Title: Indirectly Promoting a Business that is Prohibited in Islam Question: Assume that someone runs a web directory (like Yahoo!). The hyperlinks in the directory point to many types of sites. Some are clearly against Islamic teaching (e.g. topics regarding other religions, non-islamic financial institutions, companies that conduct haraam business etc), others are not against Islamic teaching, while the rest are the mixture of both. The links are provided simply for information and reference purposes, but the owner has no control on what the visitors will do with such information. The owner doesn't charge the visitors anything for this service, but earn income from banner advertising. The banners are carefully screened so that nothing against Islamic teaching is being advertised. Is it permissible in Islam to run such directory? Is the advertising income above halaal (given the directory nature)? Assume that an advertiser sells both halaal and haraam goods (e.g. a supermarket). Is the advertising income from such advertiser halaal ? Assume that the directory only list hyperlinks to sites which are not against Islamic teaching. But it has a search engine, which enables visitors to search anything on the web. Will the owner commit a sin if the visitors abuse the search engine for sinful purposes? Answer: Answers to your question are based on the assumption that the directory under consideration is not expressly promoting any business, which is prohibited in Islam or is against the accepted moral and ethical norms of the society. The answers follow: Even though maintaining such an information directory cannot be termed as prohibited, yet I would feel much more comfortable if the information so provided does not even indirectly promote any thing clearly prohibited by the Islamic Shari`ah . I would therefore suggest that the information be pruned in such a way that all such products and services, the use of which is expressly and clearly prohibited by the Shari`ah are not included in the information list. After all, why should a Muslim even provide information about something, which has been categorically prohibited by his Lord? The advertising income, if it is not generated by the promotion of anything expressly prohibited by the Shari`ah can be considered as allowable. In such cases where the products sold by the advertiser consist of both the halaal as well as the haraam products, the decision of whether or not such an advertiser be included in the sponsor's list should be based on whether the major items of sale are those which are considered allowable in Islam or not. If the answer to the question is 'yes', such an advertiser may be included in the list, on the condition that his advertisements shall not promote any such thing which has been expressly prohibited by the Shari`ah . For instance, the advertisement of a superstore may be accepted on the condition that its advertisements shall not show any such items that are expressly prohibited in Islam. No. Such an arrangement seems completely acceptable. I hope this helps. 22 nd June 2000