A central reason Muslims have never yet flourished on a large scale in the West is our almost wholly negative attitude towards shari'a or sacred law. Negative shari'a should pivot on clear red lines, not a paranoia about whether or not everyday life is "halal."
The real purpose of sacred law is in any case positive; it provides principles for maximized human flourishing in accordance with the lofty vision of human nature that has been revealed to us, not a raft of complexes and prohibitions.
The true Muslim's natural assumption when encountering a new situation is not only that it is "halal", but that its halal status need not even be investigated. God created all that is in the earth for you; everything on this earth was created for our benefit, in order to help us in actualising the holistic flourishing demanded by our nature; it was not created so that we could be suspicious, uneasy, and paranoid about every unfamiliar thing that we encounter.
Instead, in everything you do be faithful and loyal to the haqa'iq and the sha'a'ir, the spiritual realities and the outward symbols of the din. It is that deep spiritual orientation and the pursuit of the corresponding truth, beauty, and goodness in all things which will keep you on the Straight Path, the path of closeness to Allah, not an unhealthy and morally lazy dependence on a "mufti" who has lost all touch with reality.
He created all that is in the earth for you is indeed one of the proof texts for the fiqh maxim "the default assumption is permissibility." We should combine it with the hadith, "Seek the moral judgement of your heart," and recognise that a pedantic and partisan fiqh madhhab calculus is rarely the right way to achieve the maqasid of the din in this time.
From the
ضروريات
to the
تحسينيات
the purposes of sacred law are configured to facilitate the cultivation of truth, beauty, and goodness in the life of each individual believer. Social and cultural non-participation, the self-incarceration of authentically Islamic creative energies, and our defaulting to "halal" medicine and engineering, and thus becoming grey, lifeless non-presences in Western societies that we should be transforming with light, is the price our communities pay for our lazy (and unislamic) legalism.
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