A Newspaper Agency and the Work of Distributing Newspapers

Question

Question: Urdu and Hindi newspapers and magazines contain all kinds of obscene and non-obscene pictures, cinema advertisements, some morally corrupting articles, romantic stories and other things contrary to the Shari‘a, and almost no newspaper is free of such things contrary to the Shari‘a. What is the ruling on Muslims taking the agency of such newspapers? This is while most Muslim young men here do this business.

Answer

Newspapers and magazines also contain useful and beneficial articles; therefore the buying and selling of all of them will not be called impermissible. May the Pure God guide those who write the articles to write beneficial articles, and guide the readers to keep away from morally corrupting articles and not to accept their bad influences.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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