If a worker is forced to join labor unions or else be fired, is this considered a dire necessity?

The questioner : For example, engineers’ unions also deduct a portion of the salary for the future, in case of illness or... and one cannot do anything but pay; because the union does not allow anything else.

The Shaykh : I think this example is not far from the previous one; because although it differs in one aspect, which I may perhaps explain, I will ask: is he unable to live unless he is a member of the union? I answer you with one of two possibilities: he is unable to live, in which case the legal ruling is lifted from him; and if he is able to live without this reprehensible means, as you are describing it, then why does he also throw himself into violating the Shari'ah, when he is able not to throw himself into this violation? Then I say: he works in the union and a portion is deducted from his money; what does he do with this money? He deposits it in banks, is that not so?

The questioner : ...

The Shaykh : We want to see what the violation is here.

The questioner : It is not necessary that he be in the union...

The Shaykh : We need to see why he has the notion that he is unable to fear Allah.

The questioner : All engineers who practice the profession must join the union.

The Shaykh : No problem, I understand this, but I want to understand this: in what does the one affiliated with the union violate the Shari'ah? Because he says he is unable to do anything but violate the Shari'ah, so in what does he violate it?

The questioner : In life insurance.

The Shaykh : I want his opinion, yes.

The questioner : Insurance and retirement.

The Shaykh : Insurance and retirement.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay, fine, do you agree with both examples? Why do you not speak? Hehe, do you agree with both examples or do you have another one?

The questioner : The questions may be many...

The Shaykh : No problem, if you agree, say you agree so that I can move on.

The questioner : Agreed.

The Shaykh : Fine, does every member of every union pay life insurance?

The questioner : ...whenThe student : When you graduate from university, I am an engineer; the license that the university gives me is not enough for me to work as an engineer. I must be affiliated with the union, and there must be a special retirement fund for the new engineer. He cannot work until he is affiliated with the retirement and insurance fund... until they give him a certificate to practice the profession. So they apply their demands to him, or he works in a way outside the union so that the union does not interfere with him, meaning he works as a freelancer or through any other path. But as long as he is in engineering work, he must sign as an engineer on any work he does within the union, and consequently... he must... sign the union’s laws.

The Shaykh : No problem, all of this is understood. In what does this one affiliated with the union violate the Shari'ah?

The questioner : By... its money being deposited in banks and giving loans to engineers and... interest.

The Shaykh : Fine, this is what I said earlier: that it deals with banks. We say now: the one who pays this member of the union pays a certain amount of money. Will this money return to him doubled, for example?

The questioner : If there is insurance or a retirement fund... life insurance gives... a monthly salary... it gives a sum of money to his family.

The Shaykh : Is the monthly salary given to him more than what he paid due to saving money in banks?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Fine, in that case, suppose a person who is not an employee, a free trader, the owner of his own money, like you are the owner of your own money. He got involved and disobeyed Allah and His Messenger and deposited his money in the bank for one, two, or three years, and this money grew and bore interest. He paid them, for example, a thousand or ten thousand, and they gave him an increase, for example, a thousand. Is he forced to benefit from this thousand?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : Fine, if he is now able to apply the saying of our Lord, the Exalted and Majestic:

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Why? What sin is upon him? How?

The questioner : His ruling is....

