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- Income in compensation for working for stores that sell alcohol is permissible provided that the work itself does not include handling of alcoholic beverages.
2- Eating in halal restaurants that sell alcohol is permissible as long as you don’t share the same table with a person who drinks.
In his response to your question, Prof. Dr. Monzer Kahf, Professor of Islamic Finance and Economics at Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, states:
It is not only considered haram (forbidden) to consume what is haram (unlawful), but it is also haram to promote, condone, aid, or assist the same.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not stop at prohibiting the drinking of alcohol, whether much or little, but he also forbade any trading in it, even with non-Muslims.
It is not permissible for a Muslim to import or export alcoholic beverages, or to produce, serve, handle or sell them. In connection with alcohol, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) cursed ten categories of people saying: “Truly, Allah has cursed khamr (alcoholic beverages) and has cursed the one who produces it, the one for whom it is produced, the one who drinks it, the one who serves it, the one who carries it, the one for whom it is carried, the one who sells it, the one who earns from the sale of it, the one who buys it, and the one for whom it is bought.”(At-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah)
Income in compensation for working for stores that sell alcohol is permissible provided that the work itself does not include handling of alcoholic beverages, because handling these liquors is not permissible and consequently payment received for such a prohibited action is not earned lawfully from the Shari`ah point of view.
It becomes worse if the purchasers of alcohol are Muslims because alcoholic drinks are not considered property for a Muslim, and the only action that should be taken with them is to destroy them and drain them in the sewer, whereas for non-Muslims (even in a Muslim land and under the Islamic laws) alcoholic beverages are considered property protected by the Islamic law.
Eating in halal restaurants that sell alcohol is permissible as long as you don’t share the same table with a person who drinks. It is, however, shameful for such restaurants to offer halal meat side by side with alcoholic beverages.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.