Continuation of the discussion regarding the young man who sought to propose to one of the girls, and he was asked to go out for four months in the cause of Allah.

The Shaykh : Likewise, we gave other examples, among them that many Muslims today expose their women to fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) and their feet may slip in the pursuit of acquiring this knowledge. I say now that it is not an individual obligation, but rather a collective obligation. For example, a Muslim woman might graduate as a doctor. But you know that a female doctor today must be exposed to much fitnah; she mixes with young men and men, from doctors to students, and so on. So how can some Muslims make it permissible to expose their daughters to such fitnah? "The end justifies the means." What is the end? A noble end: we want to produce Muslim female doctors to treat our women and daughters. But is the means prescribed or not prescribed? It is not prescribed, correct? Now, if you understand this matter, then, if Allah wills, we will tell you about that young man who proposed to that girl from her father, who belongs to a group that does not know the Sunnah and knows only unbridled emotions that have no measure. He said to him, "Go out for four months, and this is the mahr (bridal gift) of my daughter." Now, they say, "Go out in the cause of Allah for four months." Is this correct, that it is going out in the cause of Allah? I say, in answer, I do not make excuses for a group, but after this answer, it is necessary to clarify the truth in which people differ. If this Muslim suitor believes and knows that going out in the cause of Allah, which they claim is four months, is a desirable, prescribed matter, and based on this it is suitable to be the mahr for the daughter of that man who requested this going out, and that this would be like the mahr of Umm Sulaym when she accepted from her suitor Talhah, saying to him, "You are a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah) and I am a Muslim, and it is not permissible for me to accept you as a husband. If you believe, I will accept your faith as my mahr," and he agreed, and that became her mahr. If this going out for four months, which they claim is in the cause of Allah, is like this faith in Allah and His Messenger, then let him accept it and not be confused or hesitate. But if—and I say it is necessary for me to say—if this is a bid'ah (religious innovation) that the Muslim world did not know for fourteen centuries, and these foreigners brought it and then imposed it on the Arabs who were ignorant of their religion, which was revealed in their language, so they became more foreign than the foreigners, and they accepted what was not from the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) in all these days, years, and centuries, then I say it is not permissible for him to go out. And I remind him of the saying of the Exalted, as mentioned earlier: This is what I say if this suitor is an ordinary man. But if he is like our brother Ghazi, the imam of a mosque, and he has the obligation of da'wah (calling others to Islam), then the mahr of this suitor for the daughter of that wali (the bride's guardian) must be turned into advice that he presents to the wali of the house, explaining to him that this request you are making of me, I refuse it firmly, because it is from the newly invented matters. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Yes.