Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- If Muslims face extreme hardships to apply for jobs because of names, they may opt for common names that have good connotations.
2- It’s not acceptable for Muslims to change their names to bad or anti-faith names to gain more work opportunities.
Answering your question, Dr. Wael Shehab, PhD in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University and currently the Imam of the Downtown Toronto Masjid in Canada, states:
Employees and job-seekers should enjoy equal rights and obligations. Discrimination against employees or job-seekers because of faith, race, color, etc., is not acceptable and violates all world conventions and laws.
Labor unions should not accept discrimination in whatever form against employees.
As for the question in hand, Muslim communities should cooperate with all other communities to eliminate discrimination against citizens irrespective of their faith, culture, or color.
Leaders of Muslim—as well as all other–communities should spare no efforts to defend people’s rights through all legal channels.
Muslims should not give up asking for their rights by possible legal means.
As for the issue of names, Islam generally recommends good names that bear good connotations. It is not a must for Muslims to bear Arab names.
A Muslim, therefore, could be named after Prophets of God or good people. He could have any acceptable name that bears a good meaning in his language and society.
Names that have anti-faith or bad meanings are not acceptable for Muslims.
If Muslims face extreme hardships to apply for jobs because of names, they may opt for common names that have good connotations. Names of all Prophets of God and of good meanings are acceptable for Muslims.
Muslim communities, however, should always defend their equal rights and duties in any country they live in.
Given the above, Muslims should be proud of their faith. They should translate Islamic values into practice. This way, they will show other communities how Islam teaches honesty, faithfulness, trustworthiness, and good morals.
It’s not acceptable for Muslims to change their names to bad or anti-faith names to gain more work opportunities.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.