What is the ruling on the television set?
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The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah reward you, is this the door through which people have been afflicted, with no clear text regarding television? Because, Shaykh, if a person reflects on television, he sees that people are now using it. It is accurate to say that nine hundred and ninety-nine, or more, out of a thousand are corruption. And yet, our scholars, those we rely on for fatwas, have not declared it forbidden.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : This device, and they open a door for people.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, regarding television: if it is used for what is permissible, it is permissible. But if we look at reality, we find that most people do not care about the good or evil they hear or see in it, and some people do not possess it except for evil. So people fall into three categories:
One category possesses it only to keep informed and watch the news. There is no doubt that news is not like witnessing. If you hear news on the radio, yes, and then you see it on television, your seeing it is more impactful, and your soul is more eager to see it than to hear it. So for one who possesses it for this purpose, we see no harm in it. This is why we watch it; we watch the news, and we do not see any blame on ourselves.
The second category is those who use it for what is forbidden, such as songs, looking at the faces of women, and the like. This too, there is no doubt in its prohibition in our view.
What remains is the one who uses it like a drinker of intoxicants, intending benefit while there is harm in it, meaning he does not care; he turns on the television from the first hour to the last, and it contains both the worthless and the valuable.
We say regarding this person: there is a mixture of the forbidden and the lawful in his case. He says, "I do not care; I listen to the news, and when the songs come, by Allah, they are nothing to me, absolutely nothing, like the babbling of a child, they do not concern me." Do we say we prevent this person or not? We say we prevent him to ward off harm; we prevent him to ward off harm.
So in our view, there are three states regarding it:
The first state is permissible, and the second state is prohibited; there is no dispute in this. The third state is in the middle, so we say to this man: we prevent you from buying it and possessing it.
If he says, "I did not buy it for songs or for watching women," we say: Yes, but why do you not care? If the songs and women come, you turn it off, that is fine, yes.
As for the issue of satellite dishes, I have no doubt about its prohibition, because it does not spread anything but calamity. And if there is one benefit in a million, it is not considered anything. This is why people have been ruined because of it, and their morals have become corrupt. Now we hear that there is...
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : This device, and they open a door for people.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you, regarding television: if it is used for what is permissible, it is permissible. But if we look at reality, we find that most people do not care about the good or evil they hear or see in it, and some people do not possess it except for evil. So people fall into three categories:
One category possesses it only to keep informed and watch the news. There is no doubt that news is not like witnessing. If you hear news on the radio, yes, and then you see it on television, your seeing it is more impactful, and your soul is more eager to see it than to hear it. So for one who possesses it for this purpose, we see no harm in it. This is why we watch it; we watch the news, and we do not see any blame on ourselves.
The second category is those who use it for what is forbidden, such as songs, looking at the faces of women, and the like. This too, there is no doubt in its prohibition in our view.
What remains is the one who uses it like a drinker of intoxicants, intending benefit while there is harm in it, meaning he does not care; he turns on the television from the first hour to the last, and it contains both the worthless and the valuable.
We say regarding this person: there is a mixture of the forbidden and the lawful in his case. He says, "I do not care; I listen to the news, and when the songs come, by Allah, they are nothing to me, absolutely nothing, like the babbling of a child, they do not concern me." Do we say we prevent this person or not? We say we prevent him to ward off harm; we prevent him to ward off harm.
So in our view, there are three states regarding it:
The first state is permissible, and the second state is prohibited; there is no dispute in this. The third state is in the middle, so we say to this man: we prevent you from buying it and possessing it.
If he says, "I did not buy it for songs or for watching women," we say: Yes, but why do you not care? If the songs and women come, you turn it off, that is fine, yes.
As for the issue of satellite dishes, I have no doubt about its prohibition, because it does not spread anything but calamity. And if there is one benefit in a million, it is not considered anything. This is why people have been ruined because of it, and their morals have become corrupt. Now we hear that there is...