Is it permissible to invoke public benefit or the prevention of the lesser harm in working in positions such as a village headman, police officer, or tax collector with a sinful ruler?

The questioner : No, we cannot say that there is a balance between the benefit...?

The Shaykh : Yes, weighing the benefit against the harm means choosing the lesser of two harms. This applies to the person of obligation who must inevitably fall into one of them. As for the evil, it will occur if, for example, this sinful person takes a job that is not permissible in the Shari'ah. If a righteous person takes it, his evil is less than that. This is true. But why should he destroy himself in the path of saving others from some harm? The established rule, without any doubt, is that if a Muslim falls between two evils, he chooses the easier one regarding himself, not by comparing himself to others. No. This is a very dangerous matter, and many students of knowledge have gone astray in it. I do not want to say that this is from the callers to Islam. For example, we know today that the Muslim world needs certain sciences that are considered a collective obligation. If some people fulfill it, it drops from the rest. For instance, we need nurses and female doctors to treat our women, daughters, and sisters, and the like. However, the path to achieving this collective obligation is surrounded by religious violations, as is clear to everyone. The nurse, let alone the doctor, must pass through many thorny paths to graduate as a doctor. She must mix with the doctors and students studying medicine with her, and so on. Therefore, some people think there is no objection to allowing our women, daughters, and sisters to seek such knowledge because it is a necessity, as we mentioned earlier. My answer is: let the scapegoat be someone else, not our daughters and women. Do you understand the issue? In other words, as is the reality, unfortunately, not just in this era but even in the purest eras, there are people who do not fear Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with complete mindfulness, let alone in the later centuries. We know that among our young men and women today, there are those who do not care about what is forbidden and what is lawful. As that afflicted person who smokes said when he heard that there are two opinions on the matter—some say it is forbidden and some say it is lawful—he said, "If it is lawful, we will smoke; if it is forbidden, we will burn it." He finds an excuse based on these opinions. Therefore, there must be in every society, especially the one we live in today, young men and women, boys and girls, who do not fear Allah (Mighty and Majestic) at least with the right mindfulness. This type of person will offer himself to be the scapegoat. If we protect ourselves as young men and protect our women as young women and girls, they will not be the scapegoat. It is not reasonable that every individual among women must be a doctor, or that every individual among young men must be a doctor. The fewest from this group are the ones who will be a doctor or a female doctor. In that case, the one who does not care about what is lawful and what is forbidden, as we said, will step forward. And Muslim female doctors will graduate who are not disbelievers, but their mindfulness is only to that extent. Then a generation will come, and righteous Muslim female doctors will graduate under the hands of those female doctors who graduated in the first batch. This allows the Muslim to save himself from placing her, or the women or young men who take refuge in him, in what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden under the pretext that the benefit requires it. We will say that this benefit can be achieved through other types of young men and women. Is the answer clear? This is an example that leads us to the point that if we open the door to having Muslim female doctors being better than disbelieving or sinful female doctors, we will say to these people that they will be exposed to trial. Therefore, we close this door to the righteous among the believers, male and female. I believe the way out is like this, if Allah wills.