Many young people have become accustomed to holding Ramadan tournaments for playing football, where each team pays a sum of money and the winning team receives this money. What is the ruling on this?
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The questioner : Your Eminence, the Shaykh, many young people have become accustomed to holding Ramadan tournaments for playing football, where each team pays a sum of money and the winning team receives from this money. What is the ruling on this, and what is your advice to such young people who waste the times and nights of Ramadan in such matters?
The Shaykh : As for the first part of the question, which is that each team puts in money and the winner receives it, this is forbidden and not permissible. It is a form of gambling (maysir) which Allah has associated with intoxicants, sacrificial stones, and arrow-lots.
As for their practicing this in the nights of Ramadan, there is no doubt that this is a waste of this precious time. It is befitting for the Muslim youth to seize the opportunities of these days and nights with what brings him closer to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), not with what wastes his time without benefit. There may also be harm in this. Among the harms that occur in these games is that some players wear short trousers that are above the knee, and this is forbidden. It is not permissible for young men to wear short trousers that do not cover the area between the knee and the navel, because in that lies a great trial (fitnah). Even if we say that the thigh is not an awrah (part of the body that must be covered), a young man displaying his thigh before his companions involves a great trial. Even if it may not appear in the early hours, it will appear in the later hours. For this reason, I advise all young people to refrain from this forbidden matter, from which they gain nothing but sin and disobedience, whether it is in Ramadan or otherwise. Also, some players say obscene words that are not befitting the Muslim youth. Furthermore, if one of them succeeds or outperforms the others, they run around him, climb on his shoulders, and do things that are also not befitting the Muslim youth. However, they have picked these up from other people. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us, the Muslim youth, whose role in life should be one of seriousness, work, and activity, to elevate ourselves above things that do not benefit us, because the life of a Muslim is too precious to be spent on something of no benefit. So we say to those who play: Beware of these three things. First, that it be done for a reward. Second, that it involve exposing part of the thigh. Third, that it involve actions or words that are obscene and not befitting manliness.
The Shaykh : As for the first part of the question, which is that each team puts in money and the winner receives it, this is forbidden and not permissible. It is a form of gambling (maysir) which Allah has associated with intoxicants, sacrificial stones, and arrow-lots.
As for their practicing this in the nights of Ramadan, there is no doubt that this is a waste of this precious time. It is befitting for the Muslim youth to seize the opportunities of these days and nights with what brings him closer to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), not with what wastes his time without benefit. There may also be harm in this. Among the harms that occur in these games is that some players wear short trousers that are above the knee, and this is forbidden. It is not permissible for young men to wear short trousers that do not cover the area between the knee and the navel, because in that lies a great trial (fitnah). Even if we say that the thigh is not an awrah (part of the body that must be covered), a young man displaying his thigh before his companions involves a great trial. Even if it may not appear in the early hours, it will appear in the later hours. For this reason, I advise all young people to refrain from this forbidden matter, from which they gain nothing but sin and disobedience, whether it is in Ramadan or otherwise. Also, some players say obscene words that are not befitting the Muslim youth. Furthermore, if one of them succeeds or outperforms the others, they run around him, climb on his shoulders, and do things that are also not befitting the Muslim youth. However, they have picked these up from other people. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us, the Muslim youth, whose role in life should be one of seriousness, work, and activity, to elevate ourselves above things that do not benefit us, because the life of a Muslim is too precious to be spent on something of no benefit. So we say to those who play: Beware of these three things. First, that it be done for a reward. Second, that it involve exposing part of the thigh. Third, that it involve actions or words that are obscene and not befitting manliness.