Ruling on Personally Avoiding a Shop Due to the Owner's Sin, Versus Warning Others Away From Itحكم الامتناع عن الشراء من شخص لمعصية يفعلها، والتحذير منه

Questioner: Does a person have the right to avoid buying from someone he believes is not righteous, preferring instead to buy from people of goodness and integrity?

Yes, this is a person's right — to buy from those he considers righteous in order to support and strengthen them, and he may make this decision for himself and be rewarded for his intention in doing so; no one may forbid him from that. However, he does not have the right to forbid other people from buying from someone else, or to warn people away from a particular person or shop on the grounds that its owner commits some other sin unrelated to the goods being sold — unless the shop itself openly sells something forbidden, such as one that plays or sells music recordings and the like, in which case people should indeed be warned away from it, since the sale itself is inherently unlawful.

But if the shop is a lawful business selling permissible goods, and one simply believes its owner commits some other sin, then people should not be warned away from it, because this breeds resentment. Instead, the shop owner himself should be advised and told of the belief that his action is unlawful. You yourself then have the right not to buy from him, and you are rewarded for abstaining based on your conviction that he is doing something forbidden, while you seek out someone else who does not do so.

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