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What is the ruling on a case when, if you tell a man or a woman, “What you are doing is haram” – such as telling a woman not to wear short clothes, or telling a man not to smoke cigarettes – they reply by saying that everyone does that, or that all the women in our country dress this way?
Praise be to Allah.
The response that you describe is wrong, and the people’s evil actions cannot be justified. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And if you obey most of those on the earth, they will mislead you far away from Allah’s path” [al-An’aam 6:116]
Rulings on what is halal and what is haram are taken from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), not from what people do, because people may be wrong or they may be right.