What is the ruling on a family taking their children to amusement parks for entertainment?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
A family goes out with their children from one festival to the next to amusement parks, or to an amusement city, for entertainment. Is there anything forbidden in this? Please advise us. May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh:
There is a distinction here. If it is a return to a good place where there is no evil, in an open area of the city, a place of entertainment that has no evil in it, where it is just coffee, lunch, and dinner, and there is no evil, then there is no harm in that. As for entertainment through sins, listening to forbidden songs, and amusement park instruments, this is not permissible. So the position is one of distinction regarding every matter. Yes.
The questioner:
These are amusement parks, Shaykh, with cars and swings and such.
The Shaykh:
If there is evil in it, it is not permissible. The evil is what contains evil. If the predominant thing in it is evil, as for if there is evil in it, no,
The questioner:
It is mixed, Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
As long as he sits, if there is mixing between men and women, he does not sit.
A family goes out with their children from one festival to the next to amusement parks, or to an amusement city, for entertainment. Is there anything forbidden in this? Please advise us. May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh:
There is a distinction here. If it is a return to a good place where there is no evil, in an open area of the city, a place of entertainment that has no evil in it, where it is just coffee, lunch, and dinner, and there is no evil, then there is no harm in that. As for entertainment through sins, listening to forbidden songs, and amusement park instruments, this is not permissible. So the position is one of distinction regarding every matter. Yes.
The questioner:
These are amusement parks, Shaykh, with cars and swings and such.
The Shaykh:
If there is evil in it, it is not permissible. The evil is what contains evil. If the predominant thing in it is evil, as for if there is evil in it, no,
The questioner:
It is mixed, Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
As long as he sits, if there is mixing between men and women, he does not sit.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ ابن باز Alsheikh Binbaz»، 210 ما حكم خروج الأسرة بأولادها إلى الملاهي للترفيه؟ للإمام ابن باز — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.