The Shaykh’s mention of al-Shatibi’s (may Allah have mercy on him) words regarding unconnected public interests.

The Shaykh : Al-Shatibi mentioned in *Al-I’tisam* the taxes and levies that some kings imposed on Muslims. Al-Shatibi says: “There is no doubt that these taxes are forbidden, because they fall under the category of consuming people’s wealth unjustly. But—and this is the point—he said: If the enemy attacks Muslims in their own land, and there is not in the state treasury or the Bayt al-Mal of the Muslims sufficient funds to help repel the enemy’s aggression, then the Muslim ruler may impose taxes commensurate with the circumstances of the wealthy among them to repel this enemy’s raid. Once the threat is repelled, the ruler should rescind the imposition of those taxes, because the sudden public interest that caught them off guard is what compelled them to impose such taxes.” As for making taxes a permanent obligation, as is the case today in some Muslim countries on the grounds that the state needs funds and does not have the natural resources and sources that Allah has blessed it with to enable it to achieve these interests for the Muslim community or the Muslim people, that is why they say: It is necessary to impose these taxes.
Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Shatibi say: “If these taxes are for a temporary cause”, such as the previous example where the enemy attacks the lands of the Muslims, then there is no harm in it. But if they are adopted as a regular system for the Bayt al-Mal of the Muslims, while these rulers neglect collecting the zakah funds as detailed in the books of hadith and Sunnah, then the poverty that befalls the Bayt al-Mal of the Muslims is the result of their negligence of the rulings of the religion. In this case, it is not permissible to create a new means, because the reason for adopting this means occurred due to their shortcoming in carrying out some of the rulings of the religion, including: the state collecting the zakah funds in the detail I mentioned earlier.
Therefore, a person can understand that the door of unconnected public interests is a very important door, because it achieves interests for Muslims that their specific circumstances require. If we master the understanding of this issue within the limits outlined in the words of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, it will be easy for us at that time to understand matters that occurred in the past and may occur today and in the future, and to distinguish whether they are from unconnected public interests or from misguided religious innovation.