Are Muslims Permitted to Sell Pork Pizza?

08 July, 2019

Q I am living in Canada. A relative opened a pizza store less than one month ago in Canada. The sell/deliver food includes salads, pizza, chicken wings, and fries. The corner-stone of the food offered is pizza. While there are varieties of pizzas, chicken, beef, vegetarian, the majority of the pizzas is expected to include pork products. This is the first store owned by the relative. The idea that was entertained in the past is that this store had a special pizza/food brand that would be franchised. My potential business interest is in the franchise (20% ownership): establishing new stores from scratch using this model, or selling the rights for other to establish it. The question is: would my business activity in taking ownership in the franchise and subsequently benefit from it by starting new locations or selling the rights be correct? I like to air on the side of caution as being more on the correct side than the border-line.

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:

There is consensus among jurists that selling impermissible (haram) substances is unlawful in Islam. So, selling, buying, or owning any kind of pork or ham is forbidden.

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 very abnormal that the majority of pizza includes pork; that is a pork pizza, not pizza. Regardless, sale of pork is haram and franchising it is also haram.

It is definitely not permissible for a Muslim to sell anything not permissible in the Shari`ah or to own a store which has such things. The price collected from pork sale is also haram, all the price not only the profit.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.