The Ruling on Acquiring Satellite Dishes
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His Eminence the Shaykh: Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. You know, may Allah preserve you, that a great calamity has spread in this age, affecting many Muslim homes, especially in the most noble of places to Allah, Makkah and al-Madinah. This affliction that has befallen many people is the "satellite dish", and it is not hidden from our scholarly imams the corruption and deviation, both apparent and hidden, in religion and morals that result from its presence.
Is the one who acquires it judged to be a *dayyuth* (one who tolerates disgrace in his household), especially if there are *mahrams* (female relatives) in his home? Or is he judged to be naive and ignorant? What is your advice and guidance for these brothers, may Allah guide us and them to the right path, and may Allah bless your works?
And upon you be peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah. We have spoken about the satellite dish in a gathering like this one, with words that do not need to be repeated in reality, because we do not wish for our gatherings to be spent on repetition. We also spoke about it in one of the recent Friday sermons, and the tapes are available regarding that.
As for what came within the question: Is the presence of a satellite dish considered *dayyuth* (tolerating disgrace)?We say: This is not *dayyuth*; because a *dayyuth* is one who tolerates lewdness in his household. As for the one who has a satellite dish, if he saw a man hovering around his house, let alone committing lewdness with his women, he would kill him.We cannot say: Indeed, this is *dayyuth*.But we say: It is a cause of evil and corruption, and this is a known fact. Therefore, I see that it is obligatory for students of knowledge in every place to warn against it and to explain its harms. If it picks up corrupt things, and everyone knows their corruption and harm, let him bring an example, and there is no harm in that. But the obligation is to be careful in transmission and truthful; because some people—may Allah guide us and them—add things that were not there, in order to exaggerate in deterring people from it, as if they are of the opinion of those scholars who say there is no harm in using weak hadiths regarding bad morals to deter from them. This is not correct.
I say: Being lax in transmission is not correct; because we have in our society those who love to find a flaw in the preachers to criticize them for it, and then this leads to a loss of trust in what the preachers say. If a person is careful and transmits the least evil or the greatest evil, the truth will be with him and no one will object to him. But exaggeration that leads to people criticizing the preachers and belittling them is not appropriate; because the intention is to clarify the truth and guide the creation, and this is not achieved except through truthfulness and impartiality in transmission and conveying.
Is the one who acquires it judged to be a *dayyuth* (one who tolerates disgrace in his household), especially if there are *mahrams* (female relatives) in his home? Or is he judged to be naive and ignorant? What is your advice and guidance for these brothers, may Allah guide us and them to the right path, and may Allah bless your works?
And upon you be peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah. We have spoken about the satellite dish in a gathering like this one, with words that do not need to be repeated in reality, because we do not wish for our gatherings to be spent on repetition. We also spoke about it in one of the recent Friday sermons, and the tapes are available regarding that.
As for what came within the question: Is the presence of a satellite dish considered *dayyuth* (tolerating disgrace)?We say: This is not *dayyuth*; because a *dayyuth* is one who tolerates lewdness in his household. As for the one who has a satellite dish, if he saw a man hovering around his house, let alone committing lewdness with his women, he would kill him.We cannot say: Indeed, this is *dayyuth*.But we say: It is a cause of evil and corruption, and this is a known fact. Therefore, I see that it is obligatory for students of knowledge in every place to warn against it and to explain its harms. If it picks up corrupt things, and everyone knows their corruption and harm, let him bring an example, and there is no harm in that. But the obligation is to be careful in transmission and truthful; because some people—may Allah guide us and them—add things that were not there, in order to exaggerate in deterring people from it, as if they are of the opinion of those scholars who say there is no harm in using weak hadiths regarding bad morals to deter from them. This is not correct.
I say: Being lax in transmission is not correct; because we have in our society those who love to find a flaw in the preachers to criticize them for it, and then this leads to a loss of trust in what the preachers say. If a person is careful and transmits the least evil or the greatest evil, the truth will be with him and no one will object to him. But exaggeration that leads to people criticizing the preachers and belittling them is not appropriate; because the intention is to clarify the truth and guide the creation, and this is not achieved except through truthfulness and impartiality in transmission and conveying.