The Rule of Preferring Public Interests over Private Interests and Its Implication in Studying Smuggling of Goods and Currencies

Smuggling goods is a modern phenomenon which means “to breech the legal formalities and procedures of importing and exporting goods and currencies”. One of the major rules in jurisprudence is “preferring public interests over private interests”. There are two types of interests from the viewpoint of Shari‘ah: “public and private”. Shari‘ah gives priority to public interests over private. Some examples of such stance in religious texts are: giving priority to Jihad over feeding pilgrims, renovation of Masjid al-Haram and family issues , forbiddance of giving free access to money for naive people , implementation of the verdict of nemesis , and forbidding hoarding. Interests are of three categories: necessary interests, needed interests and unnecessary ones. By applying these rules on the issue of smuggling goods and currencies, it can be concluded that although these acts may have certain benefits for some individuals, however they are harmful for public interests because of their side effects like increasing unemployment, poverty and weakening domestic production. Therefore, we cannot scarify public interests in favor of private ones. Besides that, the benefits that individuals may get from those activities are not among their necessary needs and they can be compensated by fair distribution of wealth, strengthening the employment and production in deprived areas near borders. Therefore, based on the rule of Preferring Public Interests over Private Interests, smuggling is not justified.