Ask Shaykh YQ #108 – Regarding Economic Boycotts of Corporations and Countries For The Sake of the Ummah

The next question we have sister offered in emails us

and asks the ruling about economic boycotts and says that those countries that have done harm to the Muslims or companies that are known for helping regimes or basically, you know, helping illegal occupation, that what is the Islamic stance on economic boycotts are not purchasing the goods that are from that company or from that country?

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The response to this question is that this issue of economic boycott, it is an issue of tactics, it is an issue of means, it is an issue of methodology, not an issue of goals. And we need to understand that this idea has come with goals it did not come with means the shediac came with a final like what do you need to do? And it did not tell you how to get to that need. Let me give you a simple example, the Shetty I told us to preach Islam to others. The Sherry I did not tell us the specific methodology, the tactics of how to give Dawa and therefore, for example, writing an op ed in the newspaper, okay, did the Sahaba ever write an op ed in the newspaper? There were no

newspapers to sway public opinion. Did they ever do that? In fact, even the concept of swaying public opinion in this type of manner you know, if you look at the letters of the Prophet salallahu it seems totally different time and place. He's inviting them straight to Islam. Excellent, beautiful. What if somebody were to

do slightly different tactics as I said, write an op ed or article or whatnot in which we correct certain you know, misinformation without necessarily getting to the point of inviting them to Islam that's a stepping stone we're gonna get there. Is there anything wrong with that? Right The goal is that what how specifically that was done using the internet Okay, how what we put on the internet, you know, the, the methodology, the languages, the styles that we're going to use, all of this is from the tactics and it is from the means to get to the goal. The goal is that what the goal is inviting others to the way of Allah subhana wa Tada. Allah says in the Quran, Udo Elizabeth Rebecca

bill Hekmati. What motivated has entity which I did humility here isin. Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom been hikma? Well, more than hessen and good preaching, what jack did ability, he said and if you have to argue, argue in a manner that is the best wisdom now, all three of these are contextual call to your Lord with wisdom. Anybody who is multicultural, knows that wisdom and how you say something and the language that you use and the tone that you use, and the examples that you give, and how strict or lenient you can be, it is culture specific. Anybody who is multicultural, knows this, how you would speak to somebody of this land would be different than how you speak to

somebody from another land. They all goes back to your culture. So when Allah is saying, call to your Lord with wisdom, right then in their wisdom varies from time and place and culture and society. And Allah says, one more Ableton has good more ever good Motorola, Motorola means the emotional argument more or less means you really get to their soul. Once again, this is something that the tactics and the methodology would vary from time to place to to people, it's very specific, it's culture specific, how I would speak to a Western audience, a non Muslim audience, when I talk to them about Islam is very different than let's say how somebody you know, 500 years ago in maybe

another land would speak to the people of that land very different. The examples I would give the concepts I would bring up the the, the the languages, everything would be totally different. And Allah is saying that call them with the best matter. And then if you must argue, which I didn't build up to here as an argue in the manner that is best as well, everything all three of these alone made culture specific. And the same goes when it comes to tactics that are meant to basically hurt those that are harming us. The same goes that, for example, the issue of economic boycotts. The goal is that anybody who harms us, we do not support them. That's the goal. Allah says in the Quran, with

Alvin rideability, with taqwa wallet are a familiar with one cooperate in good and piety and do not cooperate an evil and do not cooperate in transgression. Now, there is a company that we know that they are harming people harming Muslims, they're doing evil things. So boycotting

To them, if it is going to achieve a good goal, and if the experts tell us that there's going to be benefit in this, then definitely it is something that should be done, it becomes a tactic, because the goal we all agree that we want to minimize harm. The goal is to minimize oppression, to hurt the oppressor so that they stopped the oppression. So the tactics vary from time to place to situation, and therefore, economic boycotts are a tactic, and they are most definitely permissible they are, it is it is permissible to do that. And in fact, the Quraysh themselves used this tactic against the Muslims, what was the boycott, you know, the famous boycott, when the Prophet system was in the

shadow of the Benny Hashem right when the Muslims had to leave and live in the mountains for a while, what was that boycott, that boycott was that they would stop selling their goods to the Muslims, and stop intermarriage with the Muslims and stop everything with the Muslims. So the Quraysh used economic boycott against Islam. And a few years later, the Muslims of Makkah as well as the Muslims of Medina, when they migrated as well, there are references to them not engaging in general trade with the Irish as well, because they're not going to have peaceful trade anymore with the people that attempted to kill them. So they use that and they in fact, pinched the lifeline of

