Is the Whole Income Haram If Pork Is Sold in a Pizza Store?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

My father owns a pizza store where he sells pork pizza; I know the income he generates is haram, so say he buys items with it like sofas, TVs, and other stuff. Are these items haram to use for him and me? Can they still be used even though they were bought with haram money?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Selling pizza is a permissible avenue of income. On the other hand, the sale of pork is strictly prohibited (haram). Due to this, the money generated from the Pizza store is mixed between permissible and impermissible wealth. [Taqi Usmani, Fiqh al-Buyu’]

Note that the percentage of the money related to the sale of pork is a small percentage of the total wealth.

Dealing with Mixed Wealth

If one’s wealth is mixed, or one interacts with someone who has mixed wealth, the principle is that interacting, trading, buying and selling, receiving gifts, etc… is permissible to the extent of the permissible wealth. [Ibid.]

For example, if one has $10,000, 50% of which is from illicit means, it is permissible to interact with them to the extent of that 50% permissible wealth. [Ibid.]

Summary

Since the percentage of permissible wealth is greater than the impermissible wealth (such as in the case of your father’s pizza store), you can consider the furniture and other things bought with that wealth to be from the permissible portion.

Note that this in no way justifies the sale of pork. This is a major sin and will prevent Divine blessings in the rest of one’s earnings. By leaving this and other prohibited elements, one will still fulfill their worldly needs and achieve other-worldly success through Allah’s obedience.

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 then 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 a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.