Why this chapter matters

Many Muslims carry a quiet fear: is this haram? Is that haram? Some grew up with a long list of "do not" and very little "why". This chapter gives you the rules behind every other chapter in this guide.

The main message is a relief. Allah created the world for you. He allowed almost everything in it, and He forbade only a small number of things that harm you. Nabi ﷺ was sent, in Allah's words, to make good things halal for people, make harmful things haram, and lift the heavy loads that were on them¹.

• Halal means allowed.
• Haram means forbidden: Allah has told us clearly not to do it, and doing it is a sin.

The five rulings

Scholars of fiqh (Islamic law) put every act into one of five rulings. Knowing them stops a lot of confusion, because many things are neither a duty nor a sin.

How the hadith show the difference

• Required first: Allah says in a hadith qudsi: nothing brings My servant closer to Me than what I made a duty on him, then he keeps coming closer with extra good deeds until I love him².
• Recommended, not required: Nabi ﷺ said: if it were not hard on my ummah, I would have ordered them to use the siwak for every prayer³. So the siwak is loved, but not a duty.
• Disliked: Nabi ﷺ said Allah dislikes for you three things: useless talk, wasting money, and asking too many questions⁴.

Where the schools use different words

• Hanafis split "required" in two. Fard is proven by the strongest evidence, like the five prayers. Wajib is required too, but its proof is a little less certain, like the witr prayer for them. Leaving either one is a sin.
• Hanafis also split "disliked" in two. Makruh tahrimi is close to haram, and doing it is a sin. Makruh tanzihi is lightly disliked, and is not a sin.
• The other three schools mostly use fard and wajib as the same word, and makruh for the light kind only.

The starting rule: halal

Allah says: He is the One who created for you everything on earth⁵. He also says He made whatever is in the heavens and the earth of service to you⁶.

So scholars give a simple rule: for things and daily life, the starting point is halal. Food, drink, clothes, homes, work, travel, games, customs and new inventions are all allowed, unless there is proof from the Quran or Sunnah that makes something haram.

• When people asked what was allowed for them, Allah answered: all good things are allowed for you⁷.
• Nabi ﷺ was asked about fat, cheese and furs. He said: halal is what Allah made halal in His Book, haram is what Allah made haram in His Book, and what He was silent about is something He has pardoned⁸.
• Nabi ﷺ warned against making people's lives harder by pushing for new rules. He said the Muslim who did the most harm was one who asked about something that was not haram, and it was made haram because of his question⁹.

So you do not need a proof to eat an apple, wear a new style of coat, or use a phone. Nothing is haram just because it is new or from another culture. You need a proof only to say something is haram.

One important exception: worship

For acts of worship, the rule is the other way round. You do not invent a new prayer, a new fast or a new way to worship Allah. Worship is done the way Allah and His Messenger ﷺ taught. Daily life is open; worship is taught. The chapter Sunnah and bidah explains this.

Most scholars say trade and contracts start as allowed too, as long as there is no riba (interest), cheating, gambling or harm in them. Allah allowed trade and forbade riba¹⁰. For money questions, see the Islamic finance course.

Only Allah and His Messenger ﷺ make things haram

Saying "this is haram" is speaking for Allah. So it belongs to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ alone.

• Allah says: do not say with your tongues, this is halal and this is haram, to make up lies about Allah¹¹.
• He asks people who made some of His provision halal and some haram: did Allah give you permission, or do you make things up about Allah?¹²

Allah says some people took their religious leaders as lords besides Allah¹³. Adi ibn Hatim, who had been a Christian, said: we did not worship them. Nabi ﷺ explained: when they made something halal, people took it as halal, and when they made something haram, people took it as haram¹⁴. Giving any person the right to make halal and haram is giving them what belongs to Allah.

The Sunnah is part of this

• Allah says: whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you, leave it¹⁵.
• Nabi ﷺ said: I was given the Quran and something like it with it. He warned of a man who would say "just follow the Quran", and then named things the Sunnah made haram, like the meat of the donkey and of wild animals with fangs¹⁶.

What scholars do

Scholars do not make new haram. Their job is to explain what the Quran and Sunnah say, and apply it to new things. For example, scholars agree drugs that intoxicate are haram, because Nabi ﷺ said every intoxicant is haram¹⁷.

