Aslam

Praise be to Allah.Allaah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meanings):

The command (or the judgement) is for none but Allaah. He has

commanded that you worship none but Him [Yoosuf 12:40]

And say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely:

This is lawful and this is forbidden., so as to invent lies against Allaah.

Verily, those who invent lies against Allaah will never prosper. [al-Nahl 16:116]

Say [O Muhammad, to the polytheists]: Tell me, what

provision Allaah has sent down to you! And you have made of it lawful and unlawful.

Say [O Muhammad]: Has Allaah permitted you (to do so) or do you invent a lie against

Allaah? [Yoonus 10:59]It is only for Allaah to say what is halaal and

what is haraam, because He is the Law-giver, and there is no law-giver besides Him. When

we say that a given thing is haraam, or halaal, we refer to the evidence in the Book of

Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

Whatever we find is prohibited therein, we take as haraam, and whatever we find is

permitted, we take as halaal. We refer to the sayings of the Sahaabah (Companions of the

Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and the Taabieen (the

generation after the Sahaabah) may Allaah be pleased with them and the

commentaries of the Salaf (first generations of Islam) on the texts of the Quraan

and Sunnah, and we refer to the sayings and ijtihaad of the scholars.

It is not permissible for us to allow or prohibit however we wish. When

new issues come up, if we do not find a text in the Quraan or Sunnah, or in the

sayings of the scholars of the salaf or the scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah

wal-Jamaaah who came before us, then we have to refer to trustworthy scholars

and people of understanding, as Allaah commands us (interpretation of the meaning):

so ask of those who know the Scripture [al-Nahl 16:43]. These are the

scholars, who can do ijtihaad, examine the matter and make analogies (qiyaas) with the

existing texts of Islam, taking into consideration the principles of necessity, and taking

note of what is harmful to the interests of shareeah and what is beneficial, relying

on the basic general principles of shareeah, such as the aayah (interpretation of

the meaning), he allows them as lawful al-tayyibaat [(i.e., all good and

lawful things as regards things, deeds, beliefs, persons, foods, etc.]

[al-Araaf 7:157] and the hadeeth, There should be no harming nor

reciprocating harm (reported by Ibn Maajah, 2331), and

avoiding following whims and desires. Every evil thing that is proven to be harmful is

haraam, and every good and beneficial thing is halaal. If it is not known that it is

either harmful or beneficial, then the general rule is that it is permissible (mubaah).

And Allaah knows best.