The Ruling on Resorting to Secular Courts to Recover Rights
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: Many Muslims in countries that do not rule by Islamic law need to go to secular courts to recover their rights. What is the ruling on that? Does the ruling change if one is not compelled to do so? And when does a Muslim become a disbeliever by doing this?
Answer:
If it is possible to avoid that, there is nothing wrong with it. However, if he has taken his right, he may litigate to recover his right, but he must not take more. He only litigates to claim the right that was usurped from him and in which he was wronged. There is nothing wrong with asking the state, even if it is a disbeliever state, to return his right. He must not take more, and he must not wrong people. Rather, he takes only the right in which he was wronged, and there is no blame on him for that.
The questioner says: Many Muslims in countries that do not rule by Islamic law need to go to secular courts to recover their rights. What is the ruling on that? Does the ruling change if one is not compelled to do so? And when does a Muslim become a disbeliever by doing this?
Answer:
If it is possible to avoid that, there is nothing wrong with it. However, if he has taken his right, he may litigate to recover his right, but he must not take more. He only litigates to claim the right that was usurped from him and in which he was wronged. There is nothing wrong with asking the state, even if it is a disbeliever state, to return his right. He must not take more, and he must not wrong people. Rather, he takes only the right in which he was wronged, and there is no blame on him for that.
Source
أسباب الثبات أمام الفتن — islamhouse.com (51:35)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.