What is the ruling on contracting with hotels to supply flowers and design gardens, and is this considered assisting in the spread of evils, given that these hotels serve alcoholic beverages?

Equipping hotels and restaurants with permissible items, such as flowers, while some of their patrons do not adhere to Sharia guidelines or consume prohibited items therein, falls under the category of assisting in sin.

The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA) has divided assistance in sin into four categories:

1. Direct and Intentional: Such as giving alcohol with the intention of assisting in its consumption. 2. Direct but Unintentional: Such as selling prohibited items that have no permissible use, without the intention of assisting in their forbidden use. 3. Indirect but Intentional: Such as giving money to buy alcohol. 4. Indirect and Unintentional: Such as selling something that can be used for both permissible and impermissible purposes, without the intention of assisting in the impermissible, or giving money to a person not for buying alcohol, but they then buy it.

The Assembly has ruled that the first three types are forbidden, and the fourth type is permissible. Accordingly, cooperating with restaurants and hotels in importing flowers does not involve direct or intentional assistance in what is forbidden, though it is more cautious to seek permissible earnings that are free from doubt.