Is it better to avoid mentioning alcoholic beverages in hotel promotional texts and use alternative words, which may lead to the guest discovering their presence later, or is it more correct to state that the hotel serves alcoholic beverages without promoting them, so that those who fear God may refrain from going there, and does this apply to tobacco and cigarettes?
Among the Sharia principles is the prohibition of assisting in sin, based on the Almighty's saying: "And do not cooperate in sin and aggression." Accordingly, it is not permissible to translate texts that include promotion of forbidden things like alcohol and tobacco, because that is promoting the forbidden and assisting in its commission. However, if phrases promoting alcohol and the like are replaced with general phrases such as "beverages," there is no harm in translating them. There is no prohibition from advertising accommodation in hotels that serve alcohol, as long as the intended benefit is the accommodation itself, although refraining from it is preferable and safer.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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