But the relative weight of benefits and harms must be assessed by the standard of the Sharia. Whenever a person is able to follow the scriptural texts, he must not depart from them or resort to his own reasoning to identify analogous and comparable cases. Rarely will the texts fail to provide guidance for someone well versed in them and in how they indicate rulings.

Accordingly, if an individual or a group combines right and wrong without separating them, either doing both together or abandoning both together, they must not be enjoined to do right or forbidden to do wrong without examining the matter. If the good outweighs the evil, it should be enjoined, even if it entails a lesser evil. Nor should an evil be forbidden when doing so entails the loss of a greater good. In that case, forbidding it would amount to obstructing the path of Allah and working to bring an end to obedience to Him and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and to the performance of good deeds.

If the evil predominates, it should be forbidden, even if this entails the loss of what is