The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade innovation in the religion, so what is the ruling on unlegislated public interests?

The questioner : It is said that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade innovation in the religion, so what about what is called unlegislated public interests?

The Shaykh : What about it?

The questioner : Are unlegislated public interests a form of innovation or something else?

The Shaykh : First, unlegislated public interests have no connection to the issue of innovation in the religion, and this is a very important point. This is because innovation in the religion refers to the innovator’s intention with that innovation to increase his nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). The innovator in the religion wants his innovation to increase his nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). This is the innovator’s intention, and therefore all the texts that forbid innovation in the religion apply to him. The first of these is the noble verse: The favor has been completed for you, so there is no room left for anyone to innovate a form of worship to increase his nearness to Allah. How can one do so when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So how can you come with a form of worship claiming that it brings you closer to Allah, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not bring it? This is what applies to the innovator in the religion. It is not so for the one who brings a new matter, but not with the intention of increasing nearness to Allah, and rather with the intention that this new matter leads to a matter prescribed by explicit text. I mentioned a few days ago the difference between innovation and unlegislated public interests. I mentioned this difference, not with this explicitness, but by clarifying that not everything that happens after the Messenger (peace be upon him) is lumped together with the condemned innovation in Islam. Rather, what happens after the Messenger (peace be upon him) with the intention of increasing nearness to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is what all the previous texts apply to, by reference to them. Among them is his saying (peace be upon him): I mentioned at that time as an example the expulsion of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab of the Jews from Khaybar. There is no doubt that this expulsion happened after the death of the Messenger (peace be upon him), and after the death of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), and after a period of the caliphate of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. Is this an innovation in the religion? The answer is no, because innovation in the religion is a newly invented matter with the intention of increasing nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). As for something that happens without the intention of increasing nearness to Allah, but rather with the intention of implementing a ruling from the rulings of Allah, where this ruling is explicitly stated in the Book of Allah, here you will find that when 'Umar ibn al-Khattab expelled the Jews from Khaybar, he was implementing a condition from the conditions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he made a truce with the Jews that they would not leave Khaybar, and that they would remain in this village and work in it, and that they would have half of what the earth grows, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) would have the other half. Among what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) conditioned upon them was: This condition is not eternal, but rather it is as it appears to us Muslims: So when it appeared to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab that the Muslims no longer needed to utilize the knowledge of the Jews in agriculture, planting, and livestock, he dispensed with them... The earth of Allah is vast, exactly as is the case in many Islamic countries today, where they are forced to hire foreign employees, who may be disbelievers, to benefit from them in managing the affairs of the country and expanding in its resources, agricultural and economic aspects, and so on. So when the people of the country themselves become knowledgeable about these matters, they dispense with these foreigners and are told to return to where they came from.
The point is that when 'Umar expelled the Jews from Khaybar, this was a new matter that did not occur during the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him), but this new matter has a solid basis in the Shari'ah, which is the condition we mentioned earlier that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) imposed on the Jews. So unlegislated public interests are valid; they involve a new event, but they lead to achieving a public interest prescribed by explicit text. And with that, there is a precise detail here, which is something that students of knowledge should know. The public interest that arises and achieves a legal benefit stipulated in the Shari'ah, for example, the airplane and the car are things that did not exist in the previous era. So if a Muslim uses them to achieve a legitimate Islamic goal, this falls under the category of unlegislated public interests, meaning interests left to the times. So every time has its circumstances, innovations, and inventions. If Muslims today are keen to acquire cars and airplanes, I do not say only to fulfill necessary and desirable needs, but I say to strengthen themselves so that Muslims can repel the aggression of disbelievers. In that case, do we fight the disbelievers with the old weapons we inherited from our fathers and grandfathers, claiming that these new means are among the newly invented matters? The answer is no. These new means do not fall under the newly invented matters condemned by the Shari'ah, which are those in the religion. As for these means, they are worldly matters, but we take them, especially in the matter of strengthening ourselves against the enemies of Allah in all lands of Allah. And at that time, this text is implemented to achieve one of the commands of Allah, which is His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): So if we take these newly invented matters today, which are means of strengthening ourselves against our opponents and enemies, our taking of them is an unlegislated public interest because it achieves a prescribed matter, which is strengthening ourselves against the enemies of Allah. We are now at a lower level; unfortunately, we are very lagging in this field in terms of preparing with the known power today to meet and confront the enemies of Allah. It is permissible for us to take these means on the basis that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) bestowed a favor upon His servants when He said: At that time, ships in the seas were like towering mountains moving in the seas and navigating them. Today, what Allah willed, you find the ship like a town in the middle of the sea, and you find the airplane like a palace flying in the sky, and so on. These means, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) indicated that they are from the favor of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) upon His servants with them, and therefore He bestowed upon them by saying: And in another verse, completing the reminder of the favor, and what is the verse? And this airplane we see today, indeed the car, is from what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) created, which our first ancestors did not know. So it is permissible to adopt any means, provided the goal and intention is not to increase nearness to Allah. Any means that has occurred, it is permissible for us to take it and adopt it for us as a permissible matter in our Shari'ah, as long as it achieves a matter prescribed by explicit text.