Answer
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:
- You are allowed to work in food service as long as you serve or cook food considered lawful in Islam.
- Muslims are told to feed the poor; there is no distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims.
Responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
You are allowed to work in food service as long as you serve or cook food considered lawful in Islam.
Muslims are told to feed the poor; there is no distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims. The Prophet (peace be upon him) as reported by his beloved wife, Aishah, used to share foods with his non-Muslim neighbors as well as others.
Allah describes the traits of the true believers:
“And they feed, for the love of Him, the poor, and the orphan, and the captive.” (al-Insan 76:8)
The prisoners mentioned above were the pagans who were taken captives in the battle of Badr.
So, even though they had been non-Muslims fighting against Muslims, Muslims were ordered to feed them.
As our scholars have ruled, if the prisoners died of starvation, those holding them would be charged with second-degree murder.
So, it is wrong to say that we are not allowed to feed non-Muslims.
Almighty Allah knows best.