Thursday | 28 March 2024 | 17 Ramadhan 1445

Fatwa Answer

Question ID: 1698 Category: Dealings and Transactions
Working on multiple jobs at same time

As salamu alekum warahmath-ullah wabarakatuh, I work in a IT company which allows people to work from home between 7 am till 6 pm. Recently i have seen and experienced that some of my muslim coworkers have taken 1-2 jobs during the same time and get paid by 2-3 different companies. After pandemic this has become very normal with most of the software professionals as they can work at multiple computers at the same time. They somehow lie if the meeting coincide and manage it. Also making double or triple the amount of salary that they use to make. Also paying taxes on them correctly. They attend the day job and complete the work in the offline hours after 7 pm. If it is permissible to work this way. Will the income be halal? Also if i come to know how should i deal with it. looking forward to your response Jazakallah Khair

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم

الجواب وباللہ التوفیق

Since your office hours are fixed, it is not permissible for you to do personal work,  employment of another company or other jobs during company hours without their permission.

However, if extra work is allowed by your current employer or the duty hours are flexible, and the job is  assignment based, then you are allowed to work for other companies in parallel, but on condition that the other company accepts you to work for them and approves flexible hours to execute their assignments. Another arrangement would be that after one company's time slot is over, you start working on another job. 

Regarding the similar job problem of your friends and relatives, if they are not allowed by their current employer to to work for another job during their office hours, it is not right for them to engage in another job, according to the Shariah rules. You need to pass on this ruling to them as well.

According to Fatawa Shami:

"(قوله: وليس للخاص أن يعمل لغيره) بل ولا أن يصلي النافلة. قال في التتارخانية: وفي فتاوى الفضلي وإذا استأجر رجلاً يوماً يعمل كذا، فعليه أن يعمل ذلك العمل إلى تمام المدة ولايشتغل بشيء آخر سوى المكتوبة، وفي فتاوى سمرقند: وقد قال بعض مشايخنا: له أن يؤدي السنة أيضاً. واتفقوا أنه لايؤدي نفلاً، وعليه الفتوى(  کتاب الاجارۃ: ۶/۷۰)

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