But how does one decide what is mandated and what is not?
In Islamic jurisprudence, every action fits into one of five categories:
1. Wajib (Obligatory): That which one is rewarded for doing, and susceptible to punishment for not doing. For example, the five daily prayers.
2. Mustahab (Recommended): That which one is rewarded for doing, but is not susceptible to punishment for not doing. For example, fasting outside of Ramadan or praying additional prayers above the 5 obligatory ones.
3. Mubah (Allowed) : That which there is no reward for doing nor punishment for not doing. Owning slaves would fall into this category, as would driving a blue car or eating French fries. Basically, Allah doesn’t give a fuck if you do it or not.
4. Makrooh (Disliked): That which there is a reward for not doing, but no punishment for doing. An example would be going back to sleep after the dawn prayer.
5. Haraam (Forbidden): That which one is rewarded for not doing, and susceptible to punishment for doing. Naturally, there is a bunch of stuff that falls into this category: Eating with your left hand, wearing trousers that fall below your ankles, using an interest credit card, eating pork, listening to music, wearing silk if you are a man, wearing perfume outside if you are a woman, touching the opposite sex, praying for a dead non-Muslim, clearly, all the really bad stuff is Haraam. I wonder how non-muslims have any sense of morals…