Q326 :Is legal profession permissible? Can lawyers
represent habitual criminals in the court of law?
A326 : The legal profession is the same as any
other profession, from the Islamic point of view. In every type of work
or profession, there are areas which may be against Islam and others
which may be acceptable. What you do in your profession is your choice,
and therefore you are responsible for it. If you use your skills or
talents to achieve an illegitimate purpose, you are doing something
forbidden and you are likely to be punished by Allah for it unless He,
out of His grace, chooses to forgive you. The same applies to the legal
profession. If you learn of law and what it requires of every citizen
and how you can live on the right side of the law, then that is well
and good. If you also learn about loopholes in different laws and how
these can be utilized to gain benefit or repel harm in a legitimate
way, then you are doing well. On the other hand, if you learn about
these loopholes in order to help hardened criminals evade their proper
punishment, then you are doing something wrong. If you are a famous
lawyer and someone netes to you to say that he is accused of netmitting
murder and he wants you to represent him, what should be your reaction
if you are a good Muslim? The first question you ask that person is
whether he has truly netmitted a murder or not. He may explain to you
in detail what happened and you recognize that there are certain
loopholes which could help you obtain a verdict of manslaughter instead
of a verdict of murder. You may explain this to him and you agree a
large fee and take on the case. If you take it on, you are helping a
murderer. On the other hand, if you realize from the circumstances
given to you that the killing was accidental and there was no intention
on the part of your client to kill the other person, you may take on
the case and you may be rewarded for helping a person get the right
verdict.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )