Ruling on Children Watching Cartoons
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
His Eminence the Shaykh: What is your opinion on video tapes containing cartoons such as stories of the prophets and lectures by some of the shaykhs?
As for the lectures, there is nothing wrong with them; because they contain benefit, and these are not among the images that one is warned against; because in the tape itself, they are not seen or viewed. As for the prophets, it is not permissible to depict images of the prophets, neither in video nor on paper; because they are too noble for their images to be degraded in the hands of people.
The questioner: Cartoons?The Shaykh: Cartoons are more hopeful; because cartoons, as far as we know, make the images distorted, they are not realistic, so it is not permissible.
The questioner: From the stories of the Qur'an, like the boy of the Ditch.
The Shaykh: This is also a mistake; because what makes them know that the People of the Ditch were of this specific form and description? Creation has varied from Adam to this Ummah. People in the past were sixty cubits in height and seven cubits in width, then creation began to decrease until it stopped at this Ummah, and became as you see it. So what I see is that anything that depicts something about which a person has no knowledge, it is not permissible to display it.
The questioner: Some people say: so that it becomes firmly established in the minds of children.
The Shaykh: Do you not know the story of the People of the Ditch now?The questioner: Yes! The Shaykh: Did you know it through this?The questioner: No.
The Shaykh: It is finished. If you know it, others know it without these things. Then, the one who depicts this might be a person who knows nothing about the story of the People of the Ditch.But imagine he said: This is their image.
The questioner: The story has apparent things that are understood.
The Shaykh: The important thing is that I see that anything related to the stories of the Qur'an, it is not permissible to depict it, nor is it permissible to display it to children. Even I have a concern in my mind about displaying the story of Muhammad al-Fatih to children; because if the only story displayed before the child is the story of this man, he will think that this man is the hero of Islam, and that there is no other hero. And this is not correct. In Islam, there are heroes whom al-Fatih does not reach, nor does he come up to their rank.
As for the lectures, there is nothing wrong with them; because they contain benefit, and these are not among the images that one is warned against; because in the tape itself, they are not seen or viewed. As for the prophets, it is not permissible to depict images of the prophets, neither in video nor on paper; because they are too noble for their images to be degraded in the hands of people.
The questioner: Cartoons?The Shaykh: Cartoons are more hopeful; because cartoons, as far as we know, make the images distorted, they are not realistic, so it is not permissible.
The questioner: From the stories of the Qur'an, like the boy of the Ditch.
The Shaykh: This is also a mistake; because what makes them know that the People of the Ditch were of this specific form and description? Creation has varied from Adam to this Ummah. People in the past were sixty cubits in height and seven cubits in width, then creation began to decrease until it stopped at this Ummah, and became as you see it. So what I see is that anything that depicts something about which a person has no knowledge, it is not permissible to display it.
The questioner: Some people say: so that it becomes firmly established in the minds of children.
The Shaykh: Do you not know the story of the People of the Ditch now?The questioner: Yes! The Shaykh: Did you know it through this?The questioner: No.
The Shaykh: It is finished. If you know it, others know it without these things. Then, the one who depicts this might be a person who knows nothing about the story of the People of the Ditch.But imagine he said: This is their image.
The questioner: The story has apparent things that are understood.
The Shaykh: The important thing is that I see that anything related to the stories of the Qur'an, it is not permissible to depict it, nor is it permissible to display it to children. Even I have a concern in my mind about displaying the story of Muhammad al-Fatih to children; because if the only story displayed before the child is the story of this man, he will think that this man is the hero of Islam, and that there is no other hero. And this is not correct. In Islam, there are heroes whom al-Fatih does not reach, nor does he come up to their rank.