The ruling on narrating some fictional stories to children if they are beneficial.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Yesterday there was a question about upbringing that you did not ask about.
The Shaykh: Please proceed.
The questioner : We have in our school now, in the shifts, stories that are purely fictional, but they contain educational lessons, and they may, I mean, they may have religious benefit; is that permissible or not?
The Shaykh : It may, and I mean what I am saying, it may be permissible on the condition that it is understood and firmly established in the mindThe student : that it is a fictional story and not a real fact. As for throwing fictional stories at students and having them imagine that they are true, realistic stories; this is not permissible, as in... and in training and accustoming students from the tender age of their infancy to catching lies and believing them, without them realizing that it is merely acting and imagination, it is necessary to accompany the presentation of that fictional story with a clarification of the truth if it contains benefit and a lesson.
This is entirely so, in fact, this ruling deserves more clarification than clarifying the weakness of a Prophetic hadith. If the hadith contains wisdom and benefit, a teacher or preacher or instructor may cite it for that reason, but he must follow it with a clarification of the weakness of that hadith so that the listening people do not imagine that it is a sound hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The point here is that this weak hadith was narrated, and as some say, it is possible that the Messenger (peace be upon him) said it, but it did not reach us through a sound path. As for the question, the story is fabricated and invented, so it is thrown at the students while its fabrication is known—welcome, greetings—it is necessary to clarify this, even if by way of implication, meaningThe student : when that story is told to them, they should be made to feel that the intention behind the story is the lesson, and the intention is not to report that it actually happened. This is what I see in this issue. Please, go ahead.
The questioner : I have... three...
The Shaykh : What Allah willed! May He bless you in it.
The Shaykh: Please proceed.
The questioner : We have in our school now, in the shifts, stories that are purely fictional, but they contain educational lessons, and they may, I mean, they may have religious benefit; is that permissible or not?
The Shaykh : It may, and I mean what I am saying, it may be permissible on the condition that it is understood and firmly established in the mindThe student : that it is a fictional story and not a real fact. As for throwing fictional stories at students and having them imagine that they are true, realistic stories; this is not permissible, as in... and in training and accustoming students from the tender age of their infancy to catching lies and believing them, without them realizing that it is merely acting and imagination, it is necessary to accompany the presentation of that fictional story with a clarification of the truth if it contains benefit and a lesson.
This is entirely so, in fact, this ruling deserves more clarification than clarifying the weakness of a Prophetic hadith. If the hadith contains wisdom and benefit, a teacher or preacher or instructor may cite it for that reason, but he must follow it with a clarification of the weakness of that hadith so that the listening people do not imagine that it is a sound hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The point here is that this weak hadith was narrated, and as some say, it is possible that the Messenger (peace be upon him) said it, but it did not reach us through a sound path. As for the question, the story is fabricated and invented, so it is thrown at the students while its fabrication is known—welcome, greetings—it is necessary to clarify this, even if by way of implication, meaningThe student : when that story is told to them, they should be made to feel that the intention behind the story is the lesson, and the intention is not to report that it actually happened. This is what I see in this issue. Please, go ahead.
The questioner : I have... three...
The Shaykh : What Allah willed! May He bless you in it.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.