the of the economic lifeline of the operation multiple times, and, you know, the the Battle of budget and whatnot, that's one of the things that they were doing, they're pinching the lifeline, the relative sheeta it was saved, they began to make sure that that lifeline of the economic trade route became constricted became difficult, and it can be seen as a tactic of economic boycott. Therefore, the notion of economic boycotts is something that we can actually derive from the Syrah itself. And there should be no problem in saying that it is completely permissible to engage in economic boycotts. And these days, of course, the issue is coming about France in particular, and

what what it is doing, and should we, you know, boycott French products and whatnot. And the answer to this is most definitely, if experts if economic policymakers because again, the point of boycotts, they have to be effective, they have to do something, and who is going to decide that not me, I'm not an economics expert, I'm not a political science expert, people who are in the business people who know, they will tell us that, hey, if you know, so many millions of Muslims stopped purchasing that product, it will be the most harmful to them. So it stopped, you know, being with this type of business, it was going to be good for them. So we listen to the experts in the field.

And us our scholar, the the job of scholars is to listen to these experts and then propagated to the people However, all of that having been said and so therefore definitely no problems in boycotts, no problem, although that haven't been said to caveats. And please don't understand these caveats as being against the issue of boycotts. I've just told you, boycotts are a tactic that is valid and effective when it is done properly. That having been said, two caveats. Firstly,

we have to be accurate, we cannot be emotional, we have to be we have to understand the the company or the the country or whatnot, is that is it really sinful or evil, that we should be boycotting it? And again, I don't want to be too specific, because I don't want to endorse a brand or whatnot. But let me just say there's a very popular, you know, coffee brand in America, very one of the most popular popular brands. And there is this notion that this this chain is a supporter of the apartheid regime of Israel, that this that if you purchase one coffee, you will you're literally you know one of what there's a meme going around that every coffee is like a bullet tuna to our

Palestinian brothers and sisters. And you know, it's a very not that I'm not endorsing the company. I'm not frankly, it has mediocre coffee. But that's besides the point. I'm not endorsing the company. I'm not criticizing it. I'm just being factual here. That that's just wrong. The company itself does not support any political entity. Yes, the founder of his own personal wealth might have a certain persuasion and if you feel that, you know by the time you calculate what percentage goes to that person or wouldn't if you feel that you don't want to shop there, that's completely your prerogative. But in reality, boycotting that company is not going to save the life of any any Muslim

in the world or harm the life of any Muslim. I'm sure you're gonna save money I'm not saying you're not going to eat coffee is overpriced over there. You might save money you can give a soda but to make this an Islamic cause seems emotionalism. The same goes for again, you know, the when I was growing up in the 80s you know, we were taught to that, you know, Pepsi stands for pay every penny to the state of Islam. It's like these types of notions. They're just not true. I mean, I'm sure you should boycott Pepsi simply because of the sugar in it. No question about that. You should boycott it for health reasons I'll be the number one on the list. But to claim that these companies you know

if you purchase them, you know you are killing Muslims are helping again, the problem comes down

In the long run, you're damaging your own. You know, it's like the boy who cried wolf, you keep on saying everything is how or, or related to this, it doesn't work that way. So be careful. And let the experts tell you don't just base your fatwas on memes on the internet and whatever is people is passing around be a little bit more discerning in this regard. The second and this is the more technical and perhaps some of you will not like what I'm saying, but I have to be clear for the eyes of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Listen, we cannot nobody, nobody can make it, how long for you to purchase a product if Allah has not made it, how long and people circumstances are different, we can

encourage we can, we can help people find alternatives, we can pass around legitimate information that these are the companies that should be boycotted. But in the end of the day, if a particular person through because of his or her circumstance is not able to boycott, we should not shame that person of their circumstances forced them to do that. Let me give you a simple example. I mean,

for example, the French you know, boycott Now, obviously, all of us can easily boycott you know, whatever the I don't even know what the French produce on other than that it's not as a major economy. What is it for us? Cheese are some perfumes odor, what else do the you know, and I don't eat goat cheese anywhere. So I mean, it's not something that, you know, a major thing. But suppose everybody came together and boycotted French products. Okay, what do you expect French Muslims to do? They're going to boycott living in France. What do you expect them to do? They're living in the country. What what's going to happen? Same goes, other countries might boycott the country we live

