Card payment terminals for tourist restaurants

A question about card payment terminals for tourist restaurants, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that installing point-of-sale terminals follows the business's field of work: it is permitted for businesses whose work is mostly lawful, including tourist restaurants and hotels, forbidden for those whose work is mostly selling forbidden things, and a mixed business follows what predominates, though refraining is better. ¹

An employee of a company that provides card payments through point-of-sale terminals asked whether he may install these terminals in tourist restaurants that serve alcoholic drinks. ¹

The Department answered that the ruling on installing electronic payment terminals depends on the business's field: if it is lawful, installing terminals there is lawful; if the shop's work is mostly selling forbidden things such as alcohol and pork, or nightclubs, it is forbidden because it aids what is forbidden, citing Surat al-Ma'ida 5:2. ¹ It said that if the business's work is mixed, the ruling follows whichever of lawful or unlawful predominates, and in that case it is better not to install the terminals, to avoid doubtful matters. ¹ It concluded that installing terminals in tourist restaurants and hotels is permitted because most of their work is lawful, and the burden of any incidental forbidden item they serve rests on those who run them. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3711, dated 12 June 2022. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.