What is the status of man-made laws (traffic laws, for example) in Islam?
Re: man-made laws and Islam
Man made laws are ok as long as they dont contradict with sharia.
Re: man-made laws and Islam
It’s biddah 
Re: man-made laws and Islam
How important are they for a Muslim’s life?
It seems to me that it is considered fine to ignore them as long as you get away with it.
Re: man-made laws and Islam
once when I was little I told my older brother… “that one philosopher said” that islam cause issue…
that when a ricksaw driver without silencer he does not think of being good..
when he feel like being good he goes to mosque and pray…“”
My brother said that phisophe is SOB… 
PS: I made that philosopher up… I still wonder if my brother knew it 
Re: man-made laws and Islam
It may also be fine for person X to ignore and reject God; its a personal choice. All personal choices are fine. Quran encourages reflection, inquiry and knowledge as a prerequisite for any kind of belief and action. No such notion of ‘blind faith’ in Quran’s message. Not sure, what makes it ‘seem’ that you have such a sweeping generalization. I am tempted to think that was meant to be intentionally provocative or simply extremely ignorant.
While you may not AGREE with some laws, dozens of Muslim majority countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, UAE, Pakistan, Iran, Bahrain, Qatar, etc…) ACTUALLY have laws(immigration laws, trade laws, labor laws, traffic laws, etc).
If a Cheif Economist of a nation gives you a wise advice, and a village elder gives you a different wise advice on the same subject matter, whose advice is probably superior?
If a parent recommends something for their child, and a child’s friend recommends something, whose advice is likely superior?
If Vishnu, Bhagwaan, Yahwey, God, Khuda, Allah recommends something, and I tell you something regarding the same matter, whose advice will be superior?
You as a person can choose to take my advice over Vishnu’s. Thats up to you, but that would probably say a lot more about YOU than Vishnu.
Re: man-made laws and Islam
Like @BigdaNawab said. I think the term he is looking for is “Ijtihad”. Which is kind of like “independent reasoning”. Obviously not just about anyone does Ijtihad, it’s usually the most educated scholars int he field of Islam who sit down together and discuss situations in the light of Islam.
For example, but in Prophet’s (PBUH) time, they did not need laws on what to do in case of nuclear explosion. However, in light of what Islam says in regards to war far etc, ulimah can get together, do Ijtihad and come to a conclusion on what kind of man-made law in required.
Also, like Nawab sahab said above, sometimes don’t need ulimah. Some times you just need to reason with yourself about what the best possible course of action is. Further, Allah knows best 
“How important are they in a Muslims life?” i think they are quite important. Once you live somewhere, you are the states (country’s) responsibility. Just like how under a muslim state, non-muslims have to pay taxes, yet live amongst others because the state says so, i think it should go the other way round too. Just because there are no rulings on things in certain countries, doesn’t mean we run amuck doing whatever the hell we want. Being a peaceful, law abiding citizen (as long as the laws do not contradict Islamic ruling) is part of Islam. Being the town menace is just as wrong as a muslim as it is wrong living in another country and ruining lives for other people.
I’m a big supporter of peaceful co-existence.
Re: man-made laws and Islam
Islam demands justice from people. You are supposed to do justice even in personal capacity. Haqooq ul Ibad charge could be applied to those who dont follow the agreed rules as the ruler should be obeyed if he is good to Islam. If i violate traffic signal I might be considered guilty of taking others’ turn/place.
Not sure if you want to discuss laws like driving permission for women.
Re: man-made laws and Islam
but, imma big believer that peaceful coexistence can happen by ignoring the idiots..Exhibit A: @kakabali
Re: man-made laws and Islam
No.
I wanted to know how much emphasis is there in Islamic teaching regarding obeying rules which a society forms for various reasons like traffic rules or customs or income tax or immigration. It is just anecdotal evidence but I see that more ‘learned’ a person in in religious (not specifically Islamic) knowledge, less regard that person generally has for other regulations. Somehow, just like financially elite of Pakistani society, the religious elite considers themselves beyond such regulations.
So the questions are like this:
Is there much emphasis on following rules framed by society while one goes through religious teachings in religious schools?
Do schools teaching religion find it their duty to ‘teach’ citizens to follow societal and civil laws?
Remember that I am not criticizing religion or religious schools but just would like to know if such attitudes are because of lack of emphasis on importance of civil laws by religious scholars or because of our general attitudes of not being concerned about them.
Re: man-made laws and Islam
Why don’t we consider them important enough then? A classic example is my dad pushing me to run red lights while driving back from Jumma prayers because there was no traffic police around. 
Also see post 10](http://www.paklinks.com/gs/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=10) .
Re: man-made laws and Islam
Scholars are not playing their role for building the society. instead they want “societies” within society as they are only concerned with their own sect’s people. So there is absence of common interest and sectarian war is on even on intellectual front. Your point is valid and there no emphasis on teachings for making people socially better. I believe that is the reason it is hard to justify why one should use Islam as governance system.
Although societal laws are same nature but they do vary from region to region. So there is general guideline for following what is agreed. A Muslim cannot breach contract or agreed rules. I believe that if scholars focus on how important doing justice and being truthful toward society is, it could make a difference. A Salfi guy offers prayer 5 times a day following teachings of Islam and goes to jihad when it is demanded from some scholar. A sunni guy is somewhat same. Sunni barlevi would donate chanda to Mehfil e naat and mazar and religious festivals. But all these type of muslims can be found guilty of not paying tax or violating social moral rules, infact we see them around us. Scholars teach people it is sawab to spend on rituals but they dont tell the that it does more harm than good while doing tax chori. Not to speak of following the societal rules, a lot of people get interests from banks and donate chanda to mosque and mehfil e naat etc.
As i said scholars are fighting for sects. since we know society was not that huge and laws were not complex in time of appearance of Islam so general guidelines should be followed. for example if you are in a contract you cannot breach it or take care of haqooq of others and your responsibilities.