The Ruling on Images Displayed on Television and the Warning Against Live Broadcasting
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
One of the brothers was speaking about television. It is well known, O Shaykh! from your words — this is what we know — that its ruling is according to what it is used for, but you do not like it, as far as I know.But he says: If the television or the device is used for something good, the original ruling for it is that it is for good things.But I say, O Shaykh: As for the image that is displayed, whether for good or otherwise, is it not an image? So why does it not take the ruling of images, may Allah preserve you and bless you?
It is an image, no doubt, but it is not forbidden; because if these images are on a video tape, they do not appear on the tape itself, but only on the screen. And if it is live, it is an image as if you are watching a person from a distance from the house. Not everything called an image is forbidden, for a person stands in front of a mirror and sees an image.And yet we do not say: If this image is forbidden, then the forbidden among images are the fixed images that are fixed by hand, fixed on paper. But this is not fixed. However, if a person fears for himself from watching it, as if a woman or a handsome young man appears in the news and a woman fears for herself from him, then she should not look at him.
And as for his saying that there is good in it, yes, there is good in it and there is evil, but at the present time its evil is more than its good. And the sensible person should not acquire it in his house, not even for the news; because if he acquires it in the house, he will not restrict himself to the news only. He will inevitably watch news and things other than news.
So my advice to my brothers! is to leave acquiring the television absolutely, whatever it is, especially when this specter that they are threatening us with now comes, which is live broadcasting, through which people will watch what the wicked, disbelieving states have of lewdness, debauchery, and disbelief, and inciting people against their rulers. Those outside will spread everything that is said, even if it contains what divides us from our rulers; because they want evil, they want revolutions, and they want unrest. They do not want safety for this country or any other. For this reason, it is obligatory for a person to be wary of this live broadcasting so that people are safe from its evil.
It is an image, no doubt, but it is not forbidden; because if these images are on a video tape, they do not appear on the tape itself, but only on the screen. And if it is live, it is an image as if you are watching a person from a distance from the house. Not everything called an image is forbidden, for a person stands in front of a mirror and sees an image.And yet we do not say: If this image is forbidden, then the forbidden among images are the fixed images that are fixed by hand, fixed on paper. But this is not fixed. However, if a person fears for himself from watching it, as if a woman or a handsome young man appears in the news and a woman fears for herself from him, then she should not look at him.
And as for his saying that there is good in it, yes, there is good in it and there is evil, but at the present time its evil is more than its good. And the sensible person should not acquire it in his house, not even for the news; because if he acquires it in the house, he will not restrict himself to the news only. He will inevitably watch news and things other than news.
So my advice to my brothers! is to leave acquiring the television absolutely, whatever it is, especially when this specter that they are threatening us with now comes, which is live broadcasting, through which people will watch what the wicked, disbelieving states have of lewdness, debauchery, and disbelief, and inciting people against their rulers. Those outside will spread everything that is said, even if it contains what divides us from our rulers; because they want evil, they want revolutions, and they want unrest. They do not want safety for this country or any other. For this reason, it is obligatory for a person to be wary of this live broadcasting so that people are safe from its evil.