If there are no Shari'ah violations in acting, and the purpose is to convey the meanings of the religion through it

The questioner: ... out of fear of standing ... .

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Are these purely worldly matters? Acting out the message.

The questioner: No, no... .

The Shaykh: So then? .

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Acting, yes, but what is the purpose of acting? Is it not guidance?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Okay, is guidance ordinary matters? Or ordinary matters?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: No, but what is built upon a defective foundation is defective. Before you proceed with the speech, the word you are saying, you must establish it. First, you said these are ordinary matters, whereas they are acts of worship and not ordinary.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Fine, may Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Then?

The questioner: I mean, this acting, let us suppose we want to convey a specific idea to a specific group of people.

The Shaykh: Good.

The questioner: So this ... we invent a specific story with a specific style, and a group of committed youth act it out, without the Shari'ah violations I mentioned being present, neither in the Companions nor in Islamic history, but rather as I mentioned, and not ... but merely conveying the meaning, and the intended meaning is Islamic, through the method of acting, and this need becomes ... but it is necessary in the field of da'wah; because there is a large group of Muslims who frequent theaters, and we do not say we participate in theaters where corruption is displayed, but we say we can display some purposeful plays that can cast into the hearts of those who love theater and acting some meanings that may ... as a field among the fields of da'wah; is there any ... in that?

The Shaykh: May Allah reward you. Theoretical talk is one thing, and reality is another. Now, where are these plays displayed? Where are they displayed? In places, meaning Islamic theaters, where there is absolutely no violation of the Shari'ah?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: So then? You are speaking theoretically.

The questioner: ... if hypothetically ... for example, the performances ... and it is Islamic.

The Shaykh: All right.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: The research is not theoretical, the research is practical, and I have a method in answering that removes the dispute between the two; a questioner asks me; I say: My brother, this questioner is theoretical, not practical, his hypothesis is not realistic, he says: hypothetically; so I say: the answer to this question is permissible hypothetically, the answer is permissible hypothetically, or obligatory hypothetically, what is the benefit of this? We want to address reality. All these additions you made of precautions regarding not violating the Shari'ah; do you imagine a play that has no lie to link the story parts together and act them out? Do you imagine this?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: When you want, when you want to put a story for people to act out for them.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Yes, so is this story realistic or fictional?

The questioner: No, fictional.

The Shaykh: Fictional, and do people understand that it is fiction?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Okay, what is the benefit of engaging people with fiction when we have truths from the Shari'ah that discipline people better than if we said we are better than what disciplines fiction? This is the path of the mushrikin, and this is what I clarified earlier. They do not have what we have of realistic spiritual treatments that have no connection to fiction; so why then hypothesize fictional issues when we have Quranic stories and Prophetic hadiths?

The questioner: It is not possible, I presented to you a practical incident.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: What happens with committed Muslim youth, meaning ... to tell the truth, if we issue a general prohibition on acting, it means that ... .

The Shaykh: Was my speech absolute? Or was it first imitating the disbelievers, and second that there must be lying, and there must be men imitating women and women imitating men, and so on.

The questioner: I mean, the concept of your speech is that there is no acting.

The Shaykh: Yes, because there is no acting, in my belief, that does not have a Shari'ah violation. When you put me before a reality, and you cannot, nor can anyone else, before a play that people know is fiction in fiction, and that Muslims need this play, and that what they have of the guidance of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - is not sufficient, why did I mention the hadith of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab and the document he took from the Jews? Because the Messenger informed us that Musa - peace be upon him - and he is the one who spoke to Allah, if he were in his time, he would not be able to do anything but be a follower of the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him -; why? Because the Shari'ah gathered and was comprehensive, all the goals and all the lawful means are in it with good and blessing, so I did not issue an absolute statement, I said: acting is not permissible, I explained why, and what are the reasons that make me say this.
And perhaps this prompts me to remind - also - of the hadith of the Companion whose name I do not recall now, the important thing is that they were on a journey, so they passed by a tree on which the mushrikin hung their weapons, so they said, or some of them said: O Messenger of Allah, make for us a Dhat Anwa't as they have a Dhat Anwa't. He said - peace and blessings be upon him - : , and in a narration: هذه السَّنن ؛ لقد قلتم كما قال قوم موسى لموسى : اجْعَلْ لَنَا إِلَهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَةٌ These are the ways of the disbelievers; you have said what the people of Musa said to Musa: "Make for us a god as they have gods." . And every person who has some understanding strongly distinguishes between the Jews' saying to Musa: , with the very, very great difference between the meaning of their saying: "make for us a Dhat Anwa't", and the Jews' saying: ; so what is the fiqh of this hadith?
The fiqh of this hadith is cutting off the root of Muslims imitating the disbelievers, even with words that have correct or at least permissible meanings, but the word resembles the word of the disbelievers; so what if we took from these disbelievers means they invented and the cause for them? You never stopped at this cause you mentioned; what drives the disbelievers to these plays? They do not have - my brother - the spiritual food that exists with us; so when we take from them these means, that is one thing, and our taking means of cars and airplanes and the like is another thing, which you indicated in your speech and described as ordinary matters, so riding a car and airplane and the like are truly purely ordinary matters, and do not enter into the subject of his saying - peace and blessings be upon him - : , but the plays - Subhan Allah! - are like cars and airplanes?! The driver of the plays is their spiritual poverty, and the driver for us not to do plays is spiritual richness, so there is a great difference between this and that!! Do you have something else?

The questioner: ... May Allah reward you ... .

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner: ... there are many questions.

The Shaykh: Excuse me, he says there are many questions.

The questioner: Many questions, may Allah reward you.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Religious seminars - may Allah reward you - some of them are necessary and some are not necessary.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Did you understand my answer?

Another questioner: Go ahead.

The Shaykh : I began my answer by saying: there are essential matters and there are non-essential matters, which are best described as desirable additions. If the essential matters are shown on television, then it is a permissible means, and we associate it with the games of 'Aishah. However, if television becomes a platform for everything, not just what is not permissible as is observed today, but also for what is permissible yet the Muslims have no need for, then we are not concerned with—just like this example exactly—assuming hypotheticals when our reality is the opposite. Why don't we ask: What is the ruling on the television we see in the Arab world today? Instead, we ask: What is the ruling on, for example, scientific sessions or scientific seminars, and so on? We ask about something that can be permissible, and we overlook things that cannot be permissible, but are certainly not permissible. So it is as if the matter is an attempt to smooth out this reality—as it is said—despite its flaws and defects.
I give you an example; to this day, has any state or, for example, a television body presented to the Muslims a realistic image of a Muslim scholar performing the rituals of Hajj alone, so that Muslims who perform Hajj to the House of Allah, who do not know the rituals of Hajj and have not been able to learn them, can learn? Many of them return as that old Arab poet said about such people: "You did not perform Hajj, but the camels performed Hajj"?! Has any television shown the rituals of Hajj by a learned man, so that the entire Islamic world learns the rituals of Hajj calmly and with deliberation? I have not seen this nor heard of it. Rather, simpler than this: has a scholar prayed the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) as he said: , displaying the manner of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) prayer on the television screen so that people learn, so that the scholars of knowledge, and others besides them, learn how the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to pray? No, this is a dream; many people do not even dream of such ideas yet. So why do we not focus on something that will certainly benefit the Muslims? And on the contrary, we display what is permissible and what is not permissible. I say: it is not permissible to display on television except what is of these examples...