in because of the war crimes and whatnot, what are you you're paying your taxes, me and you are paying our taxes? So what are you going to tell them when they say we're not buying anything from that country, your country you live in, and you are paying taxes in that country? So there's two sides to the coin always and feel free to boycott specific companies? No problem, feel free to you know, boycott. You know, countries even in their products, no problem and it's good. But don't make it allas watch it on other people don't bring in wajib and how wrong don't look don't use these terms. Say let us collectively come together to put pressure excellent. Let us try our best to use

the economies but do not make somebody sinful for something Allah has not made sinful. during times when specific tribes of Medina the bundle final card, the bundle Corrado, the bundle novia, they were causing problems for the Muslims, the Sahaba would still buy and sell and there was business partnerships to the very end to the very end, there were business partnerships, because there was no alternative. They could not boycott those tribes, you could work on the corporation, and they did work on the corporation, they could not boycott those three tribes of the Australian background, because they had economic lifeline in Medina, and they controlled the market and resources. And the

Muslims continued to buy and sell and to be business partners with these three tribes until each one of them what happened to them happened. So we cannot make this a matter of al Qaeda of theology of how Rahman had the max, we can say, let's cooperate together. And let's try our best to put on pressure. And also, again, let us be fair here because again, there's a lot of emotionalism going on. That really, we it's very easy to boycott certain things, but to be consistent, people are going to call us out right to be consistent. You're going to be called out because you cannot boycott each and everything that is harmful. Again. Let's be very, very blunt here. There's a country here that

let's call it by name, China, it is persecuting millions, millions of Muslims. Are you really going to boycott each and every product from China go through your house? I guarantee you 70% 60% of your products are somehow related to that country? What are you going to do our hearts bleed for our weaker brothers and sisters we make to offer them what is happening now is unprecedented since the times of world war two unprecedented the largest concentration camps since the Nazis and our hearts are in pain. Were making the art for them. But that country is a superpower in terms of produce, to what level are you going to boycott to what level The same goes for the apartheid regime. I boycott

certain products from that regime. I boycott it, I do not buy anything that I know is using illegal settlements. I try my best and I make it a point. But at the same time, there are products that are somehow linked to our companies as well computer chips, this and that, that are produced in that in that country. And we have our most of our computers have those products as well. So to what level are we going to boycott? I'm not saying that just because we cannot be fully consistent we throw everything we throw the baby out with the bathwater. I'm not saying that. But I'm asking us to be a little bit more mature and a little bit more realistic and understand that there are times and

places where economic boycott is possible and sensible. And then there are other times in places where neither is it possible, nor is it sensible. So we leave it to the experts and be in touch with those who understand the global economy and what

And then see what we can do in this regard. The shady itself allows it, it doesn't mandate it. And it doesn't make it sinful, the shady allows it. And my opinion, again, is that we allow the experts to speak and therefore, given the current circumstances right now, as we speak, there's major trials going on in France and whatnot, against the Muslim community, I have no problem that we publicize, that we're not going to purchase anything from France. And we have the luxury of doing that at hamdulillah plenty of alternatives, no problem, right. And the same goes again, me personally, I'm very, very conscious about anything that is made using land that has been confiscated, basically,

from the settlements, right, because, again, the entire region is confiscated in his own way. It's an apartheid regime, they came in and they took the entire land, you know, it's like speak everything from the beginning. But there are certain you know, lands that are even more illegal than other lands. And so anytime there is a corporation that is operating in settlements, and you do your research, we and we know exactly who they are, we should be extra careful how we should publicize that we're not going to deal with any but if somebody if somebody once it goes and purchases them, are you going to say that Alice land is on you, that is how you cannot use that language, you cannot

use that language because that language, you are now infringing on the rights of Allah subhana wa tada and Allah has not made it how long Allah has made it a tactic and whether you choose to use it or not, that's up to you. And I personally as I said, I expect a lot to reward me I expect a lot to reward me when I do not purchase products made by Israeli companies that are operating in in the illegal settlement areas. I literally I my kids when I tell them do not purchase this company, this company, we don't want any of these products you know if one of them says it tastes better, what not? I said I don't care. We're gonna you know what I told one time when my wife said we're going to

make it at home No problem, we're not going to I expect a lot to reward me but at the same time, there must be a level of you know, common sense and whatnot. And as I said, we don't bring we don't bring her on and hello to other Muslims you feel free to do it. You'd be as strict as you want. You encourage others to do it in case somebody for whatever reason doesn't listen. That's that that's their prerogative and you don't know their circumstance and you leave it to Allah subhana wa tada and with that, inshallah, we conclude this question, until next week, duck maloca saramonic Manasa to Lahore barakato.