Assalam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Please, for the sake of Allah, help me and explain this to me. I am a young man who has found a job through a company over the Internet, and this company does marketing and sells certain products by advertising online products on the company’s website, like books and online language courses. Since people advertise their products through the site, the site takes a commission. Anyway, it is my job to advertise the products I choose and to try and sell them, and the owner of the product gives me a commission on every item sold of maybe 50% or 75% o whatever. Sometimes I also get an annual commission, like for example, if a buyer renews his subscription to one of the websites, I mean, commissions for selling the product…My membership as a seller is free, meaning that they don’t ask me to buy anything or pay any membership fee, however, after selling the product, the site takes a commission, and Allah knows best.

To be honest, I liked the site’s concept because they have a lot of products, among which are products to help people quit smoking, books on getting rid of anxiety and books on dieting…The way it works is that I try to advertise these products on my website or my blog and in several other ways…when the customer buys this product, he has to pay through the owner’s website that I advertise for, by going to the checkout page which belongs to the company I talked about that has all these products…On this page, there is an ad or link to the site which, when you click on it, you go to the site that has all of these products: I’m afraid because I can’t trust that the site (which contains all these products) and which the buyer might go to through the product owner’s page, might advertise books or other products that are haram in our religion, like things involving interest or books that have really bad things in them, etc. But I totally trust that the products I choose and advertise are halal and that they don’t violate Islamic law…since on my site, I only advertise the products I have chosen; I don’t advertise for all of the company’s products, but the buyer could go to the company’s homepage (not the product owner’s webpage, but the company that advertises all the products) through the product owner’s webpage…What should I do since I can’t be sure that all of this company’s products are halal?…Am I responsible for this?...I mean, I choose only the halal products. As for the quality of the products, I haven’t tried them. I just leave that to the people who advertise them (for example, an English language course). It says it is new and excellent, but it’s not possible to be sure of that…since I am just an advertiser…If the product isn’t good or there’s any problem between the buyer and the product owner, would I be accountable even though I only do advertising? I fear Allah and I’m afraid for people’s rights…I mean, I signed up with the company for free…I choose some beneficial products (the company has lots of products that violate Shari`ah, but I choose the halal and beneficial ones)…I advertise them on my website or my blog in several ways (the customer could go indirectly to the company’s page which contains all the products, and he could buy or register or work with the company too)…I get a commission when the product I chose to advertise is sold through my blog or my site. Please help me and explain to me all of these points because I haven’t been able to find a proper job up till now which is better than this work. Am I responsible if the customer goes to the company’s site that has all the products, halal and haram together, even though I only advertise the halal ones? (If they buy the products that aren’t halal, or work for the company and advertise products that aren’t halal, and so on…) Is my job advertising these beneficial online products as I mentioned halal? Please explain each point to me…I beg you, each point, because I’m fed up. What is my responsibility? I’m sorry for making this so long, but I fear Allah (Ta`ala) and how I will be judged. This is the company’s site. Please look at it, but please, please,  don’t post it or mention it in any way – not even in your reply – so that no one is affected by it and I won’t be held responsible for it:

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May Allah bless you and please help me.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful,

All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessing be upon the Messenger of Allah, upon his household, his companions and those who have followed him. To proceed:

There does not appear to us to be anything wrong with choosing from among this company’s lawful products, marketing them and taking a commission for marketing them. If some people get to this company’s parent site through this and get drawn into buying or marketing these prohibited products, it would be their own, personal responsibility. {Every person is a pledge for what he has earned} [Surat al-Muddaththir 74:38][In other words, everyone is only responsible for what he himself has done.] You could put a disclaimer on your site mentioning the importance of investigating the halal and the haram in whatever he earns, and that a man who tosses a haram morsel into his body, his good deeds will not be accepted of him for forty nights, and then, publicly denounce anything that departs from the way of Islamic law and its moral standards in terms of earning and living.

And Allah Almighty is the Most High, and He knows best.