Is it permissible to enter law colleges, given that they teach man-made laws?

The questioner : Is it permissible to enter law colleges, given that they teach man-made laws?

The Shaykh : If there is no free mixing of men and women—and this is, unfortunately, not the case, and you know that the negation of a negation is an affirmation—then if the student in that college is well-versed in his knowledge of the rulings of the Shari'ah, especially those related to transactions and sales, then studying that system or law for the purpose of gaining insight and expanding his knowledge of these transactions or these laws by which states are governed today, including some Islamic states, is permissible. Otherwise, it is not permissible. And we know from the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), in which he says that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw 'Umar ibn al-Khattab one day with a document in his hand. When he asked him about it, he said: "This is a document from the Torah that a man wrote for me." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The Messenger (peace be upon him) disapproved of 'Umar reading that page or document, because such reading seems to imply and suggest that its owner is not satisfied with what...