In order that hiring be legally valid, the benefit must be permitted (Halal) in nature. So the employee should not be hired for doing something which is prohibited. Accordingly a worker should not be hired to carry alcohol to one who buys it, or to press it. Nor should He be hired to carry pigs or carrion. At-Tirmidhi narrated from Anas ibn Malik, who said: “The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) cursed ten types of people regarding alcohol: its presser, the one who asks for it to be pressed, its drinker, its carrier, the one to whom it is carried, the one who serves it, its seller, the one for whom it is sold, its purchaser and the one for whom it is purchased.” Hiring is also not allowed over any work of usury, because it is a hiring over a prohibited benefit, and because ibn Majah narrated from ibn Mas’oud that the Prophet (pbuh) (pbuh) cursed the one who takes usury, his agent, its two witnesses and its recorder (clerk). The employees of banks and coinage (minting) departments and all the organisations that deal with usury have to be examined. If the work they were hired to do is a part of the usury work, whether the usury is the product of that work exclusively, or whether it is produced by that work along with others, Muslims are prohibited to perform such works. This includes the manager, accountants and auditors and every work that provides a benefit connected with usury, directly or indirectly. But the works that are not connected with usury directly or indirectly, such as the porter, the guard, the cleaner and the like, these works are allowed, because such work is hiring on an allowed benefit, and because what applies on the recorder and the witnesses of usury, does not apply to them. Similar to the employees of banks are government employees who are involved in deals with usury, such as employees who work in preparing loans with interest to farmers, and Treasury employees who are involved in usury works, and the employees of the orphans departments which lend property with interest. All these are prohibited jobs; anyone who is involved with them is committing a great sin, because it applies to Him since He is the recorder or the one who witnesses usury. Similarly it is prohibited upon a Muslim to engage in any work prohibited by Allah (swt).

With regard to the work, whose profit or association in it, is prohibited because it is legally invalid such as insurance companies, share holding companies and co-operative associations and the like, they have to be examined. If the work that the employee performs is illegal, or it is of an invalid (Batil) or defective (Fasid) contract, or results from them, a Muslim is not allowed to handle it, because a Muslim is not allowed to deal with invalid or defective contracts or with the actions which result from them. He is not allowed to deal with any contract or action which disagrees with the Hukm Shar’i (divine rule), so it is prohibited for Him to be hired for involving in them. This is like the employee who records insurance contracts though He dislikes them, the one who negotiates the insurance terms, or the one who accepts the insurance. Similarly is the case of the employee who distributes the profit of the co-operative associations according to the member holdings, the employee who sells company shares or who works in share stock accounting, and also the employee who advertises for the co-operative associations and the like. All employees of companies, whose work is legally allowed to be performed, are allowed to be employed in such positions.

If a person is not legally allowed to perform a work for himself then He is not allowed to be an employee to do it, and He is not allowed to be hired to do it. So actions which are prohibited to be conducted, the Muslim is prohibited from hiring others to it or to be hired, himself, to do them.