The shaykh and imam, the scholar who practised what he knew, Shaykh al-Islām and pillar of the eminent imams, whose blessings reached the people of the two Iraqs and Syria, Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Halīm ibn 'Abd al-Salām Ibn Taymiyyah al-Harrānī, later al-Dimashqī—may Allah grant the Muslims benefit from his blessings—was asked while in Egypt:
About a man who quoted an earlier jurist as saying:
“It is impossible to eat what is lawful; nothing lawful can be found in this age.”
He was asked, “Why is that?”
He explained, “The spoils from the Battle of al-Mansūrah were not distributed, and wealth became intermingled through transactions involving them.”
He was told, “A man may hire himself out for permissible work and receive his wages lawfully.” But he maintained that the dirham itself was unlawful.
He was then asked, “How could the dirham’s status change initially, becoming unlawful through a prohibited means, yet not change so as to become lawful through a legitimate means?” What is the ruling on this?
He replied—may Allah be pleased with him:
Praise be to Allah.
The person who says, “It is impossible to eat what is lawful; nothing lawful can be found in this age,” is mistaken and wrong in his assertion, by the agreement of the imams of Islam. Statements of this kind were made by some adherents of