Is It Permissible to Give a Non-married Couple a Ride?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

An old school friend that does not practice (I don‘t exactly know his belief) and his girlfriend (I think she might be Christian since we are in Germany and she’s German) went to another country for holidays. 

Now they want me to pick them up from the airport and bring them to their home where they live together. Since I don‘t want to be sinful I would like to know if it was haram for me to transport these people.

I read that transporting people to certain places as a taxi driver is makruh tanzihan in the Hanafi madhab since one is only indirectly assisting in sin. However, I am not a taxi driver and I don‘t want to make assumptions.

Am I sinful for transporting non married couples to their home?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Giving a non-married couple transportation home from the airport, is permissible and not considered assisting in that which is prohibited.

Your driving them is not a catalyst for the sin they’re committing. It does not encourage the sin, nor facilitate it, nor condone it.

Welcoming but Principled

It is perfectly acceptable to be nice and welcoming to people and at the same time not agree with nor condone their sinful behavior. 

If it would make you more comfortable, you can request your friend to ride in the front with you and his girlfriend to ride in the back. In this way, you are helping them, but at the same time you are limiting the possible occurrence of sin.

What Are the Criteria for Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil?

Hope this helps

Allah knows best

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.