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Electronic Games
Assalam u Alaikum.I’m new here.Hope to learn a lot.My question is that nowadays games have murder,robbery,shirk etc in them.Are playing such games having these contents in them halal providing that we are mature and don’t act on such things.I have seen Ghamidi Sahab’s reply related to Shirk content but what about other things.Please elaborate.Jazak Allah
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10 Replies
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Electronic Games
updated 6 months, 2 weeks ago
4 Members
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10
Replies
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Discussion 34234 • Reply 34381I posted this question here too
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But these ayat are often used in the discussion.That Allah has forbidden Shirk,associating false words to Allah,Fahash,Haq talfi,Jaan Maal Abroo ko nuqsaan.Ghamidi sb in his discussion of music often says that if these components are present then that music is forbidden so why not in games then?
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Yes music can have fawahish and shirk. But if someone is singing a Hindu song and I listen to it I’m not doing shirk. I probably wouldn’t listen to it willingly but I wonder if that even counts as shirk.
Games can’t have fawahish probably because no one is going to do zina because of a game. If a Muslim makes a game it won’t have any trace of shirk in it. But if a non Muslim makes a game and that has shirk in it- I am neither doing shirk by playing it, nor will I at all ever do shirk because of the game- nor will I (unless I’m completely cut off from any Islamic education) he desensitised to shirk because of a literal video game.
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Same with murder. Just because Mario killed bowser doesn’t mean it desensitised to murder. Even if I’m playing mortal combat I’m not gonna start ripping peoples throats out. Let’s take pubg- do people start shooting up the world after the play it? No. Maybe the odd mental case here or there but that can’t be used as an argument against the game.
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Then why ghamidi sb forbids music having these components in them.I listened to him where he clearly stated that any music having these 5 things is forbidden.This is what I am not understanding that are these 5 Haraam things only to be not acted upon or also not seen and listened to
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Music containing any such motivations or explicit references to any such haram things should be avoided on sadd-e-zariya principle as constant listening or watching these things can make a person very lenient about severity of these things and it may lead one to get involved into such acts himself one day, because of lower threshold developed in a person with constant listening and watching these haram acts. But no fatwa of absolute prohibition can be given in this regard, because absolute prohibitions are very explicitly mentioned in Quran.
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You may find this video insightful in this regard:
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Jazak Allah Umer Bhai
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The way I personally see the distinction between something like music vs video games is perhaps a different take.
With music, the lyrics are sung to deliver an impactful message with the aid of musical instruments to amplify/add melodious value to that particular message so in that sense, the lyrics combined with the mathematical arrangement of sound type, tempo and pitch create a message which the mind can perhaps absorb more easily. For example from my own experience, the best way to memorize material for academics for maybe was to create my own song with its own beats etc with those terms to memorize and that way those terms would be very hard to forget. Hence with a polytheistic song or something, listening to it is not perhaps shirk itself but since it could have a strong tendency to desensitize a person to shirk and hence case of hurmat can be made (one could perhaps point to the Hadith of the girls singing and the prophet (SAW) stopped them from uttering a lyric and then told them to continue).
On the other hand, video games or even games themselves are just make belief/pretending situations done for entertainment value. Violent video games etc are just like playing a game of perhaps chor police etc where we do have violent themes but just for the sake adding aesthetic value to the game itself. In those cases, participants of those games are playing antagonist roles just to create a fun theme but having said that one must be careful as to not be inspired by those bad themes to implement something evil in real life. Furthermore, for games an argument can also be made of the intention the participant has in mind while playing the game. If it’s for taking fun in action, story and experience it’s fine even for a violent game but if his intention is actually evil for example if the intention is to seek sadistic pleasure in killing people, listening to vulgar language etc then perhaps a case of hurmat can be made (but having said this, the sin of killing innocent NPCs to fullfill sadistic pleasure would be very minor and much much smaller than actually killing people in real life perhaps?).
Overall difference between music and games is that music actually does have a message and a much more profound impact on the mind compared to games where the pleasure value lies in visual aesthetics, achieving challenge and fulfilling tasks. Plz correct me if I’m wrong.
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In order to determine prohibitions in religion, it is better to break them down in terms of prohibitions mentioned in Quran 7:33 which would be the following five categories:
1) Fawahish
2) Usurping the rights of Others
3) Oppression
4) Polytheism
5) Biddah
Let’s discuss each one by one:
1). Fawahish inlcudes vulgar acts like fornication, homosexuality, bestiality, exposing the private parts before others, spreading details of sexual nature and all other sins of similar nature. However, the nature of Fawahish is such that some actions may act as its precursor and also act as an extension to Fawahish. Therefore, actions like those which are precursors to adultery, pornography, music and games containing such language or visuals etc. are all to be avoided as both Sadd-e-Zariya (preventive measure) and as an extension to Fawahish.
2), 3) & 5). Since the nature of these acts is such that thay become a sin when they are committed. Therefore, if any game, music etc. contain such actions then the person playing will be advised caution on the principle of Sadd-e-Zariya.
4). The matter of polytheism is also similar to 1). It is a matter of both belief and action. However, certain actions even done without belief for a diety other than Allah would still be sinful because those actions, just like certain actions of Fawahish are themselves an indication of their occurrence as an extension. Therefore, here also it would be advised to avoid such games, videos, music as both Sadd-e-Zariya (preventive measure) and as an extension to Polytheism.
It must however be kept in mind that such actions which are prohibited in religion on Sadd-e-Zariya grounds or on extension grounds, violation of such prohibitions would result in minor sins as long as a Muslim stays away from committing actual sins (which are Major sins by nature). And for such minor sins it is promise of Allah that He will forgive them if a Muslims stays clear of Major Sins. But since it is a slippery slope and one never knows when such an indulgence in minor sins might slip them into realm of Major sins.
The above was a very generic analysis and there can be indefinite scenarios that one may face in today’s world while dealing with such matters whether it be music, games, movies, videos etc. with some instances more severe or more objectionable than others. So the advice for all such scenarios would be “TO MAKE AN HONEST DECISION AND PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION“.
We also need to make a distinction between Sadd-e-Zariya directives provided in Quran and Sunnah and the ones advised by a scholar. The former holds religious sanctitity as compared to the latter ones. As far as Fawahish (or specifically adultery) & polytheism and Biddah are concerned, many Sadd-e-Zariya directives are available in Quran and Sunnah (incuding Hadith) due to which more caution needs to be excercised in these domains.
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