The Islamic Ruling on Eating at a Restaurant that Serves Alcohol

By Halal Xplorer England Food London March 30, 2022

The Islamic Ruling on Eating at a Restaurant that Serves Alchohol

This is an extremely important topic to explore and deal with. The importance of knowledge and seeking knowledge is emphasised strongly in the religion of Islam, so as Muslims it is not acceptable to remain ignorant of a matter that will evidently affect us. And not only affect us, but those who are on social media as halal food bloggers/influencers, will affect others too. Halal is not restricted to animals that are slaughtered correctly and the absense of alcohol in a dish. Halal is not restricted to that. Halal means permissible. And this covers all aspects of life. Islam is a way of life as opposed to a mere religion. So, there is a halal and haram in worship, in business, in work, in family issues, in inheritance, in communication, in socialising and in food of course too. I feel many of us reduce it down to just food, when it is far more than that. So, it is extremely important to know of the rulings and whether it is actually permissible to dine in such restaurants or not.

The crux of the matter comes down to dining in at the restaurant. So, the question is not whether the food itself is halal or haram. The question is regarding dining in. If you were to take away food from a restaurant that serves alcohol, this post is not referring to that and the quotes from scholars mentioned below will not necessarily be referring to this either.

Important Note

Before going on to showing you what the scholars have to say, I need to add an important note. Islamic knowledge is a responsibility of every Muslim. We need to learn our religion and what is allowed and not within it. Just like one who wants to become a doctor would need to study medicine, a Muslim will also need to study Islam. The amount that is studied will differ from person to person depending on ability and depending on need. However, what we all need to learn are things that affect our daily lives. And this Islamic knowledge needs to be taken from reliable and credible sources. Scholars or students of knowledge who have studied for large portions of their lives and they are known for that. It should not be taken from Instagram or TikTok or from some unknown blog like this one. Feel free to use this as your basis for what decision you make going forward, but please do your own research on this matter and refer to credible people of knowledge and not merely a Google search (would an individual get a medicine degree by doing that?).

None of the below is my words. It is the words of bonafide and credible scholars of Islam.

The main hadith

The hadith that is the basis for this discussion is the following:

عن جابر أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: من كان يؤمن بالله واليوم الآخر فلا يقعد على مائدة يدار عليها الخمر

On the authority of Jabir that the Prophet sallahu alayhi wa salam said: Whoever believes in Allah and the last day, should not sit at a table which intoxicants are circulated.

[Reported by Ahmad and Tirmidhi and Al-Albani graded it saheeh in Irwaa al-ghalil]

Opinion 1

The Permenant Comittee of Saudi Arabia said in their fatwa:

س 32: هل يجوز الأكل في المطاعم التي تقدم فيها الخمور ؟
ج 32 : إذا تيسر له الأكل في غيرها لم يجز له الأكل فيها؛ لما في ذلك من التعاون معهم على الإثم والعدوان، وقد نهى الله
(الجزء رقم : 22، الصفحة رقم: 297)
تعالى عن ذلك، وإن لم يتيسر الأكل في غيرها جاز له الأكل فيها للضرورة؛ لقوله تعالى: وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ وقوله: لاَ يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلا وُسْعَهَا ولكن لا يأكل ولا يشرب إلا ما أحل الله.
اللجنة الدائمة للبحوث العلمية والإفتاء

Question:

Is is permissible to eat in restaurants where alcohol is served?

Answer:

If it is easy for him to eat in other than it then it is is not allowed to eat there, because of what it involves of helping them in transgression and sin. And Allah ta’la prohibited that. And if it is not easy to eat elsewhere then it is permissible to eat there because of necessity due to Allah ta’la statement:

And he (Allah) did not put in your religion any difficult and due to Allah’s statement: Allah does not burden a soul more than it can bear. However, he should only eat and drink what Allah made halal.

Permenant Committee for Academic Research and Verdicts.

Translated by: Faisal Ibn Abdul Qaadir Ibn Hassan Abu Sulaymaan

Opinion 2

Shaikh al-Albani rahimahullah said:

“…I believe that every Muslim, even in the lands of disbelief, is able to not sit at a table which alcohol is served. However, he is not able to not enter a restaurant or coffee shop [which serves them]. So then we say, Allah does not burden him with more than he can bear. So that which is necessary for the Muslim to observe always is that this [action] is evil and hated and he should hate it with the severest of hatred. This is from the angle of belief. Then from the angle of action, then he attempts to make differentiation even by last of affair. That is, it is possible to retreat to a place in the coffee shop or restaurant such that he does not sit with those who are drinking alcohol directly. However, with that, I imagine that there is space for a Muslim even in the lands of disbelief to lighten the affair. That is to look at the restaurant. Is the restaurant spacious such that there is space to retreat there, like in a corner far away from sharing a table with them? Or is the restaurant or coffee shop tight, crowded such that there is no differentiation from them in terms of what they are doing of haram. This is from the meaning of: