Suhaib Webb – Guidance On Boycotts

I was asked about the ruling on boycotts,

and then I was asked based on what

someone saw a TikTok provider share,

the

idea that a boycott can only happen through

the permission

of the Hakim, the Muslim ruler. So I'll

divide this answer into 5 or 6 parts.

Pay attention. And I want to also

remind people who are giving fatwa that haven't

been trained in fatwa

that Allah

commands us clearly in the Quran not to

speak about what we don't know. Well, we

ask Allah

Ta'ala. 1st and foremost,

Allah

in the Quran and through the sunnah of

the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam has layered so

many different texts and ideas and acts of

worship

with the idea of removing harm. Imam al

Shaltabi and al Muwaffakat

begins his discussion

noting that that kind of inference actually leads

to Tawatul Ma'anawi,

that it's so apparent in the Quran that

it's Tawatul from the Quran and Tawatul from

the Sunnah

that we have to remove anything that causes

harm. That's why Siri Abdi Laha says

that anything that comes causes harm should be

removed.

Secondly, because removing harm is an obligation upon

Muslims,

we know that obligations are based on ability,

based on the hadith of Abu Hurayrah

What I commanded you to do, do it

to the best of your ability. Therefore,

for the weak, the downtrodden,

those who have been abandoned, those who have

very little power, the only way that they

contribute to removing harm and establishing just establishing

justice are through their means that they have

control over. And one of those means is

a boycott. So

boycotting, say, Israel, boycotting American goods that are

contributing

to the genocide in Gaza is a means

to establish the obligation to remove harm and

also the obligation to establish justice so therefore

we see whatever

allows us to to complete an obligation becomes

an obligation. Therefore, the boycott, its ruling is

that it is obligatory

based on ability. In fact, some scholars say,

Aqal,

the the the lowest wajib we can do

is something like a boycott.

The third is the idea that

boycotts never happened in the time of the

prophet,

but we find through qiyas and inference a

number of texts that illustrate that. And I

may talk about that on a YouTube post

in the future because of time but for

example, Thumama when he embraced al Islam, Sayyidina

Thumama when

he embraced Islam

after he accepted Islam he he went to

Mecca to observe,

the rights of worship and then he said,

I'm going to cut off all of the

goods

coming to Mecca, even like a seed will

not come to Mecca.

He did this on his own without asking

the Messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wasalam. So

what we understand from that is that it

is allowed to boycott or engage in an

economic boycott without seeking permission of the hakim

because Sayyidina Thummama he would have asked the

Messenger of Allah SAW before he did it

and when the Messenger of Allah found out

that he did that he did not rebuke

him for it. And we have a very

important principle when the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam

stays silent in front of something and when

the Quran stays silent in front of something,

it stays permissible and that permissibility can become

obligatory

as I explained earlier.

Also, what he did is a form of

boycott. So,

a form of analogy as Al Baidji says

that you have this relationship between what he

did in the idea of an economic boycott

to punish those who are harming and trying

to create

a death and destruction for the Muslim Ummah.

So here I think were 4 points,

that I wanted to make on this issue.

Number 1, the establishment of justice and removing

harm is an obligation upon Muslims.

As is commanded in the Quran.

Allah says be just as closer to Taqwa

and the only means for the weak and

downtrodden and abandoned to establish justice

according to their ability. One of those means

is a boycott.

Number 3, we took the hadith of Sayyidina

Thul Ma'am, which is related by al Bukhari

and ima, Muslim radhiallahu anhuuma.

That shows that he did 2 things. Number

1, he boycotted

goods to Mecca as a means of descent.

And then secondly, he did not seek the

permission of the messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi

sallam and the messenger of Allah alayhi sallam

did not rebuke him for doing so. So

therefore, we see the evidences for the boycott

being a person's individual choice. I personally believe

it's an obligation based on one's ability. I

hope that helps.

And

my apologies for taking too much of your

time. We ask Allah to bless the people

of Waza. We ask Allah to help the

people in Palestine. We ask Allah to help

those in Sudan and Kashmir and all over

the world where the oppression is happening. And

may Allah make us allies of the Haqq

and on the right side of history. Assalamu

alaikum.