Principle Thirty-Five: Giving precedence to the higher of two benefits and the lesser of two harms

The Qur’an contains a number of verses that encourage pursuing the greater of two benefits, choosing the lesser of two harms, and prohibiting whatever’s harm outweighs its benefit. This is an illustrious principle to which Allah draws attention in many passages.

1. As for preferring the superior of two good deeds, Allah says in Surah al-Hadid: “Those of you who spent and fought before the Conquest are not equal [to those who did so afterwards]” (al-Hadid 57:10); in Surah al-Tawbah: “Do you regard the providing of water for the pilgrims and the maintenance of the Sacred Mosque as equal to one who believes in Allah and the Last Day and strives in the path of Allah?” (al-Tawbah 9:19); and in Surah al-Nisaʾ: “Those believers who remain behind—apart from those who are disabled—are not equal to those who strive in the path of Allah” (al-Nisaʾ 4:95).

2. Concerning the choice of the lesser of two evils, Allah says in Surah al-Baqarah: “They ask you about fighting during the Sacred Month. Say: Fighting in it is a grave offense; but to bar people from the path of Allah, to deny Him, to keep others from the Sacred Mosque, and to expel its people from it are graver in the sight of Allah; and persecution is worse than killing” (al-Baqarah 2:217). Here the Almighty makes it plain that although fighting in the Sacred Month is indeed a wrong, their blocking the way of Allah, their disbelief in Him and in His guidance, their preventing access to the Sacred Mosque, and their expulsion of its people are, in His judgment, far more serious; their harsh persecution of the believers in an attempt to force them back into polytheism is worse than fighting in the Sacred Month itself.

Likewise, He says in Surah al-Fath: “Had there not been believing men and believing women whom you did not know and might have trampled …” (al-Fath 48:25). Thus Allah restrained the believers from fighting in the Sacred Mosque at the time of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, even though there seemed ample justification to do so because of the idolaters, so as to avert the harm that would have come from injuring or killing the vulnerable Muslim men and women whom the polytheists had detained in Mecca and prevented from emigrating. Such an outcome would have brought disgrace upon the Muslim army.

The entire course of the Hudaybiyyah truce falls under this same principle: accepting conditions that on the surface appeared detrimental to the Muslims. Yet it later became clear to them that it was in fact the very