He—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

Section: Hiring Someone to Provide a Prohibited Service

Hiring someone to provide a prohibited service—such as illicit sexual intercourse, sodomy, singing, transporting wine, or the like—is invalid. Yet if the hirer receives that service and withholds the worker’s payment, this too constitutes treachery and injustice.

I have discussed hiring someone to transport wine comprehensively in my book al-Sirāt al-Mustaqīm (The Straight Path). There I explained that the correct position is the one expressly stated by Ahmad: the worker should be awarded his payment, although it is not wholesome earnings for him; taking it is either discouraged or prohibited. This ruling, however, concerns work whose general category is permissible, such as transporting goods, unlike illicit sexual intercourse.

There is no doubt that a prostitute’s earnings are foul, as is a soothsayer’s fee. The judge orders the punishment of the hirer who has received the prohibited service, and the punishment imposed on him thus takes the place of the fee.

As for his responsibility before Allah, should he give the worker that payment, even though receiving it is unlawful on account of Allah’s right? This, then, has a compensable value. If he is not obliged to pay it, this would enable him to satisfy his desire: he commits the prohibited act and is excused, and Allah will not punish him in the Hereafter except