THE LAWFUL
AND THE PROHIBITED
# Categories of Halaal # Haraam and principles governing #
Doubtful areas # More basic principle # The search for knowledge #
Professional Knowledge # Intellectual Pursuits
All a person’s activities and transactions are
divided into two main categories according to the Shari’ah:
Halaal and Haraam.
Halaal means that which is
lawful or permissible. All that is beneficial for an individual, his society
and the environment comes under the categories of halaal.
The basic principle in Islam is that every act or
transaction is allowed unless it is prohibited. This principle emphasises growth and development rather than meanness,
hardness and constriction.
Haraam means that which is
unlawful or prohibited. Only that which is destructive for a person as an
individual, his society and his environment – destructive in the physical,
mental and spiritual senses – is regarded as haraam
or forbidden.
Categories of Halaal
Of the things that are halaal,
you need to know what is fard
or compulsory, mustahabb or recommended,
mubaah or tolerated, makruuh or disliked.
What is compulsory is so because its neglect
renders a person blameworthy. For example, to deliberately abandon the
compulsory daily Salaat is to rebel against the
wisdom of the Qur’an and the Prophet.
One classification of knowledge relating to what
is compulsory is the distinction between fard
‘ayn and fard
kifaayah.
Fard ‘ayn
is a duty imposed on the individual, like the daily Salaat
or the payment of Zakaat if he or she is eligible.
None can do this for you. If you neglect it, you alone are blameworthy.
Fard kifaayah
is a duty imposed on the whole Muslim community. If this duty
performed by a few in the community, it is considered discharged. If it
is not performed by anyone, then the whole community is blameworthy.
Mustahabb refers to those acts
which are recommended in the Sunnah of the Prophet.
The doing of such acts – such as smiling to your fellow Muslim or using the
toothbrush regularly and before Prayer – is rewarded while not doing them is not
punished.
Mubaah or tolerate refers to
those acts which may be done but which do not attract either reward or merit
punishment.
Makruuh refers to that which is
detested but allowed and there is no punishment for it. Something like divorce
is detested but allowed only in the last resort as the least of other evils. (top)
Haraam and the principle governing it
A person needs to know what is
haraam and the principles governing it:
·
What has been declared haraam
is because of its impurity and harmfulness;
·
What leads to haraam is
itself haraam;
·
What is haraam is large
quantities is also haraam in small quantities;
·
Good intentions are not an excuse for indulging
in haraam activities. A good end does not justify a
wrong means in Islam;
·
What is haraam is
prohibited to everyone alike;
·
In case of necessity, the haraam
may be allowed but only so long as the necessity lasts;
·
It is unlawful to declare something which is
lawful haraam and it is haraam
to declare what is unlawful to be lawful.
The doing of anything
that is haraam is punishable. (top)
A person needs to know that there are areas where
there is no precise pronouncements in the Shari’ah. It is better to avoid these doubtful areas in as much
as it may lead in the end to what is unlawful. One should not also place
oneself in situations of temptation or go near to what is prohibited. (top)
In addition to the categories mentioned above and
the principles governing them, there are a number of principles for
understanding and applying the Shari’ah under varying
circumstances which make it a sound and effective problem-solving system at all
times. Some of these principles are:
1. Actions
are judged according to intentions. This principle distinguishes between
conduct based on knowledge and sincerity on the one hand and mere habitual
actions, conscious wrongdoing or hypocritical behaviour
on the other. It applies to the administration of justice in a Muslim community
or state as well as to the judging of deeds in the Hereafter. It is the basis
for judging accountability. For example, a person is not accountable if he is
forced to say or do something like renouncing faith or drinking wine under duress.
He is no accountable if he does something in ignorance, like selling a
defective article without knowing it is defective. He is not accountable if he
forgets, like drinking water unintentionally during fasting: this does not
break the fast.
2. Haraam on injury must not be
allowed to exist or persist. This rule for example gives a buyer the right to return
defective goods to the seller. It is also allows the killing of harmful pests. It
allows for punichments to be meted out to criminals.
Some of these punishments are fixed. Others are discretionary and involve
censure in public.
3. What is
harmful cannot be used to combat another harm. For example, a person
is not allowed to prevent flooding of his land by flooding another person’s
land.
4. The need
to stop a particular act, which may on its own be lawful, in order to prevent
general hardship or injury. For example, refusing to permit the setting up
of a foundry or a blacksmith’s shop in the midst of shops trading in clothes;
the compulsory selling of food which is hoarded by one person but which is
needed by people.
5. Adopting
the lesser of two evils to avoid the more serious of the two. If a person wants to
perform Salaat and is sick and cannot make wuduu, or cannot cover his ‘awrah,
or cannot face the Ka’abah, he must still perform Salaat because not fulfilling these conditions of Salaat is less serious than abandoning the Salaat.
