Living The Quran
From Issue: 1056 [Read full issue]
General Principle
Al-Baqara (The Cow) Sura 2: Verse 29
"It is He who has created for you all that is on earth, and has dealt with the heavens formed appropriately into seven, and He alone has full knowledge of everything."
Although the above verse is dealing with the creation of the whole universe and the multiple cosmic systems indicated as "heavens" be they within or beyond the human perception, it states significantly an essential general law: that God "has created for you all that is on earth". Consequently, as our jurists since early times rightfully inferred, everything on earth is pure and allowed to be used, unless it comes to be clearly forbidden by God.
Accordingly, everything is assumed allowed until the opposite may be proved specifically with regard to a certain thing, and the burden of evidence is on the one who claims prohibition, while the one who assumes the allowability is merely following the general principle and is in no need of any further support. It is against this Quranic and juristic logic for any person to ask for evidence from the or the precedents of early Muslims to prove that something was used or considered allowable in order to accept its lawfulness.
The same principle as the Quran emphasizes was applied in general in previous messages of God [3:93]. This comprehensive and fundamental rule secures the dynamism and continuation of the Islamic laws (Sharia), as it allows spacious room for considering the variables in different times and places. The general guidance in what may be allowed or forbidden in any given time and place is the natural properties of the matter and its effect on human merits and their development, whether physical or moral, individual or social.
Compiled From:
"Concepts of the Quran" - Fathi Osman, p. 739