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Managing a Facebook page is permissible if Sharee'ah-violations are avoided

Question

As Salamo Alaikum I am a student who is pursuing a post graduate diploma in publishing from a co-ed college. So its a part of the course to make a company which will be run by students and publish an ebook under its name..... Now for branding and marketing purpose i made a page on facebook so as our company can reach a wider audience.... I want to know that is it haraam to make any such page where there will be posts and comments from both genders and there images could also be seen.. .first of all my classmates are admins of that page can view each other..it might happen that while surfing the page they start stocking a page of a female classmate .in that case my page will become a link in supporting them as that page would be the place from where they might do something evil..it might be that my classmates dont have indescent pics but what if they open each others profile and out of there respective friends someone has an immodest pic and what if the reason or starting point of al this is my page you know how it works in fb link upon link... anyways they are even friends on fb ...so there are many other ways also if any of them wants to indulge in such activity ..my concern is what if my page becomes there option..although no one is there to do such things as far as i know and is more about how to move ahead with our companny.... secondly its a public page it can happen that women who has used a very indescent pic to identify herself might comment or post and land up as a link on our page created by me....and become a source of bad things.. But rest apart my intention is to just and just mantain a fb page for our company .... I just want to know your opinion and hope that InshAllah you ll advice me. I was also thinking then what about all those Islamic pages on fb...the case i explained above might happen there also..whats the ruling there ? Allah (S.W.T.) knows the best.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.

First of all, it is permissible to set up such a webpage if its content is principally permissible in nature. This entails that no promotion of forbidden matters, such as usury or the like, should be made through it. The posts and comments made by participants from both sexes that appear on the page are of no harm provided that they are within the permissible limits of Sharee'ah. The participation of women in any public forum is acceptable if the content is public. What is forbidden is the participation of women in private rooms where the devil may cause temptation. In this case, it is prohibited for fear of that occurring, as it is known it is an obligation to prevent what leads to something forbidden as established by the scholars of Usool (principles of jurisprudence).

However, it is not permissible for you to enable anyone to exploit your account on Facebook to spread pornographic pictures or put links that could lead to forbidden matters, as this is a form of helping in sin. Allaah says (what means): {And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allaah; indeed, Allaah is severe in penalty.} [Quran 5:2]

It is more appropriate for you to write conditions from the start indicating clearly that it is prohibited to post something that displeases Allaah, and that you have the right to remove anything of this kind that is posted. If any such thing is posted, it is obligatory for you to remove it, as you are the person in charge.

Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him narrated that the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) said: “Whoever among you sees an evil, he should change it with his hand, if he is unable he should change it with his tongue and if he is unable, he should change it with his heart and that is the weakest level of faith." [Muslim]. Also, Ibn ‘Abdul Barr  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him reported that there is consensus of all the Muslims that it is an obligation to change evil for whoever is able to do so. One should not refrain from changing evil if it merely means being subjected to criticism, but not significant harm. If one is unable to do [change evil by his hand], then one should change it with his tongue. If again he is unable, one must detest evil with his heart, and he is not required to do more than this. If he detests evil with his heart, he has done what is required of him if it is the only thing which he could do.” [End of quote]

Allaah Knows best.

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