6. Meeting
vital needs allows what is normally forbidden. This allows the eating
of forbidden foods like pork if life is threatened. As soon as proper food become available, the allowance is cancelled. This
principle also has been used by some scholars to allows
the buying of a house in which to live – a vital need – with a loan obtained on
interest which is normally forbidden. However, the attempt should be made to
come out of what is forbidden as soon as possible. Also, if non-interest funds
become available, this allowance is cancelled.
7. Hardship
gives rise to relaxation of laws. Certain laws, for example laws relating to Salaat and fasting, are relaxed for persons who are sick or
traveling.
From these and other
principles, it could be seen that there is nothing in the Shari’ah
that imposes undue hardship and difficulty on people.
It is also appropriate to
emphasise again that there is nothing in the Shari’ah that is not suited to or in conformity with human
nature. The concerns of the Shari’ah, its basic
principles, its detailed laws and sanctions are all meant to create the
conditions under which man can preserve and safeguard all that is noble and
just from all that is false, vicious and destructive. (top)
It is important to
remember that knowledge is not the preserve of a priestly class, a group of ‘ulamaa’, the intelligentsia or any body of intellectuals.
There are of course people who have acquired more knowledge than others and we
need to go in search of these people or their writing and benefit from them. We
should never let our admiration or reverence for such persons lead us into
following any obnoxious practices.
It is also important to
remember that the search for knowledge is a life-long process and does not end
with the receiving of a certificate. (top)
It is important for a
Muslim to acquire the knowledge of a skill in order to obtain a livelihood.
The more skills you
acquire, the better it would be for your freedom of choice and independence. It
may be good in this context to remember the saying of the noble Prophet, ‘Place
no hope on what is at the hands of men’. It would be better for your community
as well.
If a particular community
lacks essential expertise in any given area, it becomes fard
kifaayah or compulsory on the community to get people
trained in that particular field. If a community needs more farmers, or more
doctors or more teachers or more munitions manufacturers, it should create the
facilities for the training and employment of such skill.
In pursuing professional
knowledge and skills, it is important to realize that the use of any
technologies should be subjected to the requirements of what is halaal and haraam. If nuclear
arms, chemical or biological weapons are deemed to be haraam
because their use would inevitably involve the killing of innocents and
non-combatants which is forbidden in the Sunnah, then
such knowledge and skills would not be acquired. (top)
Intellectual Pursuits
‘Whoever
is not concerned with the situations of Muslims is not one of them’, said the
noble Prophet.
Over and above knowledge
that is necessary for individual practices and needs, the Muslim needs to have
knowledge of the times in which he lives.
We now live in a complex
and difficult world and are dominated by forces – systems of knowledge,
technologies and economics – which have marginalized Islam and Muslims, and
created much destruction and havoc in the world.
Muslims have a duty to
themselves and to others to know the contemporary world intimately, to be able
to analyse it using principles and concepts from the
Islamic worldview, from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and to offer alternatives for the future direction
of man.
If you have the talents,
the capacity and the resources, and especially if you are in position of
authority and responsibility, it is your duty to take on the challenge of
contemporary knowledge. This applies particularly if you are a student or
teacher at an institution of higher learning. The Muslim ummah
and indeed mankind as a whole have a right upon you.
There are many principles
and concepts in the Qur’an and the Sunnah which need to be looked at anew and applied to
contemporary human needs. When the Qur’an speaks of
man’s khilaafah (stewardship) and amaanah (trust and
responsibility), it is important to ask how these concepts shape our attitude
to politics, to economic development, to the environment and ecological
balance. When, for example, the Prophet ways that, ‘Purity is half of faith’
and ‘Cleanliness is part of faith’ – how does this affect health and sanitation
requirements of people living in overcrowded cities and slums in many parts of
the world? When the Prophet warned that non-combatants should not be killed in
a war, how do we allow the use of bombs and the growth of the nuclear armament
industry?
Such knowledge and
strategies to bring about a better, more jst, more
caring, and in the end a safer world for ourselves and generations to come may
be classified as fard kifaayah
on the Muslim community. If such knowledge is not pursuit and put into action
by scholars and rulers, the whole ummah would be held
to be blameworthy. The task before you is not merely the collection of data and
the elaboration of theories. It is the task of developing communication
networks from the family and neighbourhood to global
levers and disseminating this knowledge with such vigour
that the present dominance of what is false or baatil is eclipsed and marginalized. The tendency of
many scholars to concentrate almost exclusively on minor issues and on certain
rituals is a sigh of fatal escapism.
There are other aspects
of knowledge, of the study of man and the universe, which are worthy of
continuous research. Man needs always to reflect on and delve more into the ‘sign’
of God and join the ranks of those ‘steeped in knowledge’ according to the Qur’an. If you have the talents and resources such
pioneering research at the frontiers of knowledge must be part of your
vocation. Such research is not to be determined solely by the needs of
commercial corporations or arms manufacturers, for example, but should lead to
a greater awareness of the power and wisdom of God and your utter dependence on
Him. (top)