The Ruling on Sitting at Drinking Tables

Question :

I study at one of Japan's universities and a number of societies and clubs meet and parties are held where. alcohol is served. Am I guilty of sin by being present in a place in which wine is served, bearing in mind that I am careful not to sit next to it and I do not drink it, all praise and thanks be to Allah?

Answer:

It is not permissible to sit with people who drink alcohol, except to rebuke them. If they accept (all well and good), but if not, you must part from them, according to the words of the Prophet ﷺ :
"Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should not sit at tables where alcohol is circulated."

Narrated by Imam Ahmad and At-Tirmithi with a Hasan chain of narrators.

Sitting with them may lead to joining them in this evil deed or accepting it. And Allah, the Almighty, the All-Powerful has said, in Surat Al-An'am:
"And when you (Muhammad) see those who engage in a false conversation about Our Verses (of the Qur'an) by mocking at them, stay away from them till they turn to another topic. And if Shaitan (Satan) causes you to forget, then after the remembrance sit not you in the company of those people who are the Zälimün (polytheists and wrongdoers)."

And He said:
"And it has already been revealed to you in the Book (this Qur'an) that when you hear the Verses of Allah being denied and mocked at, then sit not with them, until they engage in a talk other than that, (but if you stayed with them) certainly in that case you would be like them."

And Allah is the Granter of success.