i have often wondered the same about people who say they are in dar al harb therefore they are entitled to play the system so they get benefits even if they are absolutely capable of working.
I pay my taxes, therefore those people are also taking from my money and millions of other Muslim taxpayers.
i actually had my own situation once when i was out of work. this wasn't a q&a with a scholar but discussion with friends and family; and they gave the same reasoning.
my reasoning was Muslim pride - how can i take welfare from the kafir government (and i was fully and genuinely eligible for it then)?! my friends and family on the other hand said - no, they take taxes from you. so when you're in this situation, you use them back. makes sense, and i changed my views. but one or two weeks later i got another job
as per Hanafi rulings,
on the entitled to play the system - play can mean utilize the laws or the heela's/loopholes, incentives, tax breaks etc. from their own system - that's perfectly fair and allowed
if by play, someone means conning the system - then that is not allowed
case in point - unemployment benefits - in most countries you're supposed to prove that you're actually looking for work and interviewing etc. so you can't fake it and just sit at home and collect their checks; or keep an ongoing job hush hush and also collect unemployment; or if you're a caregiver for kids or elderly, prove it to them; or disabled yourself - faking all such things and conning the system is not allowed
I once heard someone tell me: we are in ‘dar al harb’ so we are allowed to have intercourse with non Muslim females anytime.
Ala Hazrat refuted just that in Fatawa Ridawiyyah. a kafir female citizen of a kafir country is patently not a ghaneemah that has been assigned to you by the imam/ameer, and doesn't come under 'what your right hand possesses'. (sorry no references right now, but you can search on software easily)
financial transactions are a different issue where Hanafi school stipulates that there is no riba between a Muslim and a harbi in darul harb (Muslim taking 2 dirhams from a kafir in exchange for 1 dirham)
coming back to which
I asked Mufti Akmal a similar question, and he actually made a video on it stating that we can only take interest from a non Muslim bank if we are certain that not a single shareholder of that bank is a Muslim.
so this fatwa is essentially a non-fatwa due to its impracticability
which common guy like you or me will be able to get a full list of the names of all the shareholders in a publicly traded company?
it's bad enough just trying to identify if your local take-away joint is owned by a Muslim or an ismaili or a qadiani ma 'n pa; and what is the status of the meat they serve!
i can't speak for the uk, but in some other places, generally ismailis just don't get into the meat business (at least for Muslim customer base), and if they open up any restaurants etc. aimed for a Muslim customer base wanting halal, they just buy meat from Sunni or shia (12'er) butchers, coz both Sunnis and 12ers consider them kafir and no practicing Sunni or 12er shia considers their meat as zabiha! if they open restaurants for western customer base, that's a different story.
qadianis in the west are insistent to call themselves Muslims, many times will show taqiyya and hide their status, and i'm pretty sure, they call their meat as halal too. don't know if they have butchers too. we can look for the halal certificate from a relied upon certifying body when we walk into a cafe or something, but really we can't ask the owner if he's qadiani every time we walk into an unknown halal-labeled restaurant etc. i'm still figuring out how they play out with the food business. perhaps you uk guys will be having more experience and exposure to them given their large numbers there.
anyways, his (Akmal Qadri) ruling that modern western nations aren't darul harb is crazy as far as i'm concerned. i know that video and it annoyed me greatly. is he really that blind to all the wars and atrocities against Muslim nations in all these post colonial years! really, all he can see is that Muslim immigrants have mosques and can get welfare? (of course, chor ke ghar me chori nahin hoti - he doesn't know a simple maxim?)
