Working in accountancy is lawful unless it serves a forbidden business. If permissible and forbidden work is mixed, they are weighted and a decision it taken whether to continue or leave at the first opportunity. 

Working in Accountancy

Similar Questions

• Working for firms of accountants;

• Working for firms of auditors.

The Issue

A Muslim may work in accountancy, either in firms of accountants or in various types of business. If one is living in a non-Muslim country is such work permissible from the Islamic point of view?

Ruling

Working as an accountant is permissible unless the work is to serve businesses that are forbidden, such as selling wines or pork or for gambling houses. In such cases it is not permissible except in a case of necessity that is acceptable from the Islamic point of view. Such necessity should be assessed on its own merits and measures should be taken to remove it. The person who does such work in a situation of necessity should intend to leave at the first opportunity.

In cases where the permissible and the forbidden are mixed in what an accountant attends to, the verdict differs in each case. If the majority of the work is permissible an exemption is given and the accountant may carry on with this work as required. However, he should dispense with a portion of his income equal to the portion of the forbidden part of his work and he should seek a job that excludes any doubtful sources of income. If the forbidden part of his work outweighs the permissible then the verdict remains one of prohibition, so as not to participate in what is forbidden or to help in doing it, but necessity is considered on its merits and efforts should be made to remove it. In the case of institutions whose activities are mainly in the forbidden areas an exception is made for an accountant whose task is solely to audit financial decisions and does not take part in implementing them. This ruling is endorsed by the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (Decision 6-5).

Evidence

An accountant’s work is technical using legitimate tools so normally such work is lawful unless there is clear evidence for prohibition.

An accountant may work as an auditor because an auditor checks financial decisions and does not participate in putting them into effect. As such he only reports what takes place in practice.

Sources

• Decisions by the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America,
• Khalid Abd al-Qadir, Fiqh al-Aqaliyyat al-Muslimah.