The Intended Meaning of the Prohibition on Seeking Authority and Its Relationship to Seeking Livelihood
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
It is not befitting for a person to seek authority. Does the Honorable Shaykh mean by authority the position from which a person earns his livelihood, or the position that involves status and power? And does this conflict with Allah’s command to us to strive in seeking livelihood?
Answer:
Seeking livelihood through buying, selling, earning, farming, and trading is one matter, but a job is an authority and a trust, and the hadith includes it. It includes the fact that a person does not seek it except in the situation we mentioned to you: if its abandonment would lead to its loss, and he is confident of his own competence, and if he did not apply for it, it would be lost or taken over by someone who does not know how to handle it. In this case, he seeks it. Yes.
It is not befitting for a person to seek authority. Does the Honorable Shaykh mean by authority the position from which a person earns his livelihood, or the position that involves status and power? And does this conflict with Allah’s command to us to strive in seeking livelihood?
Answer:
Seeking livelihood through buying, selling, earning, farming, and trading is one matter, but a job is an authority and a trust, and the hadith includes it. It includes the fact that a person does not seek it except in the situation we mentioned to you: if its abandonment would lead to its loss, and he is confident of his own competence, and if he did not apply for it, it would be lost or taken over by someone who does not know how to handle it. In this case, he seeks it. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب الكبائر للإمام محمد بن عبد الوهاب، بداية من باب الاستخفاف بأهل الفضل — islamhouse.com (1:22:13)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.