What is the fiqh of balancing legal considerations? And what is the fiqh of the hadith of Aisha: "If it were not that your people are newly converted to Islam, I would have demolished the Ka'bah..."?

The questioner : We move on somewhat to—also—the fiqh of da'wah; what is the fiqh of balancing legal considerations?

The Shaykh : Balancing legal considerations.

The questioner : And what is the fiqh of the hadith: ? And can this hadith be taken as a rule for preferring the lesser of two harms over the greater of two benefits? For example, as an illustration: a person wants to apply the Sunnah of shaking hands, or rather, he does not shake hands with women; he does not want to shake hands with women because he knows that it is not permissible. So a great problem stands before him; he cannot do either of two things: either he maintains his family ties or he shakes hands. Some people tell him: cutting off family ties is a great harm, and averting harms takes precedence over seeking benefits; therefore, you must maintain your family ties and shake hands.

The Shaykh : Yes, I say this is an accepted statement, and that this hadith is evidence for this rule. But the problem is the application. When someone says: if he refrains from shaking hands with women, it necessarily leads to cutting off family ties; is that correct? Or is it an exaggeration and taking the weakest of causes... to commit some violations under the claim that this leads to a greater harm than this violation? The rule is undoubtedly correct in theory, but the important thing is the correctness of its application. This is from one aspect. From another aspect, if this door is not applied with extreme precision, it opens a door for the da'iyah (caller to Islam) that is of great danger, and he will leave the Shari'ah in this matter, then in the second, then in the third; the matter turns into doing that in order to call people to Islam, and he finds himself drifting away from Islam in many of its rulings, following the majority among whom he lives. I do not currently envision this specific example; I do not envision a Muslim who performs the duty of enjoining good and forbidding evil finding himself between two harms, a major and a minor one, where the minor is shaking hands and the major is cutting off family ties. I do not envision that this severance will occur, neither directly from his side, as is clear, because he applies the Shari'ah, nor from the side of the others who are accustomed to the fact that there is nothing wrong with shaking hands. I recall now that when I was at the Islamic University, teaching there for nearly thirty years, I learned that in some neighboring Arab countries, it is the custom in some tribes that when a stranger man visits the house of a brother of his and a woman comes out and greets him, the completion of the greeting is that he kisses her, and that a man kissing a woman who is a stranger to him is absolutely nothing; because it is the custom of that tribe.
One thing reminds one of another: there is a well-known Islamic party in the Syrian and Jordanian lands, and perhaps in other lands; namely, the Tahrir Party, which denied the door of sadd al-dhara'i' (blocking the means to harm) absolutely. Based on this denial, they denied all means, even if it is more likely than not, because they lead to a greater evil. Consequently, they permitted the one who greets a non-mahram woman to shake hands with her, and they also permitted, when greeting her with the Islamic greeting, to kiss her. But they said—and I hope you do not laugh—it is permissible for him to kiss her on the condition that he does not kiss her with desire! .
The point is: the rule is correct in its origin, but the reality is that its application requires extreme precision. Therefore, applying this rule is not permitted except for a man who is knowledgeable in Islam, scrupulous, and pious; otherwise, his foot may slip—may Allah forbid it. And on this basis, the answer is:
The hadith is undoubtedly a rule, but who applied this rule? It was the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Not every scholar is measured by it, and I do not say every student of knowledge, and a fortiori, I do not say: every Muslim. Rather, is the scholar and the scholar of the Book and the Sunnah measured by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? If this analogy is made, it is like measuring blacksmiths by angels. And this—as Ibn Hazm says in such cases—is that all analogy is invalid, and if there were any truth in it, this would be the very essence of falsehood. This is sound in its conclusion, not in its beginning.
Have I completed the answer to the question?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.