This is a great topic, containing much benefit and due to ignorance of this topic a great mistake has fallen upon the Sharīʿah…

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) legislated for his ummah the obligation of rejecting the evil so that by its rejection, the goodness that Allāh and His Messenger love is obtained.

And when rejecting the evil leads to what is more evil and more hated by Allāh and His Messenger then it is not allowed to reject it - even if Allāh hates it and detests those who perform it (the evil).

And this is like rejection [inkaar] against the kings, and the ones in authority by coming out against them [with arms etc. to fight them] - for verily, that is the basis and foundation of every evil (sharr) and every tribulation (fitnah) till the end of time.

And the Companions asked permission from the Messenger of Allāh (صلى الله عليه وسلم) for killing the leaders who delay the prayer from its proper time, saying: “Shall we not kill them.” So he said: “No, so long as they establish the prayer.”

He (صلى الله عليه وسلم) also said: “Whoever sees something from his leader something that he dislikes then let him be patient and let him not raise his hand [away] from obedience.”

And whoever reflects upon the greatest and smallest trials that have befallen Islām, then he will see that they are due to the negligence and wastage of this principle and the lack of patience upon [witnessing] evil. So he seeks bring about its end and as a result of this, a greater evil is brought about.

And the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) saw the greatest of evils in Makkah and he was not able to change them. In fact even when Allāh gave [him] victory over Makkah and when it became the abode of Islām he was resolved to changing the Kaʿbah by returning it to the [original] foundations that Ibrāhīm [as] had built it upon.

But even though he had the capacity to do that, he was prevented from it by the fear that something greater would occur due to the lack of tolerance of the Quraish [for this change], since they were new to Islām and had recently left disbelief .

For this reason he did not grant permission for showing rejection against the leaders with the hand due to what results of the occurrence of what is greater than it…