Abdul Aziz from Saudi Arabia says: What is the ruling on recording the khutbah of the khatib without his permission and publishing it, is there any benefit?

As for lessons, lectures, and public talks that are clearly intended for the public.

Permission is understood, even if it is not verbal, but implied by the situation.

This includes mosque khutbahs, public lectures, and seminars that take place in public gatherings, such as weddings or public banquets attended by hundreds or thousands.

So in such cases, it is permissible to record and publish them, even without the speaker's explicit permission, and there is no harm in that.

So there is no harm, no harm in it. We say: this does not require permission, and publishing it depends on the benefit. Some people intend to benefit others, while some may intend harm.

And the one who, for example, wants by that—meaning he finds a word or a slip of the tongue from someone in a statement, and wants to spread it so that instead of being among a hundred or two hundred, he wants to make it among thousands or hundreds of thousands.

This person wants to expose, and likewise to disgrace, so he is sinful for his intention, and he will bear sins according to the consequences that follow from that. Some gatherings do not involve sin.

There is no harm, and those are private gatherings, even if a person, for example, distinguishes between two or three or four or five or ten, or at banquets and private meetings.

Where there is casual speech, and also other kinds of talk.

Things that are not suitable for the public, in that case we say it is not allowed for a person to record it, nor is it allowed for a person to spread it. If he wants to record, he should seek permission, and if he wants to spread it as well,

he should seek permission, for gatherings are an amana, and a person may say to one what he would not say to two, and say to two what he would not say to three, and say to five what he would not say to ten.

But he might say it in front of a hundred or a thousand; this is a public matter. There is nothing wrong with saying it in front of two or three thousand, since this is something from which people benefit and take guidance, like the talks in mosques.

And the khutbahs and lectures, and Allah knows best.