The Shaykh : No, no; I am saying by way of example regarding the usurer. When the usurer paid the money by depositing it in banks, he profited according to the general custom and they gave him profit; but this profit is riba (usury or interest), and it is not obligatory for him to take it. Either he leaves it with them, or he takes it and spends it on public utilities, at best. We come to this point: this one who died and they gave him a pension, if he was a committed Muslim, he would know how much he paid in savings and how much they gave him as an increase from the riba money. He goes to his family and refuses this increase because he left a will; but where is this testator? This is in the realm of imagination. And the whole point of the discussion is that we do not say “he is unable to do anything but this”; no, he is able; but as they say about us in the Levant, “it needs a shaking of the shoulders,” meaning it needs action. Then, in the end, why would he enter the union when he knows that before him are forbidden acts from which he has no escape and no salvation? Why, so that he puts money in the bank, and then they give him what? Interest, which is riba in its pure form? No, the one who does not want to see disturbing dreams does not sleep between the graves. And better than this is the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): The truth is, and I mention this to the brothers on many occasions, that we have forgotten a verse in the Qur'an until it became as if it were abrogated, namely... there are gas station signs in our houses, but our hearts are empty of them, of . The purpose and goal of these signs, like road signs, is to alert and remind the one who is heedless. And here we are, as if we do not distinguish between this sign containing the noble verse and this wall; if this wall has a verse written on it, or this sign has a verse written on it, it is written, but we no longer see this verse. Why? Because a dark, gloomy, black cloud has covered our hearts, preventing us from seeing this verse in our real lives. Therefore, every Muslim today, with few exceptions, will tell you: what am I supposed to do? I have children, I have a family, and I have a house I have to pay rent for by the month or by the year, and so on. Fine, where are you and the verse? Deaf, dumb, blind, they do not understand. This is due to the bad upbringing that has prevailed in the Muslim world, and this has its causes, some of which are old and hereditary, and some, or most, or the majority, are due to the colonialism that colonized the lands of the Muslims, and imprinted on them a love of material things and greed for them; so it turned them away from such a verse. And there are hadiths, and if we say the verse that is known in general and specific knowledge, it has become forgotten with us; so what do we say about some hadiths that are supposed to be part of the knowledge of the specialists, and for some of the specialists, some of them have become unknown? For example, his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “Be beautiful in your request,” meaning take the beautiful, good, and prescribed path in seeking the sustenance that Allah the Exalted and Majestic has made lawful. We no longer ask today if this path is beautiful, good, ugly, forbidden, or lawful; just bring the money and the matter is over. Where is Islam, and where is faith in Allah and His Messenger? In another hadith with the same meaning: . The other hadith is known to all Muslims, all of them, their young and old, their scholars and ignorant ones, and so on. What is it? I say: every one of you, my brother, sustenance is apportioned, and the apportioned sustenance is in the womb of his mother as a fetus. Glory to Allah! This is a legal reality, so why do we not believe in it and follow the paths that Allah has prescribed? As long as sustenance is apportioned and we believe in it with certainty, like the term of life, like death: . . The greed for the world, as came in the other hadith, which is also known to all people: . As if the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is speaking today: . So the love of the world is what has destroyed us, and it is what justifies for us that we make lawful what Allah has forbidden. And this is not by the least of the tricks we use. And among the tricks is that the one committed to the Shari'ah comes and asksThe Shaykh : So-and-so asks whether this thing is permissible or not? He is told, "It is not permissible." Then he goes to the second, third, and fourth [scholar] until he obtains a fatwa of permissibility. He says, "This is a good mufti," and he adopts this fatwa and goes to act upon it. Why did he not act upon the previous fatwa? Because it did not meet with approval in his heart. Therefore, we must fear Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and always remember these facts of faith, for it is impossible to imagine a believer who does not believe in them and have faith in them. However, people have deviated from them due to the dominance of materialism and the love of this world. On this occasion, I mention some wonderful hadiths in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke about some nations before us, clarifying the impact of... I made a mistake, Professor, start from there on the right.

The questioner : Each person puts it in for himself.

