Question: I would like to ask about the ruling on playing video games that include some music or pictures of women, such as Playstation, and the ruling on selling them and circulating them among young people. Please note that the games are not corrupt in and of themselves and they do not promote corruption, such as football (soccer), car races bicycle races, or war games or games with weapons and so on, but they have some bad aspect as mentioned above.

Answer

Praise be to Allaah.
Electronic games in general include many evils aspects with regard to belief and behaviour, and the games are accompanied by music, and young and old become so attached to them that they make them forget their Islamic duties and distract them from the rights of their own selves and of others.

With regard to selling these games, if the haraam elements outweigh the halaal in the way it is made and the way it is used, then it is not permissible to sell them.

With regard to using them, that depends on the type of game, because some of them contain excessive violence, some of them are about pursuing prostitutes in the street, and some of them are about venerating the cross and raising the dead. They should also be free of evils such as indecent pictures and music, and they should not distract players from obligatory duties. The games should also be free of gambling and you should not play it a great deal. The shar’i ruling is based on the above. If you find these things or some of them in it, then it is not permissible to play it, but if it is free of all these things, then it is permissible.

We should advise parents and those who are in authority that it is essential to examine and watch the game before allowing children to watch it. I have found out that some games include indecent sexual scenes, such as Grand Theft Auto and Tomb Raider and many others. Some of them insult Islam badly, such as First To Fight, in which cities are cleansed of bearded men and mosques are bombed whilst the sound of the adhaan is coming form them, and shots are fired at Mus-hafs, and you cannot move on to the next level unless you cleanse the city of Muslims and their mosques!


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