A man with a large family consisting of his wife and his married children, who has hired a disbelieving worker to work inside and outside his house
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The questioner : Your Eminence! One of my neighbors has a large family; he has sons, some of whom are married, and they all reside in one house, along with his wife, his sons, and their wives. He has a worker who works inside and outside the house. When I advised him, he argued with me that he cannot hire a female servant for fear of his sons. Knowing that this worker is a disbeliever, he finally asked me to ask you about this issue, saying: "I will take the fatwa of Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen." So what do you rule? May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : I say: May Allah bless you. If it were not for a hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that Ali ibn Abi Talib asked al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad to ask the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Messenger answered him, I would not have answered you. What is between him and me?
The questioner : The last thing I said to him was: "Get a fatwa from the Shaykh."
The Shaykh : In any case, tell him: I asked him, and he says: He should bring a female servant with a mahram (a relative one may not marry). The female servant should be in the house, and the male mahram should be there to attend to his needs, either as a driver or to bring things from the market or the like. This is safer for his religion and his honor. Then, if he wants to bring a servant as I have described, let her be Muslim. Her husband will be Muslim if the wife is Muslim, because the disbelievers are the enemies of Allah and His Messenger, and they are our enemies as well; we do not feel safe with them. For this reason, when Abu Musa al-Ash'ari wrote to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab asking him to appoint a Christian as a scribe to account for the public treasury, and Abu Musa praised him, or perhaps it was Khalid ibn al-Walid—I am forgetting now—'Umar sent him a message saying: "Do not appoint him, because Allah said:[Ali 'Imran 3:118] Then he sent him a second message saying: "This man is good, and we do not find anyone like him." So 'Umar wrote to him: "The Christian is dead, and peace."
One word: what does "The Christian is dead" mean? It means: Suppose he died, would our work be suspended? In reality, the disbelievers are not to be trusted.
Tell him: He should greet you and say: "May Allah reward him with good." He should bring a Muslim female servant for the house, along with her mahram, to work in the market.
The questioner : And the servant...
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, it is not a problem; he can send him back to his country.
The Shaykh : I say: May Allah bless you. If it were not for a hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that Ali ibn Abi Talib asked al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad to ask the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Messenger answered him, I would not have answered you. What is between him and me?
The questioner : The last thing I said to him was: "Get a fatwa from the Shaykh."
The Shaykh : In any case, tell him: I asked him, and he says: He should bring a female servant with a mahram (a relative one may not marry). The female servant should be in the house, and the male mahram should be there to attend to his needs, either as a driver or to bring things from the market or the like. This is safer for his religion and his honor. Then, if he wants to bring a servant as I have described, let her be Muslim. Her husband will be Muslim if the wife is Muslim, because the disbelievers are the enemies of Allah and His Messenger, and they are our enemies as well; we do not feel safe with them. For this reason, when Abu Musa al-Ash'ari wrote to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab asking him to appoint a Christian as a scribe to account for the public treasury, and Abu Musa praised him, or perhaps it was Khalid ibn al-Walid—I am forgetting now—'Umar sent him a message saying: "Do not appoint him, because Allah said:
do not take as intimates those other than yourselves, for they will not spare you [any] ruin
لا تَتَّخِذُوا بِطَانَةً مِنْ دُونِكُمْ لا يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالاًOne word: what does "The Christian is dead" mean? It means: Suppose he died, would our work be suspended? In reality, the disbelievers are not to be trusted.
Tell him: He should greet you and say: "May Allah reward him with good." He should bring a Muslim female servant for the house, along with her mahram, to work in the market.
The questioner : And the servant...
The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, it is not a problem; he can send him back to his country.