Islam.SE often gets questions of the kind "is X halal?", where "X" may be quite specific and the permissiveness of which is very clear. Examples include can I bathe with my wife, can I marry two women at the same time, can a wife accompany her husband in public, is eating mushrooms halal.
Basically the principle of "everything is halal until proven otherwise", together with the pragmatic rule of thumb "do your best, and relax" should solve almost all of these issues. However, a slightly more involved answer might be more satisfying to have. Therefore, these questions:
- What is the default ruling for any action?
- When is a Muslim required to check whether an action might be impermissible? (*)
- What effort is a Muslim expected to put into determining whether an action that falls under (*) is haram?
