Doing shopping for non-Muslim elderly neighbors
29-4-2008 | IslamWeb
Question:
Salaam Alikum brothers. I live in an area of London where majority of my neighbors are old ladies and all of them are either Jews or Christians. Due to my religious duty to help neighbors I do their shopping, because I am busy on weekdays and the only time I can help them is one day of weekend where I do their shopping. I do most of their shopping except Alcohol, I have informed them that I can not do. I just realized that 80% of the shopping includes ingredients which consists of pork which is also forbidden in Islam. So what can I do, and please advice me on how to approach them and inform them. Becuase I really like to help them, and their children only comes to see them once a year, which makes people sad. Jazak Allah.
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Undoubtedly, helping neighbours is something urged in Islamic Law especially if this is with the intention of calling a non-Muslim neighbour to Islam. However, this is not a sound reason for committing prohibitions.
Buying pork is forbidden, but since you did not know that those products contained pork, then we hope that you are not sinful.
However, it is not permissible for you to continue buying these products for them, and you should inform them that it is not permissible in Islam to buy pork in the same way you informed them about alcohol.
You should seize this opportunity to call them to Islam, and inform them about the recent surveys which show that pork causes serious diseases and that the Quran forbade it 14 centuries before these surveys were carried out. This will be the occasion to call them to Islam as the Prophet Yoosuf (Joseph) 
did with his two inmates when he interpreted the dream for them.
For more benefit on the wisdom of the prohibition of pork, please refer to Fataawa 81392 and 82887, and to Fataawa 86337 and 84349 about calling the Jews and Christians to Islam.
Allaah Knows best.