• When scholars agree, you can be confident.
• When good scholars differ, both views are held by real scholars. Follow a scholar you trust in good faith and you are not sinning. Respect people who follow the other view.
• An imam, a parent, an aunt or a social media account saying "that is haram" is not proof by itself. It is fair and polite to ask: what is the evidence?

Do not make haram what Allah allowed

Some people think being strict is always safer. It is not. Allah says: O you who believe, do not make haram the good things Allah has made halal for you, and do not go too far¹⁸.

• He also asks: who has forbidden the beauty Allah brought out for His servants, and the good things of provision?¹⁹ Nice clothes, good food and a pleasant home are gifts, not sins.
• Nabi ﷺ once swore he would not drink honey again, to please some of his wives. Allah revealed: O Prophet, why do you make haram what Allah made halal for you?²⁰²¹. If even he was told not to do this to himself, we should be careful too.
• In a hadith qudsi, Allah says the shaytan makes haram for people what I made halal for them²². Making the religion heavier than Allah made it is not a sign of more taqwa.

Nabi ﷺ said: the religion is easy, and whoever makes it too hard for himself will not be able to keep it up²³. He told his Companions: make things easy and do not make them hard²⁴.

Good intentions and tricks

Nabi ﷺ said: actions are judged by intentions, and each person gets what they intended²⁹. This hadith works in one direction only.

A good intention makes halal things rewarded

• Nabi ﷺ said: whatever you spend for Allah's sake is rewarded, even the bite of food you put in your wife's mouth³⁰.
• He even said that in a man's halal intimacy with his wife there is charity³¹.
• So eating to stay strong, sleeping to pray Fajr, and working to feed your family can all be worship, if you mean them for Allah.

A good intention does not make haram halal

• Nabi ﷺ said: Allah is good, and He accepts only what is good. He spoke of a traveler, dusty and tired, raising his hands: O Lord, O Lord. But his food, drink and clothes were haram. How can his dua be answered?³²
• He said Allah does not accept charity from stolen wealth³³.
• So buying a lottery ticket "to give the winnings to the masjid", lying to win a case "for a good cause", or taking a bribe "to help the family" are still haram. A good goal does not clean a haram path.

Tricks do not change a ruling

Nabi ﷺ spoke of people before us who were forbidden to eat animal fat. They melted it, sold it, and spent the money, as if that made it fine. Nabi ﷺ condemned this³⁴.

• A new name changes nothing. Nabi ﷺ said some people of his ummah would drink wine and call it by another name³⁵. Calling interest a "fee", or a bribe a "gift", does not make it halal.
• But a real halal way is not a trick. Bilal once swapped two measures of poor dates for one measure of good dates. Nabi ﷺ said this was riba. Then he showed the halal way: sell the poor dates for money, then buy the good dates with it³⁶. The goal was halal, and the new path was a real, fair trade. A real path is fine. A "path" that only covers something Allah forbade is a trick.

Why things are haram, and the better way Allah leaves

Allah does not forbid things to make life hard. He made good things halal and harmful things haram³⁷. About alcohol and gambling, He says there is some benefit in them, but their sin is bigger than their benefit³⁸. Nabi ﷺ said: there is no harming, and no harming back³⁹.

• Sometimes we can see the harm, like broken families, debt and addiction. Sometimes we cannot. A believer still obeys, trusting that Allah knows what we do not.
• Allah wants ease for you, not hardship⁴⁰.

Every closed door has an open one next to it

When the Muslims came to Madinah, the people had two festival days from before Islam. Nabi ﷺ said: Allah has given you something better than them: Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr⁴¹. This is the pattern all through the shariah:

The short list and the endless list

Allah says He has explained to you in detail what He has made haram for you⁴⁶. He did not list what is halal, because that list would never end. He listed what is haram, because it is short.

Allah told Nabi ﷺ to say: come, I will tell you what your Lord has made haram for you. Then the list: do not make partners with Allah, be good to your parents, do not kill your children out of fear of poverty, do not come near shameful acts, open or hidden, and do not take a life Allah made sacred, except by right⁴⁷.

