What is the ruling on the work of a lawyer or legal expert, and those similar to them, who work in a state governed by man-made, positive laws?

The questioner : Shaykh, I would like to ask whether the work of a lawyer, who is a judicial assistant, falls between the lawful and the forbidden, and what are the aspects in which it falls between the lawful and the forbidden?

The Shaykh : Pardon me, what do you mean: between the lawful and the forbidden?

The questioner : I mean, is his work forbidden, does it fall within the aspects of the forbidden?

The Shaykh : Is it the practice of law?

The questioner : ... The practice of law.

The Shaykh : It is not hidden from you, may Allah reward you, that the practice of law is a branch of the state system, and the state rules in many matters by man-made laws, not by Islamic legal rulings. I was sitting just now with one of those who is called a public prosecutor, and perhaps Abu Malik is hearing the story. In your absence, with my brother-in-law Nizam, at the public prosecutor's office, a conversation took place between me and him after he had interrogated me.
The student : Al-Mu'mini.

The Shaykh : Yes?
The student : Isa al-Mu'mini.

The Shaykh : Yes. So, I heard a good word from him; he reminded me of the verse: So I sat there, and there was no one else except one person entering and one person exiting, meaning the cases were numerous and very numerous, until I found some free time. I said to him: Can I speak with you about some scholarly matters? He said: Please go ahead. I said: I reminded him of the verse, so I want to remind you of two hadiths. I narrated to him the famous hadith in "Sahih al-Bukhari": , and the other hadith: . Then I commented on the two hadiths, the gist of which is that there is no contradiction between the verse and the two hadiths, because the two hadiths revolve around taking the means, and that means are divided into two categories: natural, cosmic means, such as taking, for example, health measures and avoiding disease-causing measures. So, by taking health measures, one becomes a cosmic cause for preserving human health and prolonging one's life, but this prolongation does not contradict what is recorded in the Preserved Tablet. This is the gist. I drew his attention to the fact that it is not correct to interpret the hadith as ; meaning, that he is blessed in his lifespan. This is how you know how they interpret it.
The Shaykh : The point is, in fact, I did this as a preamble to having a conversation with this public prosecutor, and here is the crux of the matter. The man apparently had no prior idea about Al-Albani from a scholarly perspective, apparently. So, it seemed his viewpoint changed a bit. He directed the following question to me, and I think this is related to the brother's question. He said to me: You, Professor, know that we rule by regulatory laws, and that in these laws there are violations of the Shari'ah. So, do we sin if we rule in a government with what contradicts the Shari'ah? We said: As for this, there is no doubt, because it is not permissible to contradict the Shari'ah, and no one has an excuse. He brought up the issue of sustenance, what sustenance is, his job, and so on. So, I answered him frankly, but I said to him: However, in my knowledge and within the limits of my study, and I am not a lawyer or legal expert, and this is your specialty, but—may Allah have mercy on you—however, from some of my general information, I know that the legal expert finds loopholes in the man-made laws through which he can pass and avoid falling into a Shari'ah violation. And I wanted to proceed with this topic in full, when he interrupted and said: For example, a case is brought to him that so-and-so committed zina with so-and-so. He says: The law with us, if the family of the woman with whom zina was committed files a lawsuit against the fornicator, we hear the lawsuit, but if they are reconciled, it is fine. He said: Even though the Shari'ah does not recognize this. I said to him: You are right. I said: This is what I wanted to say. You are now telling me and saying: Do I have to, if I refer this lawsuit to someone else? I said: This is the legal way out so that you do not rule by other than what Allah has revealed. So, the legal expert and the lawyer are tied to the same system. So, when he knows that he will be forced to plead and defend a case that contradicts the Shari'ah, he does not take it on. This is the answer.

The questioner : ... He warns him, he says ...

The Shaykh : This is what we told him, meaning, if he can. He may not be able to ...
The student : He cannot, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : He cannot, I know.
The student : Why? Because when the cases come, meaning, suppose there are four or five public prosecutors. The cases come to whom? To the desk, to the office.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : The office assigns them numbers. Number one for so-and-so, number two for so-and-so, number three, and so on.
Another student : ...
Another student : Yes?
Another student : They are distributed.
Another student : They are distributed, it is not up to him.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and mercy from Allah.
The student : It is not up to him. The lawsuit comes to him, he cannot transfer it to someone else, except in one case: if he, for example, is not present, then to expedite the review, it can be referred to the next one or the previous one according to their availability as well. It is possible that the public prosecutor cannot look at this case due to the large number of cases, so this case is postponed to the second or third day.

The Shaykh : In any case, the purpose is that he should strive.
The student : I mean, I may have an idea about the topic.

The Shaykh : The important thing is that this afflicted person should strive to divert the harm from himself.
The student : Many lawyers, Shaykh, now, some Muslim lawyers who fear Allah, when a case comes to them, they study it. When they see something forbidden in it, they stay away from it.

The Shaykh : That is it.
The student : The lawyer has more room to leave it and hold it than the public prosecutor.
Another student : Ah, more than the public prosecutor.
Another student : The public prosecutor has no choice.

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly ... .
The student : There was a communist lecturer, a doctor ... in Syria, I do not know in which country, he gave a lecture ... that Allah does not exist ...

The Shaykh: Allah is the Greatest!
The student : And then, when he wanted to go up the stairs of the podium, he stumbled and said: Oh, God—oh god, meaning ... He said: All your talk is gone.

The Shaykh : This reminds us of the polytheists, .
The student : Like a man who came out to give a lecture about smoking and its harms, and while he was lecturing about smoking and its harms, he got up, took out a pack of cigarettes, lit a cigarette, and kept smoking while leaving the lecture.
Another student : This was once a Sudanese man in Abu Dhabi ... The Sudanese brothers have, meaning, a greeting: Ahlan Mawlana. One Shaykh said Ahlan Mawlana. I sat and explained to him that "Mawla" is a word with opposite meanings in language: a slave or a master. So, I am not your master, and I am not your slave, so you say Mawlana ... The hadith, meaning, does not say ... And in the end, when I greeted him, I said to him: Goodbye, Mawlana ... .