'Marrying those in liquor business un-Islamic'

A new fatwa (religious decree) by the prestigious Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, Deoband, has said that marrying someone who is in  liquor business is un-Islamic.

The fatwa, which was issued in response to a query, asked people not to get their daughters married to those who have any relationship with the companies manufacturing liquor.

The questioner wanted to know if it would be proper for him to get his daughter married to a man who collects empty liquor bottles and sell them to the liquor manufacturing companies. He sought the opinion of the seminary on whether the profession was Islamic.

In its reply, the Darul Ifta (the department of fatwa) of the Uttar Pradesh-based seminary said that selling liquor was “un-Islamic” and any work by which such a business gets help was also not proper in the Islam. “Since the man helps the business by selling it empty liquor bottles, his work also is un-Islamic,” senior cleric Mufti Arif Quasmi said.The prominent seminary is known for issuing fatwas at regular intervals. Many of the fatwas issued by the seminary have drawn flak from a section of the Muslim and the clergy also.

In an earlier fatwa, the seminary had termed the work of receptionist by Muslim women as un-Islamic and against the shariat. saying that Islam did not permit the women to appear before men without veil.

The seminary has issued several fatwas on women’s issues in the past. Earlier it had decreed that wearing jeans was ‘un-Islamic’. It had also said that the Muslim women must not take part in modelling. The seminary had, in response to a query, said that it was “not lawful to use perfume by Muslim women while going out of the house”.