The agreed core

All scholars agree these are haram. Later chapters explain each one in detail:

• Belief and worship: shirk (worshipping anything besides Allah), magic, and fortune telling. See Shirk.
• Food and drink: pork, blood, animals that died by themselves, meat offered to other than Allah⁴⁸, and alcohol and every intoxicant⁴⁹. See What Muslims do not eat and Alcohol, drugs and smoking.
• Money: riba (interest), gambling, stealing, cheating and bribes⁵⁰. See Honest dealing, gambling and work.
• People: killing, zina, hurting your parents, false witness⁵¹, oppression.
• The tongue: lying, backbiting, slander and mocking people. See Guarding the tongue.

Now think of the other list: every fruit and vegetable, almost every meat and fish, water, milk, juice, tea and coffee, every honest job, travel, sport, study, family, friendship, rest, laughter and beautiful things. That list is the world. A Muslim's life is mostly halal.

Things people wrongly think are haram

Some "rules" come from culture or from being extra careful, not from the Quran and Sunnah. Here are some common ones. Each of these is halal:

• Sitting, eating and sleeping near your wife during her period. In Madinah some people would not even eat with a woman on her period. Nabi ﷺ said: do everything except intercourse⁵². Aisha said he would drink from the same cup, putting his mouth where hers had been⁵³. See the chapter on periods.
• Joking and laughing. The Companions asked: you joke with us? He said: yes, but I only say what is true⁵⁴.
• Sport and play. Nabi ﷺ raced Aisha on a journey. She won the first time, and he won the next time⁵⁵. He also let her watch men from Abyssinia playing with spears in the masjid⁵⁶.
• Nice clothes and looking good. A man asked if liking fine clothes and shoes was pride. Nabi ﷺ said: Allah is beautiful and loves beauty. Pride is rejecting the truth and looking down on people⁵⁷.
• Enjoying marriage. Love and intimacy between husband and wife are halal and even rewarded⁵⁸. Read what is halal between husband and wife.
• A man doing housework. Aisha said Nabi ﷺ helped his family at home, and when the prayer came, he went out to pray⁵⁹.
• Food from non-Muslim shops and friends. Bread, rice, fruit, vegetables, milk and sweets with no haram ingredients are halal wherever they come from. Meat has its own rules: see Meat and slaughter.

Some topics really are disputed among scholars, like music, pictures, or some kinds of meat. This guide gives those their own chapters, with each view in fair words. For those, follow a scholar you trust.

Doubtful things and real need

Between the clear halal and the clear haram, there are things that are not so clear. Nabi ﷺ said: the halal is clear and the haram is clear, and between them are doubtful things that many people do not know⁶⁰. And when someone is truly forced, like starving with nothing else to eat, Allah allows what would normally be haram⁶¹.

Both of these have their own rules, so they have their own chapter: Doubtful things, need and mistakes.

If you got it wrong

Maybe you did something haram for years. Maybe you only now learned it was haram. Or maybe you were hard on yourself and others over things that were halal all along. Either way, do not lose hope.

• Allah says: O My servants who have wronged themselves, do not lose hope in Allah's mercy. Allah forgives all sins⁶².
• For those who repent, believe and do good, Allah turns their bad deeds into good deeds⁶³.
• Nabi ﷺ said: every child of Adam makes mistakes, and the best of those who make mistakes are those who repent⁶⁴.

Repenting is simple: stop, feel sorry, and plan not to go back. If someone else's right was taken, give it back or ask them to forgive you. Then move on with a light heart. You do not need to tell people about your past sins.

Common questions

Someone told me a thing is haram, but gave no proof. Do I have to accept it?

Things start as halal. Something becomes haram only with a proof from the Quran or Sunnah, explained by scholars. It is fine to ask politely for the evidence, or to ask a scholar you trust⁶⁵.

Is a new product, app or food haram until a scholar approves it?

No. It starts as halal. You only need to check it if it has a haram ingredient or use, like alcohol in a food or gambling in a game⁶⁶.

I want to buy a lottery ticket and give all the money to charity. Is that allowed?

No. The lottery is gambling, and a good intention does not make haram halal. Allah accepts only what is good⁶⁷. Give charity from your halal earnings instead, even a little.

My family says a lot of things are haram that I now learn are halal. What do I do?

Be gentle. Many of these rules came from love and care. You can live by what is halal without fighting about it, and share what you learned kindly, with the evidence, when the time is right.

I promised Allah I would never eat chocolate again, to lose weight. Is chocolate haram for me now?

No. You cannot make haram what Allah made halal⁶⁸. If it was a real oath, you may break it and pay the kaffarah for a broken oath⁶⁹. See oaths and vows.