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Entertainment With Mythology?
Of course shirk is haram in Islam. However, is it permissible to watch movies or play video games that contain elements of Greek or Roman mythology? As far as I know, virtually no one believes these traditions to be anything other than myths.
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10 Replies
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Entertainment With Mythology?
updated 6 months ago
5 Members
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10
Replies
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Please watch:
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I mean my view would be that it is perfectly fine. No one is going to be desensitised to shirk after watching Hercules
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JazakAllah for your answer. I agree with you in that light – having played video games and watched movies loosely based on mythology, I’ve never felt inclined to commit in shirk. At the same time, I vaguely remember a video where Javed Ghamidi was saying that we should not watch (or maybe create?) movies where the protagonist is committing shirk. I’ll try to find the video, but don’t exactly remember it. Still got to watch this video too haha
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So just to add on to this question there is a particular game called age if empires 3 where you can command various nations into war against other nations. There are a bunch of nations which are Christian civilizations and the Indians who are dominantly Hindu.
Within the gameplay itself christian civilizations have to construct churches and train priests for the purpose of healing your units and getting experience points and the same case is with Indians who have to build sacred fields which are statues of cows which can also train cows only to gain experience points (image attached).
Given that the purposes of building those churches and cow statues in the game is for aesthetics, game mechanics and gameplay experience and that no real worship or Pooja takes place, it’s fine to do so right? Only reason why I’m asking is because I think I’m currently suffering from scrupulosity OCD and just thinking about these things gives me anxiety now due to unforgivable nature of shirk 😔
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Also just to add since Muslim civilizations also have to build mosques and imams for the same purpose of experience points and healing. Hence everytime the ottomans or Hausa turn out to be my opponents I remember I used to feel somewhat guilty while destroying a mosque in the game (again just there for aesthetics, mechanics and gameplay purpose). What do you have to say about that?
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The question is why do you want to indulge in an activity that results in guilt or anxiety? If mere entertainment is the purpose then quite evidently your chosen activity is counterproductive. Besides, entertainment can be achieved in a whole myriad of other ways. If you want to understand what shirk is, we can certainly help with that knowledge. But ultimately it will be you who will have to apply that knowledge to an activity that you choose to conduct at your own discretion.
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Well personally the reason to indulge in this particular form of entertainment (in a balanced way to balance life priorities off course) is that it is a strategy game where one can explore different strategies based on factions of choosing and hence helps in development of cognitive behavior. Plus the graphics and asthetics (depictions of multiple cultures) of the the game are visually appealing in the artistic sense too.
Having said that, it’s not anything about the gameplay or mechanics that causes this anxiety but only the inclusion of those particular elements which are inspired by real religions but we’re put there by the devs for gameplay aesthetics only and not to endorse any religion or anything like that.
PS: I have been playing this game for a while now without feeling any guilt but only recently started feeling anxiety due to this new found OCD.
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Brother @faisalharoon going back to your suggestion, any discussion thread or any other link otherwise you could suggest for education on what is shirk and it’s boundaries. Thanks in advance 🙏
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All the benefits that you mentioned above can be achieved in alternative ways.
Anxiety is sometimes caused by our conscience feeling uncomfortable about something and telling us to stop. If I was in your situation, I would either not persist on an activity that results in such a situation, or understand the reasons for my anxiety and counter it with learning and knowledge. It is not enough to have someone just tell you that it’s okay. You have to understand the principle and apply it yourself. For every single person that conclusively tells you that your activity is not haram, you will find ten that will tell you that it is absolutely haram. Therefore, if the purpose of your question is to subside your anxiety then it won’t be achieved. Ghamidi sahab has explained the principle in the video shared above. Think about it and apply it to your situation with utmost sincerity. That is the only solution to your issue.
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@faisalharoon yes brother I agree with you on that.
I have had a chance to reflect on my anxiety and deduced that in my case it would be better to suppress my anxiety. Reason for this is that I don’t feel guilty while doing the act itself/ while playing the game but just thinking about it gets to me (about indulging themes inspired from other belief systems) due to the reason you mentioned above(for every person claiming for a particular thing to be mubah 10 others will claim it to be Haram 😅). Hence my condition is leading me to overthinking things and thus doubt simple pleasures people take for granted in modern times. Having said this I think that just someone telling me it’s okay won’t do anything and that I have to dig deeper into the reasoning behind it and also seek therapy to combat this anxiety.
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