The Ruling on Seeking the Assistance of Disbelievers for the Benefit of Muslims

Question:
I ask your Eminence to clarify the following points:
First: The Supreme Ifta Council, with your Eminence present, cited the hadith of Abdullah ibn Urayqit, whom the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) employed as a guide to Madinah, as evidence regarding the presence of American forces. I have heard from one of the scholars that this evidence is incorrect; because it is considered hiring, and not seeking assistance against the Muslims—or against the disbelievers, perhaps. I ask for clarification. May Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
This is an error. It is seeking assistance, even if he did not hire him. It is seeking the assistance of a disbeliever to guide him to the appropriate road to Madinah. So, when the need arises for seeking assistance, whether with a wage or without a wage, the one who said: it is a lease, and permitted it because of the lease, is in error. If seeking the assistance of polytheists is permissible in a lease, it is permissible without a lease a fortiori. So, seeking their assistance for the benefit of Muslims, with safety from danger, is permissible, with a wage or without a wage. If he said: help me with this matter—repelling this aggressor—and you will have one hundred riyals, it is permissible. And if he helped him without anything, it is permissible.
So, the fact that he hired him for dirhams does not prevent the assistance. And the fact that they fight with us and are given—something is conceded to them—as assistance for their helping us, there is no harm in this. It is seeking assistance, even if he gave him a wage; because he sought his assistance to guide him to the road.
And likewise, the fact that he (peace and blessings be upon him) offered himself to the communities of disbelievers in Mina to seek their protection so that he could convey the message of his Lord, this is seeking their assistance. So, the Ansar (may Allah be pleased with them) did not accept this and pleased them, and he sought protection from a group and they refused, so al-Mu'tamir ibn 'Adi did not accept except to protect him, so he protected him and carried the weapon to protect him from the evil of the enemies, and they carried out his protection. And this was seeking assistance before Badr. And likewise, after Badr, he sought assistance with armor from Safwan ibn Umayyah on the day of Hunayn, and he sought assistance from the Jews in Khaybar in the seventh year of the Hijrah, and he entrusted to them the wealth of the Muslims: they cultivate the palm trees and crops for half in the benefit of the Muslims, and they are Jews. He sought their assistance for the benefit of the Muslims for half.
So, seeking assistance with a wage or without a wage is permissible when the need and the benefit call for it, in the case of dire necessity, and in the case of severe need.
And when Allah makes them self-sufficient, seeking their assistance is not permissible. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he sent back some of the polytheists on the day of Badr, because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was not in need of them, he sent them back for reasons, and he sought their assistance for reasons.
And the hadiths are not to be contradicted by one another. The hadiths must be reconciled, harmonized, and all of them must be used as evidence. So, when the need or dire necessity calls for it, they are sought for assistance. And when the need does not call for it, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did on the day of Badr when he sent him back and said: , he sends him back.
And he (peace and blessings be upon him) sought the assistance of a polytheist in his arrival from Ta'if, and in his going to Madinah via the road of Abdullah ibn Urayqit. All of it is seeking assistance, whether with a wage or without a wage. So, if we say to them—for example, to a specific disbeliever—help us in fighting Saddam, and help us against Saddam, and we will give you so much and so much every day, this is seeking assistance with a wage. And if he said: I do not want a wage; then it is a fortiori.
This is an error in the claim: that it is a lease. It is a lease, but it is seeking assistance even though it is a lease. And likewise, the Muslims did this when in need. When the need and dire necessity call for it, it is obligatory to repel evil by what is possible, whether by a Muslim or a disbeliever or a sinner or a hypocrite in the case of dire necessity, with the condition of observing safety, and that the predominant outcome is safety and benefit with this one sought for assistance against the enemy sought to be repelled.
Some of the imams said: that seeking the assistance of polytheists is abrogated, as al-Shafi'i and a group said. They said: it is abrogated, and that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sought their assistance after that.
And others said: No, it is not abrogation, but this is in its place, and this is in its place, and this is the correct view.
The correct view is that there is no abrogation; because there is no evidence for abrogation, and reconciling the texts is more appropriate than abrogation. It is permissible in the case of need, and not permissible in the absence of need. And this is the reconciliation between the hadiths and the words of the scholars of knowledge (may Allah have mercy on them).