The responsibility of scholars when society is corrupted

Question

Question: In today’s society many things are counted among necessities which one hesitates to include among necessities in the Shari‘a sense, but which by custom are included among necessities. For example, in the matter of clothing, by the Shari‘a the need extends as far as covering the ‘awra (satr); the style and cut of the clothing and the like have no bearing on it, but by custom one has to dress according to one’s standing.

Answer

If society, both the common people and the elite, becomes corrupt, it must be reformed — not that the texts (nusus) be amended for its sake. Otherwise, who has the strength to bear what befell the scholars of the Children of Isra’il?

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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