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Watching Anime (Japanese Cartoon) Halal Or Haram?
Assalam O Alaikum,
I want to ask if it is permissible to watch anime like Naruto, One Piece, My Hero Academia, etc. These shows convey positive messages but also contain Haram things like Gods, bringing people back to life, knowledge of the unseen, etc. I want to ask if we can watch these shows if we only watch them for fun and not actually believe in the shirk. And if a character is given the title or displayed as God, Am I allowed to feel inspired by that character (not because of his claim to be God, but the way he fights, his abilities, etc), and am I allowed to fantasize myself using those abilities of his? Would this be considered as shirk? And if all of this is not shirk, is it at least sinful? Am I allowed to discuss the episodes and the plays with other people (like telling them so and so happened in this episode and I think it was pretty amazing, etc)? Would this be considered endorsing?
Please reply soon, Jazakallah.
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12 Replies
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Watching Anime (Japanese Cartoon) Halal Or Haram?
updated 8 months, 3 weeks ago
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12
Replies
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Fantasy is not reality, so it is not equal to watching something real Shirk. It is just like watching other fantasy, like Spider Man or Super man, who do not exist in reality. However, one must be careful that must not be inspired by the theme of Shirk that one might incline to Shirk.
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What do you exactly mean by inspired? What I basically meant was for one to fantasize himself using those abilities of that character that is displayed as a God. So if he can throw lightning through his hand, am I allowed to fantasize myself doing that too?
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The God we know doesn’t act like that. His ways can’t be imagined or imitated.
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Asalamualaikum Dr. Irfan Shahzad,
Hope you are well. Do you mind giving an example of a piece of art that contains shirk which would be haram to watch/observe? I’m just hoping to clarify my understanding.
JazakAllah
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Asalamualaikum
To add on to the anime question if a show has magical powers in it and I enjoy team using them powers to fight is this Kufr
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Muslims have been living along with the idolaters and benefiting from their culture avoiding Shirk. The same can be done with literature and cinematic stuff containing themes against the beliefs of Islam.
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Don’t worry about shirk and kufr as a Muslim when you know “There is nothing like unto Him (God) “. However , God wants his servants to worship him as if they see him (hadith: Worship God as if you see him ). It’s the seeing of the heart in the imaginal realm . Here’s a beautiful story from the Masnavi explaining the deep implication of the hadith.
Next follows an anecdote of Bilkis, Queen of Sheba,whose reason was enlightened by the counsels of the Hoopoo sent to her by King Solomon. Outward sense is as opposed to true reason as Abu Jahl was to Muhammad; and when the outward senses are replaced by the true inner reason, man sees that the body is only foam, and the heart the limitless ocean. Afterwards comes an anecdote of a philosopher who was struck blind for cavilling at the verse, “What think ye? If at early morn your waters shall have sunk away, who will then give you clear running water?” This is succeeded by the story of Moses and the shepherd. Moses once heard a shepherd praying as follows: “O God, show me where thou art, that I may become. Thy servant. I will clean Thy shoes and comb Thy hair, and sew Thy clothes, and fetch Thee milk.” When Moses heard him praying in this senseless manner, he rebuked him, saying, “O foolish one, though your father was a Mosalman, you have become an infidel. God is a Spirit, and needs not such gross ministrations as, in your ignorance, you suppose.” The shepherd was abashed at his rebuke, and tore his clothes and fled away into the desert. Then a voice from heaven was heard, saying, “O Moses, wherefore have you driven away my servant?Your office is to reconcile my people with me, not to drive them away from me. I have given to each race different usages and forms of praising and adoring me. I have no need of their praises, being exalted above all such needs. I regard not the words that are spoken, but the heart that offers them. I do not require fine words, but a burning heart. Men’s ways of showing devotion to me are various, but so long as the devotions are genuine, they are accepted.”
The Quran does warn of shirk but if you observe carefully, God has anthropomorphized himself for the believers. Two examples are more than enough
- “Indeed, those who pledge allegiance to you, [O Muḥammad] – they are actually pledging allegiance to Allāh. The hand of Allāh is over their hands.”
- “And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah. Indeed, Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.”
An authentic hadith also describes God in anthropomorphic terms , it’s just one the many you can find in the hadith literature
On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:
“Allah (mighty and sublime be He) will say on the Day of Resurrection: O son of Adam, I fell ill and you visited Me not. He will say: O Lord, and how should I visit You when You are the Lord of the worlds? He will say: Did you not know that My servant So-and-so had fallen ill and you visited him not? Did you not know that had you visited him you would have found Me with him? O son of Adam, I asked you for food and you fed Me not. He will say: O Lord, and how should I feed You when You are the Lord of the worlds? He will say: Did you not know that My servant So-and-so asked you for food and you fed him not? Did you not know that had you fed him you would surely have found that (the reward for doing so) with Me? O son of Adam, I asked you to give Me to drink and you gave Me not to drink. He will say: O Lord, how should I give You to drink when You are the Lord of the worlds? He will say: My servant So-and-so asked you to give him to drink and you gave him not to drink. Had you given him to drink you would have surely found that with Me”
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With due respect aren’t these the Mutashaabihaat that you are quoting? And we have been clearly ordered to stay away from them and not go too deep?
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Not really, check the last part of the opening post and the replies. You should see for yourself
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Asslamu alaykum don’t know if my message is still visible but I asked when I watch an anime that contains the kufr and shirk and enjoy those parts I still know they are wrong for example some animes contain magical powers and I enjoy watching them using the powers because it looks good but I still know magic is very wrong but is what I’m doing still kufr
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See the response by Dr.Irfan in this discussion:
Also Umer Sahab’s response in this discussion about magic:
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Salam alaikum I’m also an anime fan here and glad to see this question was asked by brother @SOLDIER_TOAD . I had the exact same question surrounding anime/shows/games which featured stuff like “gods” (Mortal Kombat, dragon ball Z), an afterlife not in conjunction with Islamic belief (themes like reincarnation, or like in the anime bleach where people’s souls get super powers after death etc). Even started to have doubts about assassin’s Creed as that has somewhat of a message of religions being false (but I guess a lot of things in that game are open to interpretation too. Plus the series has a considerable Muslim fan base as some games are set in Muslim culture places).
These shows and games are made by non-muslims who don’t know any better than us when it comes to these things. But then again even a lot of these shows are not per say banned in Muslim countries and some of them even have Arabic dubbed version too that air in conservative places like UAE and Saudi Arabia. Also I remember there was a video game which was popular in Saudi which featured Characters who were “gods” like God of thunder, water fire etc. When that game was translated and stuff into the Saudi version they replaced the “god” title with king. So we had the kings of thunder, fire, water instead in Saudi version.
I personally think it’s okay to indulge in these forms of entertainment as long we are mindful of these things and don’t adopt the elements which are not in conjunction with our belief. With the whole “gods” theme one can just assume that these characters just have super powers and just assume them to be not the “gods” in literal sense (like Saudi did with that game) as we Muslims don’t even believe in an anthropomorphic God in the first place (Allah Swt is beyond the power of our imagination and literally there is absolutely nothing out there which even close to being like him).
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