patronize Amazon due to content that they offer which, according to Islam, is blameworthy and sinful – is from one’s praiseworthy caution, one does not have the right to object to others who do not do as such.
One is allowed to advise and encourage but calling their patronization of Amazon a sin, disbelief, or considering them in one’s heart as disobedient or less than is not only not allowed but sinful.
How Should One Advise and Encourage?
If you wish to advise your family not to patronize Amazon or other such organizations, you must do so wisely and tactfully. Express to them why you no longer associate with such a company and how some of the company’s actions go against what we as Muslims believe in. Thereafter, it would help if you let them make their own choice and accept whatever choice. It would help if you were not openly or inwardly judgmental of them.
Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani