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Can Muslims Work for Firms with Ties to Israel?

14 November, 2025
Q I have learned that some of the profits from my job go to Israel. Should I stay in my job or should I quit?

Answer

Dr. Yasir Qadhi
14 November, 2025

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:

A distinction should be made. If a company is directly aiding in the genocide or profiting from the occupation (e.g., building weapons, factories on stolen land), then one should resign, as that money is haram. However, for a generic company that does business globally, including with people in that region, it is not realistic or required by the Shari`ah to quit, as a very high percentage of corporations have such ties.

In response to this question, Dr. Yasir Qadhi — the Dean of The Islamic Seminary of America and the resident scholar at the East Plano Islamic Center — states:

This question is a bit ambiguous because the problem comes—and again, Allah protect me, sometimes my critics just take anything and make the worst out of it—my dear brothers who are working in corporations, what percentage of corporations in this country have ties to that country? A very high percentage. If one were to be theoretical and say any corporation means your job is haram, then the fact of the matter is 70-80%… and pharmaceutical and what not. What type of fatwa is this? I’m sorry, I can’t give that fatwa. We live in the real world, and let the critics say this is the real world.

So I differentiate between companies and corporations that are aiding and abetting the genocide directly versus a company and corporation that is doing business around the world and yes, it’s also doing business with people in that part of the world.

There’s a massive difference between, let me give you an example, working for a company that is creating technology to use guided missiles in that region. How can you as a Muslim work for a company that is aiding and abetting bombs and weapons and whatever issues that are killing people in that region?

Fear Allah, and I say that money is haram. How can you directly work for a corporation that has blood on its hands?

But that is not the same as a generic IT company that has a generic utility software that everybody’s buying, and there are people in this country also buying it. Or this country has subcontracted to some engineers in this country to do some programming for them, and this IT software is halal overall.

It’s something that, I don’t know, I’m just giving an example, some medical corporation using it, and they have people that are coding in this part of the world, people coding in that part of the world. If you’re going to say, “My company is profiting from that region,” then I mean literally almost every… well then, how about us paying taxes in this country?

So we have to be reasonable, and the Shari`ah is not asking us to be that unreasonable. So, I differentiate between corporations that are directly either aiding and abetting occupation—and there’s a whole list, there’s an official list from BDS.

Don’t just hear from people that boycott this and that company. I don’t agree with emotional boycotting. Boycotting should be done with sensibilities, with knowledge.

There’s an official Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Go log on to the website, and they will tell you these companies are profiting from occupation. These companies are, for example, building factories on land that has been taken over from the Palestinians. Yes, let’s boycott those companies.

Versus, and also another genre of corporations are those that—I mean this is pretty obvious—but any company that is constructing or directly involved with the equipment or the technology needed for genocide.

I mean, let’s be honest here, there are companies, even within this vicinity that we live in, that a good portion of those companies, you know, they are actually aiding and abetting the creation of bombs for that region.

Now you’re going to say, “Oh, but I’m working in this department.” Yeah, but this company is the one literally manufacturing the bomb.

I mean, come on. Your job, even if it’s in a separate thing, it’s the company that is selling the bombs. So come on, don’t work for the company that’s constructing the bombs. You have to put your foot down for that.

So use your common sense. These are the two areas where I would say yes, resign. And if your resignation can cause a ripple effect or a good letter that you send to colleagues or whatever, if you know best, if it’s going to be able to do it, do it. And if that’s not going to happen, then as long as you resign and you can find another job. Otherwise, any type of relationship doesn’t make it haram.

In fact, we can even use generic aspects of the Sirah that, with all that was happening with the Jewish tribes in the time of the Prophet, there were still business relationships between various Muslim merchants and various Jewish merchants throughout the entire time frame. We have to be pragmatic. The Shari`ah deals with the real world, not with abstract concepts. So I hope that answers that question.

Read related fatwas:

Almighty Allah knows best.

Source: Live Q&A Session with Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi

About Dr. Yasir Qadhi
Yasir Qadhi was born in Houston, Texas and completed his primary and secondary education in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He graduated with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston, after which he was accepted as a student at the Islamic University of Madinah. After completing a diploma in Arabic, he graduated with a B.A. from the College of Hadith and Islamic Sciences. Thereafter, he completed a M.A. in Islamic Theology from the College of Dawah, after which he returned to America and completed his doctorate, in Religious Studies, from Yale University.Currently he is the Dean of al-Maghrib Institute, the Resident Scholar of the Memphis Islamic Center, and a professor at Rhodes College, in Memphis, TN.