The Shaykh : Each person, but is it just me like this? May Allah reward you with good. The Messenger (peace be upon him) said: This reminds us of the mu'jizah (prophetic miracle) that came in Sahih al-Bukhari, where the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He said, "Then the rains opened up, and it rained around the city as if there were a large cover over it, like a big tent. The Europeans think they can shade the entire city with such a tent. This is a divine tent that our Lord set up over the city when the rains became heavy. It was raining, but the city was clear with no rain. Here, this garden and its surroundings had nothing. He asked him, 'What is that?' He said, 'I do not know. This is the affair of the pious and righteous who do not feel safe from the stratagem of Allah. I do not know, but I have this garden; I invest in it, plant it, and harvest it. Then I make its harvest three parts: one third I return to the earth... Take hold of the divine causes. We have no choice but to adhere to material causes. In this type of cause, we and the disbelievers are the same. So what is the difference between the Muslim and the disbeliever? The Muslim surpasses the disbeliever, without doubt, in everything. Among these things is when he strives to take hold of the causes that were commanded to achieve lawful results. First, he strives to execute the command of Allah. Second, he strives to obtain what Allah has made lawful, not what Allah has forbidden, as the disbelievers do. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) described the disbelievers among those who were given the Scripture as saying, 'They do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor do they adopt the religion of truth, from among those who were given the Scripture.' It is obligatory for the Muslim to differ from the disbeliever, even in his striving for provision, in several aspects. One is that he takes hold of the causes as the disbelievers do, because Allah commanded it. Second, he takes hold of the causes that lead to permissible results, not forbidden ones, and this is what the disbelievers do not think about. Third and finally: he believes that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) may, if he fears Him, create for him causes that are not within his power, as you heard in the story of the cloud and watering the land of that man who fulfilled his right, the right of his land, and the right of his neighbors. Similarly, I mention on this occasion a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari: We call this in the Levant a 'darusha' (a bold act). What is Allah doing? Where are you? By Allah, he has no other way but this. Allah is the Guarantor, Allah is the Witness. So he paid him one hundred dinars. He relied on Allah and left taking hold of the causes because there was no way to them. When the term arrived, he found that he could not return to the town and fulfill the promise. So what did he do? He did something else, a 'darusha,' an extreme one. He took a piece of wood, bored it, and dug into it, and packed in one hundred dinars, just as you would pack a cartridge in a wad of straw or the like. He sealed it tightly and came to the seashore and said, 'O Lord, You were the Guarantor, and You were the Witness.' And he threw this piece of wood into this sea. Madness, and madness has many forms, but reliance on Allah, when material causes are cut off, performs wonders. So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said to the waves of the sea, 'Take this piece of wood to the town where the rich man is.' The rich man went out at the appointed time to wait for the debtor to come, in vain. But while he was waiting, he found this piece of wood being tossed and played with by the waves. So he reached out his hand and took it. When he found it heavy, he took it to the house and broke it, and one hundred gold dinars fell before him. He was astonished. Then the man returned, knowing what he had done, meaning he did something that is not included in the natural cosmic causes, as they say today, and therefore he does not rely on them. So he ignored what he had done and paid him one hundred dinars. There is no mind [in the first case], here there is a mind. There is no mind because nothing else came out of his hand. But here there is a mind, because how does he know that the wood reached its owner? And if it reached him, what guarantees that he would deny it? Imagine if something like this happened today; it would not be worth this man. When he paid him the one hundred dinars, he told him the story of the wood. He said to him, 'By Allah, when the term came and I knew that I could not come at the appointed time, I did such and such, and I came to the sea and called upon Allah, saying, "O Lord, You were the Guarantor and You were the Witness, so take charge of delivering the trust to its owner." He said, "Allah has paid it off for you, and may Allah bless you in your wealth." Do you think if he had taken the second hundred dinars, who could testify that he took the first hundred dinars? But as it is said, "Birds fall according to their kind," and "Spirits are regiments; those that recognize each other agree, and those that do not recognize each other differ." And so the rich man was good and the debtor was good. And so the result was that this rich man took only his right by way of the sea, which he had never thought of. These are all examples of the effects of the Muslim's fear of his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He). I think I have tired you, so that is enough.

The questioner : You have not tired me.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. Oh my, where is your plate? Please. The mashing and the grinding do not come together, is that not so? Please, in the name of Allah.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : There is weakness in its chain . This man is a student of knowledge, and this matter is normal, so what do you say when he is on a journey? Eat now.
Abu Layla : The Shaykh : I am telling you, eat.
Al-Huwaini: Obedience is better than eating.

The Shaykh : Yes, obedience is proper conduct.
Al-Huwaini: Okay, there is a question, meaning if you answer us after eating.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.