Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
Boycotts as tactics — 0:00
the next question we have um sister afirin 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 uh what is the islamic stance on economic boycotts on not purchasing the goods that are from that company or from that country oh 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 the sharia has come with goals it did not come with means the sharia 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 sharia told us to preach islam to others the sharia did not tell us the specific methodology the tactics of how to give da'wah 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 different time and salallahu he's inviting them straight to islam excellent beautiful what if somebody were to do slightly different tactics as i said write a a an op-ed or a article or whatnot in which we correct certain you know misinformation without necessarily getting to the point of inviting them to islam that's the stepping stone we're going to get there is there anything wrong with that right the goal is how specifically that what is done uh using the internet okay how what we put on the internet you know the the methodology the languages the 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 da'wah the goal is inviting others to the way of allah and if you have to argue argue in a manner that is the best with them 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 it all goes back to your culture so when allah is saying call to your lord with wisdom right then and there wisdom varies from time and place in culture and society and allah says means emotional argument more illah means you really get to their soul once again this is something that the tactics and the 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 manner and then if you must argue as an argue in the manner that is best as well everything all three of these allah 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 uh 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 and do not cooperate in 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 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 to minimize oppression to hurt the oppressor so that they stop 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 ja's 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 uh when uh the prophet sasam uh was in the shabba of the bani hashem right when the the muslims had to leave and live uh 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 the muslims of madina when they migrated as well there are references to them not engaging in general trade with the quraysh as well because they're not going to have peaceful trade anymore with the people that attempted to kill them so they used that and they in fact pinched the lifeline of the of the economic lifeline of the quraish multiple times and you know the the battle of buddha and whatnot that's one of the things that they were doing they're pinching the lifeline the the [ __ ] it was safe 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 seerah 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 uh 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's gonna 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 stopped you know um 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 propagate it to the people however all of that having been said and so therefore definitely no problems in boycotts no problem all of that having 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 halal 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 uh 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 bands and there is this notion that this this chain uh is a supporter of the apartheid regime of israel that uh this that if you purchase one coffee you will you are literally you know one of there's a meme going around that every coffee is like a bullet you know 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 i'm just being factual here that that's just wrong the 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 it wouldn't if you feel that you don't want to show up there that's completely your prerogative but in reality uh boycotting that company is not going to save the life of any uh any muslim in the world or harm the life of any muslim i'm sure you're going to save money i'm not saying you're not each coffee is overpriced over there you might save money you can give us 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 uh you know we were taught that you know uh pepsi stands for pay every penny to the state of israel 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 or helping again the problem comes that 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 haram 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 and perhaps some of you will not like what i'm saying but i have to be clear for the eyes of allah listen we cannot nobody nobody can make it haram for you to purchase a product if allah has not made it haram and people's 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 circumstances not able to boycott we should not shame that person if their circumstances force them to do that let me give you a simple example i mean um for example the french you know boycott now obviously all of us can easily boycott you know whatever i don't even know what the french produce i don't know it's not does it have a major economy what is it for us cheese or some perfumes order what else do the you know and i don't eat goat cheese anyway so i mean it's not something that uh you know um 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'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 the country you live in and you're paying taxes to 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 con you know countries even in their products no problem and it's good but don't make it allah's wiship on other people don't bring in wajib and haram don't use these terms say let us collectively come together to put pressure excellent let us try our best to use the economic means but do not make somebody sinful for something allah has not made sinful during times when specific tribes of medina the 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 boycott the quraish and they did work on the they could not boycott those three tribes of the bani israeli background because they had economic lifeline in madina and they controlled the market and resources and the muslims continue 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 akhida of theology of haram and halal the max we can say let's cooperate together and let's try our best to put um 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 this 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 uh 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 we brothers and sisters we make dua for them what is happening now is unprecedented it's just the times of world war ii unprecedented the largest concentration camps since the nazis and our hearts are in pain we're making dua 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 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 boycotts is possible and sensible and then there are other times and 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 whatnot and then see what we can do in this regard the sharia itself allows it it doesn't mandate it and it doesn't make it sinful the sharia 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 what not against the muslim community i have no problem that we publicize uh that we're not going to purchase anything from france and we have the luxury of doing that alhamdulillah plenty of alternatives no problem right and the same goes again me personally i'm very very conscious about anything that is made using uh land that has been confiscated basically from the settlements right because again the the entire region is confiscated in its own way it's an apartheid regime they came in and they took the entire land you know 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 and we know exactly who they are we should be extra careful and we should publicize that we're not going to deal with any but if somebody if somebody once goes and purchases them are you going to say that allah is on you that is haram you cannot use that language you cannot use that language because that language you are now infringing on the rights of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and allah has not made it haram 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 allah to reward me i expect allah to reward me when i do not purchase products made by israeli companies that are operating in uh 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 whatnot i said i don't care we're gonna you know i told one time i said we're gonna make it at home no problem we're not gonna bet i expect a lot to reward me but at the same time there must be a level of of you know common sense and what not and as i said we don't bring uh we don't bring haram and halal to other muslims you feel free to do it you 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 subhanahu wa'ta'ala and with that insha allah we conclude this question until next week jazakum allah foreign