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The prohibition of prostitution and of accepting any payment for it, whether the woman is freeborn or enslaved; it is vile income issuing from a vile act, however it is pursued.
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The prohibition of soothsaying and all similar practices—fortune-telling, astrology, casting pebbles, summoning jinn—and the prohibition of taking anything in return for these satanic superstitions.
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From these and other prohibitions we learn that the Sacred Law forbids everything harmful and every profit that arises from such harm.
Hadith Six
On the authority of Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “The price of a dog is repugnant, the dower of a prostitute is repugnant, and the earnings of a cupper are repugnant.” ⦗1⦘
Overall meaning
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) identifies base and loathsome sources of income so that we may avoid them and seek honorable, wholesome livelihoods instead. Among these despicable gains are the price of a dog, the fee a prostitute receives for her fornication, and the wage taken by a cupper. Such earnings are low and repellent; anyone possessed of dignity and self-respect keeps away from them.
Lessons derived from the ḥadith
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The prohibition of the dog’s price and the prostitute’s dower, and of anything that leads to either.
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The prohibition of the cupper’s earnings, for cupping is a degrading occupation that undermines dignity and honor; therefore its income is repugnant.
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Shaykh al-Islām said: When the unlawful wealth itself is specifically identified, consuming it is categorically forbidden; when its exact item is unknown, eating from it is not unlawful, though if the unlawful share is substantial it should be avoided out of piety.
Scholarly disagreement
The jurists have differed regarding the cupper’s earnings. One group held it to be forbidden on the basis of this ḥadith and the report from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) “forbade the cupper’s earnings,” related by Aḥmad.