The Ruling on Forbidding Evil That Leads to a Greater Harm
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Your Eminence, the Shaykh (may Allah preserve him): What is the criterion for forbidding evil?If, for example: There is a gathering in which there is evil, and leaving it results in an evil greater than the evil you intend to forbid them from?
If you sit in a gathering where there are people smoking, advise them, even if they are smoking at that moment,And explain to them: that this is forbidden. Then, if they stop and cease, that is what is desired; otherwise, leave.
But you say: If my leaving causes a greater evil, complete the question: Say, "And if I leave them, they will drink alcohol, and alcohol is greater than smoking. So should I leave, or should I stay with them while they smoke so that they do not drink alcohol?"In this matter, I say: Leave, because if they drink alcohol, their sin is upon themselves, and this is not contradicted by what is attributed to Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him): that he passed by a group of Tatars who were drinking alcohol and did not forbid them,So his companion said to him: Why did he not forbid these people from drinking alcohol?He said: If they had left the alcohol, they would have gone to plunder people's wealth and consider their honor lawful.
And this second harm is greater than drinking alcohol, but it is a harm that extends to others. So, these people who are smoking, if I forbade them from smoking, they would leave it, but they would go out to the markets and harass people. So, let these people drink. In this matter, if these people are smoking and I have advised them, but they continue in it, then I leave and do not care about them.
If you sit in a gathering where there are people smoking, advise them, even if they are smoking at that moment,And explain to them: that this is forbidden. Then, if they stop and cease, that is what is desired; otherwise, leave.
But you say: If my leaving causes a greater evil, complete the question: Say, "And if I leave them, they will drink alcohol, and alcohol is greater than smoking. So should I leave, or should I stay with them while they smoke so that they do not drink alcohol?"In this matter, I say: Leave, because if they drink alcohol, their sin is upon themselves, and this is not contradicted by what is attributed to Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him): that he passed by a group of Tatars who were drinking alcohol and did not forbid them,So his companion said to him: Why did he not forbid these people from drinking alcohol?He said: If they had left the alcohol, they would have gone to plunder people's wealth and consider their honor lawful.
And this second harm is greater than drinking alcohol, but it is a harm that extends to others. So, these people who are smoking, if I forbade them from smoking, they would leave it, but they would go out to the markets and harass people. So, let these people drink. In this matter, if these people are smoking and I have advised them, but they continue in it, then I leave and do not care about them.