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Assalamu Alaikum,

The Ruling on Television today
Author:

Imaam Muhammad Naasir-ud-Deen Al-Albaanee
Source:

Al-Asaalah Magazine, Issue #10
Translator:

isma'eel alarcon

Produced by:

al-manhaj.com

Question: What is the ruling on television today?

Answer: There is no doubt that television, today, is Haraam (forbidden). This is since television is like the radio and tape recorder – they are like all the other blessings that Allaah has bestowed upon His servants, as He has stated:

"And if you were to count the blessings of Allaah, you would never be able to count them." [Surah An-Nahl: 18]

Thus, hearing is a blessing and eyesight is a blessing, and so are the lips and the tongue. However, many of these blessings become trials upon their possessors because they do not use them in a way that Allaah loves and wants for them to be used.

Therefore, I consider the radio, television and the tape recorder to be from the blessings of Allaah, but when are they deemed as blessings? When they are used to bring benefit to the ummah. Today, ninety-nine percent of what is on television is evil, licentious, immoral, forbidden, and so on, while one percent of it has some shows presented that are of benefit to some people.

But the consideration is with regard to the majority (and not the minority). So when a true Muslim state exists that can place programs based on knowledge, which would be beneficial for the ummah, at that point I will not say that television is permissible, but rather I will say that it is obligatory.

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Television is just a waste of time (unless ofcourse you are watching something BENEFICIAL such as lectures..etc), let us do something more rewarding and beneficial with our time! Every hour, minute, and seconds should be something a Muslim cherishes for Allah only knows whether that hour, minute, seconds is your last!

May Allah (SWT) forgive us all and Insh'Allah grant us Jannah

Salam

I agree. I mean television just gets in da way of your life. why watch it at ALL (okay we all like desperate housewives and the OC-which is kind of getting so BORING lately) honestly I haven't watched tv (THAT much ) for da past 4 months

^^some things are funny, something aren't..i really hope you grow some brain cells and learn the difference one of these days..acuudi billah..

The ruling on television today is that football overrides EVERYthing else!

and the remote belongs to the man.

Proud
Life can't always be big issues and heart surgery. You have to have things that bring joy to your life. Television is an information medium, but it is also an entertainment medium.

Have you ever noticed how these "Rulings" are always restrictive in nature. I mean, if you log on to Islam-QA almost any question asked about what is permissable ends with an answer saying it's haram or Makruh. Doesn't that strike you as over the top?

[quote="*Proud_Muslimah*"]Assalamu Alaikum,


So when a true Muslim state exists that can place programs based on knowledge, which would be beneficial for the ummah, at that point I will not say that television is permissible, but rather I will say that it is obligatory.

[/quote]

I truly believe this statement because many of us still believe that we have a muslim state in this world well in fact all we have are secular countries passing themselves off as muslims.

xyad
And how would you define a Muslim state? What is a Muslim state?

A state which implements every aspect of the shariah law and nothing else!

Well think through what that means. A lot of things are up in the air concerning Shari'a. Some people would say TV, for example, is haram. Others would say it isn't. Right now, generally, people have the right to decide for themselves what they consider haram and what they don't. At least in civil society. Now in your Islamic country, from whom would these individual rights taken away and to whom would the power of deciding what's haram be given?

In Saudi Arabia, the House of Saud and the Wahabis entered into a Faustian pact, to the detriment of all. At one time, the Wahabis protected the House of Saud and claimed it was un-Islamic to resist these leaders. That is still the official position, although because the Saudis have aligned their security fate to the US, there are cracks showing in the Islamic armor of state.

Just because the kaba is at saudi arabia for not one second does that make it a muslim state... the royal family in saudi are only interested in keeping their thrown, money and power and that will only happen if they keep their alliance or in this case ass licking to the US intact.

Obviously what you're saying about scholars having different opinions about tv and other such matters are true, people have disagreements that is why the majority would get the ruling passed.

I believe that if a country was to implement the shariah they must do it to the finest detail and not just when they feel like it or an election is coming up.

many of these so called muslim countries have death penalties and only implement it when it suits them which is utterly wrong.

Xyaad
OK you want to implement Shari'a down to the finest detail. And you complain that the death penalty isn't consistently administered. But neither was it during Mohammed's time. The Prophet did not implement Shari'a uniformly. And he shouldn't have. Not to be just. Does the person who steals a loaf of bread on time deserve the same penalty and a serial criminal who broke into 100 homes or a white collar thief who stole millions from old age pensioners? Think about that. There is no universal, one size fits all, code of justice.

I am reminded of something I read some time ago.

"Oftentimes I have heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you, and intruder upon your world. But I say that even as the holy and the righteous can not rise above the highest which is in each of you, so the wicked and the weak can not fall lower than the lowesrt which is in you also.

And as a single leaf turns yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, so the wrong doer can not do wrong whtout the hidden will of you all. Life a procession you walk together towards you God self. You and the way and the wayfarers.

And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Ay and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster, and surer afoot, removed not the stumbling stone.

And this too, though the word lie heavy upon your heats. The murdered is not unaccountable for his wn murder, and the robbed is not blameless in being robbed. The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked, and the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon. Yea the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured, and still more often, the condemned is the burden bearer for the guiltless and unblmed. You cannot seperate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked, for they stnd together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together."

Do not be too quick to deal in a world of absolutes. The world is not absolute, but many shades of gray. The older you get, the more you realize this.

That is true the older you get the more wiser you become.

I'm not claiming to know everything about islam but i look at the world today and especially muslim countries and i guess i believe that our prophet (pbuh) did not want them to turn out quite like this.

Obviously everything is not black or white that is why scholars are there to discuss each matter carefully and with accordance to shariah law.

The "scholars" will lie, twist and deceive, like all men of power do. You can not trust them. Do you want to put you fate into the hands of "the scholars"?

The reason the world is perhaps not as Mohammed (Or dare I say Jefforson,Christ, Bhudah, Ghandi, Confucius, or a host of other great minds) would have it, is because the world is an incredibly complex place full of these things called humans, who often tend to be self serving in many ways. There is no magic formula, not Shari'a or anything else. Because all of these things are administered by humans, who are inately flawed. A perfect system (which can not excess - I refer you to chaos theory), were to exist, would still be implemented by imperfect humans. The result must always be imperfect.

Humans are not perfect but i believe that islam is. As you said this world was never perfect and never will be (not untill it ends) but i do believe that people need rules and i believe that those rules are that of islams.