Bringing Kafirs to the Arabian Peninsula to work

Q: I run a firm in Al-Dammam, which is owned by my brother. Some Hindu workers work in it. When we brought the workers, we did not know about the ruling on bringing disbelieving workers into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We thought that it was not permissible to bring disbelieving workers to the region of Al-Hijaz only, not to any of the regions of the Arabian Peninsula. Also when we sent the visas to the agency that brought them, which is located in India, we did not stipulate beforehand that the workers should be Muslim. We were only focusing on having skilled labor for our vacancies. We did not have much time to go in person to bring the workers because the visas were about to expire. If we had not made use of the visas then, the visas would have been cancelled. After we brought the workers we had hired through the labor agency, on two-year contracts as is usually done, we found that most of them, 15 out of 17, were Hindu, and one of them was Christian and one was a Muslim. The firm concluded different contracts with them. It should be noted that we did not want to bring Hindu workers because we know their adversarial practices against Muslims in India. During the first three months of probation, we did not notice any shortage in their performance to be a pretext of terminating their contracts. However, my brother, the owner of this firm and the official guarantor of the (Part No. 14; Page No. 392) workers, is displeased with having unbelievers in leading professions. Although we explained to him that it all happened unintentionally, he insists on their departure or on transferring them to another guarantor. This action will result in the following: 1- Termination of their contracts a year before the determined due time which will lead to us breaching our agreement and causing them to incur losses as they paid much to have a work opportunity here. 2- Failure of the firm to meet its liabilities and carrying out the projects it agreed upon, which are in process now. 3- Financial losses as a result of forcing workers to leave or transferring them to another guarantor, because we will have to pay for tickets and tariffs for transferring them to another guarantor and bringing other workers in the case of sending them back to their countries. Now, I am trying to set things right by establishing a new contracting company with my partner who has been with me in this work from the beginning. We will purchase my brother's firm and we will include all its duties and liabilities in the contract of establishing the new firm. Allah Willing, we are going to do the following: 1- Issuing work visas for the new company, in which we will stipulate hiring Muslim workers only (after we know the legal ruling on this). 2- We will travel, in person, to India to sign the contracts with the workers or deputize (Part No. 14; Page No. 393) a reliable agent to do so. 3- Allah Willing, after Muslim workers come and start working, we will send the non-Muslim laborers back immediately after their contracts end or renew the contracts of those who embrace Islam, for my brother (may Allah reward him with the best) calls them to Islam. This way we will be able to: 1- Carry out the contracts we signed with the workers and keep our promises to them. 2- Save the firm's money and meet our liabilities towards our clients. We intend to do all this as far as we know. We hope you will advise us as regards the ruling on this issue. May Allah reward you with the best.


A: If the reality is as you have mentioned, that is you did not know in the beginning that it is not permissible to bring the non-Muslims to the Arabian Peninsula then you learned this ruling later on and acted upon it, you have taken good procedures to send the non-Muslim workers back to their countries after the end of the terms of their contracts. You will be rewarded for your good intentions, Allah Willing. May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.


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