I live in a non muslim country,and recently I started working for a 'tree planting' company. So they import the quarter of their trees from foreign countries but gets the rest illegally from mountains, but the tree is not considered rare or about to be extinct, it's just illegal to take trees from mountains. Islamicly it is a good deed to plant a tree and it's also halal to get trees from mountains but since it is illegal in my country,is my income haram or am I just sinfull for doing illegal stuff?

**In the event of a murder we see the following instruction in the Quran...** "O you who have believed, prescribed for you is legal retribution for those murdered – the free for the free, the slave for the slave, and the female for the female. But whoever overlooks from his brother anything, then there should be a suitable follow-up and payment to him with good conduct. This is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy. But whoever transgresses after that will have a painful punishment." (Surah 2:178) What does the Quran mean when it says, "the free for the free, the slave for the slave, and the female for the female" in the murder context? Does it mean that if a free man kills a slave unjustly then one of his slaves must be put to death for his crime? What if that man doesn't have slaves at all? What if a man kills a woman, does this mean that a female member of his family such as mother, sister, wife, daughter etc., must be put to death for his crime? If a woman kills a man should a male member of her family be put to death? Likewise, if a slave male kills a free male then the owner of the male slave must be killed for the crime? In the murder context, the Quran could have said simply, "The murderer must be killed!" But it doesn't. It is almost impossible to guess why! What could be the possible reason behind this ambiguity in Quran regarding one of the significant issues of human societies? The above verse deals with the murder. It seems it is replacing the previous rule given to Jews as the Hadith literature mentions: https://www.sunnah.com/bukhari/87/20 . Some suggest that the verse had a context, which is not mentioned in the Authentic Hadiths though. But that doesn't restrict its applicability to Muslims now. If muslims today are expected to take its instructions how should they understand and apply it? Furthermore, even if the suggested context is a battle settlement between two tribes, which had once fought with each other and later joined Islam, how can it be equal let alone justice if a freeman be killed now for a free man that was killed in the battle? Or, a slave to be killed now for a slave that had been killed before? Or, a woman be put to death now for a woman that had been killed earlier?

So I just received a gift card (I didn't intend to) for completing something. Is the money in the gift card halal to spend? Or is it haram and I should not use the money in it?

The title says it all, is it permissible to work at a legal marijuana dispensary? I get a I work at a place that sells product for both recreational and medicinal consumption. It's the best job I can find at the moment and the bosses have been super accommodating to me this Ramadan, more so than any bosses I've had previously. No one is expected to use the product and it's actually against the rules for any workers there to be under the influence of the product on the job.

Assalamoalaikum, Can I marry my mother's elder sister's daughter's daughter. Is it acceptable in Islam, please guide me.

Much blood has been shed between Muslims in rivalry over who should lead the umma. Before fighting over politics, the premise of the requirement of a single ruler for all of the Muslims was never established. Expecting any ruler to walk in the prophet’s shoes is impossible. For example, what was the premise for Ali ibn Abu Talib not allowing Muawiya ibn Abu Sufyan to run his own caliphate in Syria and causing the battle of Siffin? Was this premise worth 1 drop of Muslim blood? Likewise, after the death of Ali ibn Abu Talib, what was the premise for Muawiye not allowing Hasan ibn Ali to have his own caliphate in Kufa, or Medina? There seems to have been an inclination to use religious leadership to expand the scope of political leadership to the entire umma. The premise seems to be the prevention of religious disorder termed ‘fitna’ where slaughter is preferred to prevent religious disorder (Quran 2:191). However this wahi was revealed in Mecca against the polytheists who were preventing the Muslims from visiting the Kaaba for Haj. Using this aya to spill the blood of fellow Muslims who did not differ in religion, but only political allegiance to a political leader seems very dubious. Did rival Muslim rulers have any religious premise to justify the wars between their umma?

I would like to know whether or not it is permissible in Islam for someone to change their first name (regardless of circumstance)? When I say change, I mean formally as opposed to informally. I do not have enough knowledge of hadith to ascertain the answer for myself, so your answers will be much appreciated. I'm primarily after a general 'Sunni' view on the matter. Thanks.

Assalamualaikum my dear sisters and brothers. i have a question regarding 8 ball pool from miniclip. its like a virtual game of pool but players stack up virtual gamemoney and whosoever wins takes it. iknow this form would not be haram ( as i read a similar question before) but some players buy pool coins for real money and sometime these pool coins can be earned by the player! please inform me about the second issue please thankyou in advance

Aslaam-o-aleikum! I am planning to InshaAllah marry a woman, we both are sunni muslims. But she has a 8 year old boy from her earlier marriage. We live in a joint family, my brother has a baby girl and my mother also lives in the same house. The question is when I get married, her son will live with us. When he becomes an adult (18yrs) will he be a na-mehram for my brother daughter or my mother? Is it legal in islam to live in a joint family with a "son" I do not have any blood relation with? Jazakallah kheir.

There is software license 9 imam Hadits by *www.lidwa.com * obtained copies of copyrighted works, the owner claims that no one can copy their database. But isn't the Quran (and Hadits) itself licensed and copyrighted by Allah and Rasulullah (SAW)? According to Islamic laws it is free to copy Quran and Hadits, but can someone claim copyright for the translation? They translate the Arabic to Indonesian with huge effort and what is Sharia law to copy the Indonesian translation of hadits and Quran?

In the context of [this question](https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/36656/what-is-the-punishment-when-innocent-people-are-incorrectly-executed-under-shari) , it occurred to me that I don't know whether sharia commands to implement a system of courts of appeals. For context: in common and civil law, states implement a system of courts of appeal, which hierarchically structures courts such that the parties of a court case decided on the lowest level of the hierarchy (the "trial court") can appeal to the competent court at the next-higher level of authority (the "appellate court") in order to request that the appellate court rules whether the trial court decided the case correctly; if the appellate court finds that the trial court misjudged the case, the appellate court can overrule the trial court's decision. There often are multiple levels of appellate courts. I seem to recall that Ali was once requested to rule in a case in which Umar had already decided, and he rejected to do so, saying something like "I won't overrule Umar". I can't seem to find a source for this, yet it raises these questions: Does sharia command to install a hierarchy of appellate courts, where the higher levels can override the rulings of the lower levels, if the parties of the trial bring their case to an appellate court? If appellate courts are not obligatory to install, is it halal to install them? If this is a contentious issue in scholarly discourse, an overview over how well-subscribed the contending opinions are and an outline according to school of thought would be fantastic.