The Ruling on Buying a Television to Teach a Child Arabic
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Another person says: I have a child who is three years old and does not speak Arabic, so I bought him a television for him to learn Arabic from it. Have I wronged him, or am I correct, knowing that I am always absent from him?
The Shaykh:
Add to that.
The questioner:
I have a child who is three years old. He does not speak Arabic, so I bought him a television for him to learn Arabic from it. Have I wronged him while I am absent from him for a long period?
The Shaykh:
This is a great danger; there is a great danger in it, because the television contains songs and curricula, and some tribal series. He may hear things that remain in his mind, and then he lives by them afterwards. He should be taught something with beneficial words; his mother teaches him, his father teaches him, and his brother teaches him, until he becomes accustomed to the words he lives by from the Arabic words. As for placing a television with him, this makes him live by this thing and become accustomed to hearing what Allah has forbidden.
Another person says: I have a child who is three years old and does not speak Arabic, so I bought him a television for him to learn Arabic from it. Have I wronged him, or am I correct, knowing that I am always absent from him?
The Shaykh:
Add to that.
The questioner:
I have a child who is three years old. He does not speak Arabic, so I bought him a television for him to learn Arabic from it. Have I wronged him while I am absent from him for a long period?
The Shaykh:
This is a great danger; there is a great danger in it, because the television contains songs and curricula, and some tribal series. He may hear things that remain in his mind, and then he lives by them afterwards. He should be taught something with beneficial words; his mother teaches him, his father teaches him, and his brother teaches him, until he becomes accustomed to the words he lives by from the Arabic words. As for placing a television with him, this makes him live by this thing and become accustomed to hearing what Allah has forbidden.
Source
ندوات الجامع الكبير مع الأسئلة - ٦٤ — archive.org (1:12:16)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.