What is your opinion regarding the scholars' disagreement over new matters, such as satellite dishes and the commentary on scientific developments from radio to television to satellite?

The questioner : Communication tools, O Shaykh, as you know, when we go back about twenty years from now, radio started and there were observations regarding its prohibition and so on. Then television started, broadcasting from nearby areas, and there were observations regarding its prohibition as well, as you know. Now satellite has started, broadcasting from distant places, and this is the development of knowledge. Allah the Exalted said: I hope you will comment on this topic, because the lawful is clear and the forbidden is clear, and between them are ambiguous matters. May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes, our comment on this is that I inform you, and whoever has heard and will hear, that anything that is new must be investigated by people, and the majority of them will differ on it. So tobacco, the narghile, happened a long time ago, and after it happened, people differed on it: is it forbidden or not? The opinions became confused regarding it, and the matter ended, after the development of medicine and the knowledge of what is beneficial and harmful in food and drink, with people being certain about its prohibition.
Then, as you mentioned, radio happened and people differed on it. In fact, before it, the telegraph happened and people differed on it. Some people broke it and said: "These are devils." Likewise, radio came and it was said: "This is forbidden, this is not permissible, these are devils." Likewise, the tape recorder came, until people differed on the loudspeaker in the mosques, even though it broadcasts the sermon and broadcasts what is in it of good, but they said: "This is not permissible." The important thing is that Allah Mighty and Majestic has made for us a scale by which we weigh everything. He said: And He the Exalted said: Is that not so? Good, Allah has made for us scales to which we return. For example, in acts of worship, the scale in acts of worship is that the original ruling in acts of worship is prohibition, and it is not permissible for a person to worship Allah with any action, verbal or physical, or with any belief, affirming or negating, except by permission from Allah and His Messenger. A person cannot worship in a way of worship unless we know that it is prescribed. So what is the original ruling in acts of worship? Prohibition, until evidence stands that it is prescribed. If a person worships in a way of worship that we do not know, we say: "My brother, wait, this is forbidden." If he says: "What is the evidence?" We say: "The evidence is on you. You are the one who proves that this is prescribed, otherwise it is rejected by the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): We do not say to you: it is rejected from ourselves; we say it by the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Did you understand, my brother? Take this rule: other than acts of worship, the original ruling in them is permissibility. Other than acts of worship, the original ruling in them is permissibility, because Allah said: Everything that Allah created on earth, whether entities or benefits or anything else, is lawful. So if a person says to us: "This is forbidden," we say: "What is the evidence?" We say: "What is the evidence?" For this reason we say: radio is lawful, the tape recorder is lawful, the loudspeaker is lawful. It remains: we look at this which we call lawful, for what purpose is it a means? If it is a means to the forbidden, or if what is broadcast in it is forbidden, then it becomes forbidden, because we have a legal rule: "The means to the forbidden" what is it? "is forbidden. The means to the obligatory is obligatory" And on this basis we say: There is no doubt that radio and television and what came after them, the general television, the general broadcast that is accessed by satellite dishes, there is no doubt that it broadcasts things that destroy belief, morals, and transactions. But this is not in a general sense; rather, by tracking and news about these general things that are broadcast from distant countries via the audible satellite, it is heard that its harm is much greater than its benefit. The sane person who knows the sources of the Shari'ah and the origins of the Shari'ah does not doubt that acquiring it is forbidden now that we have known what is broadcast in it: base morals that not even donkeys do, destructive morals for young men and young women. So I, from this place and in every place, say: It is forbidden, and it is not permissible to acquire it, because most of those who acquire it now do not acquire it except for evil and looking at what is in it of calamity and arousing desire. Perhaps a person is weak in the aspect of desire, then he reaches the point of strengthening it by what he watches of corrupt scenes to attain his desire. And Allah the Exalted said regarding those who disbelieved: They are what? I say: With great regret, these satellite dishes have spread terribly, like fire in dry grass, and many people have acquired them now and do not know their consequence. But by what I have heard of their news and what is broadcast in them, I say: It is forbidden.

The questioner : O Shaykh, not every comment...

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.

The questioner : But, O Shaykh, it also gave an opportunity for Muslims in various parts of the earth to see the rituals of Hajj and so on.

The Shaykh : The rituals of Hajj.

The questioner : Meaning, instead of hearing about them, they see them present before them.

The Shaykh : First, I ask you: what is the benefit of them seeing them present before them?

The questioner : Yes

The Shaykh : What is the benefit?

The questioner : Like the benefit of a person seeing the Friday prayer.

The Shaykh : And what is the benefit of watching the Friday prayer?

The questioner : O Shaykh, he is in a foreign country.

The Shaykh : And if he is in a foreign country.

The questioner : There is no, there is no, there is no mosque.

The Shaykh : Yes, he is not praying Friday alone.

The questioner : Not everyone prays by himself.

The Shaykh : And what is the benefit? This is one thing. The second thing, if we assume that there is a benefit from one hundred harms, Allah says in the Noble Qur'an: Look, the sin is singular, and the benefits for people are many, and "benefits" is the form of the extreme of plurals, meaning the most that can be of a plural. and it is one, and Allah the Exalted has forbidden both of them because the sin is greater, even though the benefits are many. The sin that occurs with this satellite, even if we assume that there are great and many benefits in it, if we assume that for example we watch the battles of the Muslims with the disbelievers, we watch as I said the Hajj, we watch the Friday, we listen to the Friday sermon, we watch valuable and beneficial lectures, and so on, these are many benefits, but one great harm that destroys the people is the like of intoxicants and gambling. As long as this one harm and corruption destroys many morals, as in the saying of prohibition, therefore I advise every person who has something of this satellite to break it seeking the pleasure of Allah the Exalted, so that he cuts off from himself returning to it again. And we have in Sulayman ibn Dawud, one of the prophets (peace and blessings be upon them), an example. When the horses distracted him from the remembrance of Allah, what did he do? He said: He had some of them killed and some of their necks cut off so that his soul would not lead him to occupy himself with them again.
And Ka'b ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), when the paper, a document from the King of Ghassan, came to him, saying: When it reached him that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had boycotted him for his lagging behind the Tabuk expedition, a letter came to him from the King of Ghassan saying: Arousing meaning he arouses him, then he entices him meaning we make you like us, a king. What did he do (may Allah be pleased with him)? He took the paper and went to burn it in the oven so that his soul would not suggest to him, after he takes this document, to go to this man and say: "You said: come to us, we will console you, make for me a share of your kingdom." So the result, my brother, is that I say to you and to whoever hears and whoever has heard: I say: The person must fear fitnah as much as he can and leave it. Yes.