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Are you looking for the conflict between interests and their entanglement with harms?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is an established principle that when benefits are mixed with harms, the benefits are nullified to avert those harms; "averting harms takes precedence over acquiring benefits." Necessities take precedence over needs, and needs take precedence over embellishments. The jurist is one who weighs benefits against harms, knows the better of two good things and prioritizes it, and knows the lesser of two bad things and averts it. The Sharia is based on acquiring and perfecting benefits, and on nullifying and reducing harms, and on preferring the better of two good things and repelling the worse of two bad things. Among its objectives is the preservation of the five essential necessities.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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