It is all right to do a little evil in order to do a greater good.

[crayon]

I just heard a similar sentence in a film I watched, and its worth thinking about... Is doing a small bad thing in order to do something much greater worth it?

Yes/No and explain please.

[------]

Advertise music with Islaam? No.

EDIT: I mean advertise Islaam with music.. sorry my minds elsewhere

[crayon]

How about cheating in elections for example, not necessarily presidential ones or anything, say a small organization, because you know you will benefit it more than the other person?

Or doing something robin hood style, take from the rich, give to the poor?

Does it depend on the situation?..

[------]

Allaahu Aalim. This is like the small evil or the greater evil, e.g. when a baby is born and only one of them can survive, you are allowed to save the mother. ( I think )

['Abd al-Baari]

Assalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuh,

This might be of some purpose here, Insha'Allah.

The basic rule with regard to lying is that it is not permitted, but there are certain circumstances in which Islam permits lying to serve a greater purpose or to prevent harm.

One of these situations is when a person mediates between two disputing parties in order to reconcile between them, if reconciliation cannot be achieved in any other way. Um Kalthoom (may Allaah be pleased with her) reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “He is not a liar who reconciles between people and conveys something good or says something good.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, 2495).

Another example is a man’s speaking to his wife, or a woman speaking to her husband, with regard to matters that will strengthen the ties of love between them, even if that is accompanied by exaggeration. Asma’ bint Yazeed said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘Lying is not permitted except in three cases: a man’s speaking to his wife to make her happy; lying at times of war; and lying in order to reconcile between people.’” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 1862; he said: it is a hasan hadeeth. See also Saheeh Muslim, 4717).

[------]

But what about at other times, e.g. nasheeds with music, etc.

['Abd al-Baari]

Nasheeds with Music, in my 'opinion' are completely Haraam. If you can spread the message of Islaam in a Halal way, then there is no need to do Haraam.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

nope, good cant come from evil.


for the greater good <-- whatever you do for the greater good cannot be evil.
for example if you shoot a man to save a nation thats not evil.
if you punch a boy to save a group, thats not evil
if you steal from the rich and give to the poor <-- that is EVIL
if you establis a islamic state and impose regulations for the rich to give zakaah to the poor <-- thats NOT evil


the lesser of two evils however is something completely different, thats you achknowledging that what your doing IS evil, but you fear a greater evil if you dont do it....

[crayon]

"if you establish a islamic state and impose regulations for the rich to give zakaah to the poor"

Say for that example, you had to kill the person in charge of that country, would that still not be evil? Even if the country was doing great, good system of ruling, etc., it's just not islamic. Would you still consider it okay?

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^no it wouldnt be evil. if this man is letting the rich go fat and the poor starve then i say chop off his head



Assalamu Alaikum

[crayon]

But what about at other times, e.g. nasheeds with music, etc.

For nasheeds with music, it's completely possible to do them without music, so I don't think that would be allowed. But what I mean is that if there were no other choice, either do the bad deed and gain a great benefit from it, or do nothing.

[crayon]

^no it wouldnt be evil. if this man is letting the rich go fat and the poor starve then i say chop off his head



Assalamu Alaikum

But then with that reasoning, many (if not most) rulers should be killed....?

[IbnAbdulHakim]

But then with that reasoning, many (if not most) rulers should be killed....?

yep

they can always repent n change if they want

[aamirsaab]

It depends on the circumstance really. Some cases it would be allowed say like laying the smackdown on a bully - though not via bullying cus that would be ironic and wrong. It depends on how greater the good and how little the evil. If it is something insignificant i.e some random guy of the street yells ''paki'' then you can't use the greater good argument (i.e I want to stop that person from hurtling racial abuse and causing fitna in the society!) to go beat him to a bloody pulp.

[AhlaamBella]

Depends what the "evil" is....

[Umar001]

Salam Alaykum,

With threads which have these type of themes I get confused, are we asked for our viewpoint even if it contradicts the Islamic viewpoint, or are we asked what we think the Islamic viewpoint is, or...?

[IceQueen~]

I completely disagree...

There is a hadeeth in Sahih Muslim in which he (saw) saw people being punished during the night journey- one of the things he saw was people who had one half of their bodies so beautiful and the other half -extreme ugliness

The interpretation of this was those who mixed good deeds with evil.

[------]

Proof might help...

[AhlaamBella]

I completely disagree...

There is a hadeeth in Sahih Muslim in which he (saw) saw people being punished during the night journey- one of the things he saw was people who had one half of their bodies so beautiful and the other half -extreme ugliness

The interpretation of this was those who mixed good deeds with evil.

So that sort of says that you can't do something evil for something good? But I'm no scholar, could someone help?

I kinda feel that you should stay well away from evil deeds... hence the word "evil"...

[------]

She hasn't provided proof. For all we know she could be makng the hadith up.