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What is the ruling on serving alcoholic beverages in a hotel in a non-Islamic country, such that the proceeds go to a non-Muslim employee, and is zakat obligatory on the hotel and its proceeds, and what is the ruling on a customer serving alcoholic beverages in the hotel if the hotel does not sell them?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Your brother is not permitted to serve alcoholic beverages in his hotel or elsewhere, due to the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "Allah has cursed alcohol, its drinker, its server, its seller, its buyer, its presser, the one for whom it is pressed, its carrier, the one to whom it is carried, and the one who consumes its price." There is no difference in this whether its proceeds are given to one of the Christian workers or not. Zakat is obligatory on the hotel's revenue if it reaches the nisab (minimum threshold) and a hawl (full lunar year) passes over it, but not on the hotel itself or its furnishings. If a customer brings alcohol and drinks it in their room, your brother bears no sin. It is advised to avoid purchasing hotels in such countries and instead invest money in permissible projects that yield lawful profits.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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