Is it permissible to seek employment by placing applications in a box for the state to review and select from later?

The Shaykh : The offer from the officials is that, for example, he submits his name, and then he leaves and goes looking for what? His benefit? He is not to be pursued; here the previous search comes in.

The questioner : I mean, if he has applied and left, until it comes?

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.

The questioner : This is what happens.

The Shaykh : Because now, as we said earlier, the Islamic state has risen, and without a doubt, the Islamic state that will rise in the present age will not have its scope limited to Makkah, al-Madinah, and al-Ta'if, and how many countries around that capital. The area of the Islamic world is wide and very wide. So, the organization may require such an offer. Do you see, Abu 'Abdullah, the organization may require the officials to make such an offer? But the people presented with it, meaning the individuals of the people, should not be scrambling, meaning the one who wants to catch up before the second one. Every person must have ... in his job.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. Okay, seeking a job for private institutions, not in the state, it is known that one seeks a job from ...?

The Shaykh : There is no difference, Ya Gazi. The issue is one and the same. It is true that regarding what is connected to the state, it is more important and more dangerous. But the whole issue is for the preservation of the Muslim for himself, that he does not expose himself or ask, as it is said, asking is humiliation, wherever the path is. And in the authentic hadiths, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), when he took the pledge of the people, or at least a group of people, he took their pledge that they would not ask people for anything. So this is part of the wisdom in the previous search. One of them, if he was riding his camel and the whip fell from his hand and the passersby passed in front of him, he would not say, "Please hand me the whip," but rather he would dismount the camel and take it with his hand. This is so that the Muslim is noble in the depths of his soul, not asking except Allah, even in matters where cooperation among people is permissible. And this leads us to a very important topic, and many of the sheikhs still discuss it and argue with a false and very dangerous argument, which is that they permit the Muslim to call for aid from other than Allah, from the dead, from the dead who do not possess for themselves any harm or benefit. So Islam directed the Muslim that the living does not ask the living, as long as his reality allows him not to ask. And this example, "hand me the whip," I do not take the whip with my hand, so what about the Muslim who forgets Allah in times of hardship and calls upon other than Allah? And this one being called cannot answer him, even if he were alive. So if the calling for aid, calling for aid as some of the Salaf said, is the calling for aid of the living to the dead, it is like the calling for aid of the prisoner to the prisoner. But the calling for aid of the living to the living is permissible within limits, within certain limits. So, for example, it is not permissible for him to call out to someone who is far from him, "O so-and-so, help me." But if a disbeliever, for example, is beating him and a Muslim man passes by, he says to him, "O so-and-so, help me from this disbeliever," this is permissible. But you are able, when the whip falls from you, not to say to him, "My brother, hand me the whip," because you are able not to ask, not to ask. So the issue here should not be viewed only within the scope of the question being connected to the state, but to any other person. And without a doubt, such a question, we do not say that if he asked, he committed a forbidden act, but this requires that he strengthen his faith by relying upon Allah (Mighty and Majestic).