Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Alhamdulillah rabbil alameen Wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolillahi sallallahu alaihi wasallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Ustaz Abdurrahman Hassan, how are you today? Wa alaikumussalam warahmatullahi wabarakatuh I'm good alhamdulillah, JazakAllah khairan So once again we find ourselves in a hot seat, it's been a while since we've been here. And I think it's probably worth just talking a little bit about the context behind how this episode came about. Because recently obviously football has been on the mind of a lot of people.
And some people who might be watching this topic or at least seeing the title of the video might be thinking, why are Muslims talking about football? But there's no doubt that our religion has come to talk about everything. And even new matters that come in, we have principles in place that deal with these kind of matters. And we kind of had a discussion yesterday, which was the day after the final of the Euros.
So football fever has been across the world for the last two or three weeks. The European Championships have been happening. England got to the final of a major competition for the first time in 55 years.
They didn't win the final, they lost on penalties against Italy. But we had a discussion yesterday, we were just talking about it. And through that discussion, and really coming from someone like myself who has previously been very, very heavily invested in sports, still even before this podcast, occasionally watch the odd football match here and there.
You really gave me a lot of food for thought in the discussion that we had yesterday. And you obviously gave me some Islamic rulings pertaining to football, which of course we're going to come into later on in the podcast, inshallah. And it really made me think a lot about this particular topic.
Because I know personally friends, I have family members who are really heavily into football. And I don't think they've thought just like I hadn't thought yesterday, really about a lot of these issues. And that's why I thought it was really important to do kind of a podcast on this topic, talking about some of the issues relating to football and Islam.
So I'm not really going to talk in my introduction about the ruling or anything like that. That's going to come later on the podcast. But we're going to talk about a number of different issues.
And again, as always, with a hot seat, it's not going to be an easy ride for you. I'm going to be really challenging you and really grilling you on some of the topics and some of the points that you're trying to make, and really trying to identify whether they stand up or not. So that's a quick introduction about how the podcast came about.
And I think I'll hand it over to you and you can give an introduction on your side, inshallah. الحمد لله رب العالمين له الحمد الحسن والثناء الجميل وشهد لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له يقول الحق وهو يهدي السبيل وشهد أن محمد عبده ورسوله صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه وتابعين لهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين أما بعد I first want to start by saying JazakAllah Khayran for having me on the Hot Seat Podcast. And also, this topic, we spoke about it yesterday.
We had our discussion and yesterday I had classes which I was giving. I had sessions which didn't allow me to really prepare the topic and look into it deeply. It's something I did research before into.
But inshallah we'll give the best of what we can. As I always do say, if I say anything wrong or incorrect, it's always from me and shaytan and Allah and his messenger are both free from it. So I say, مستعين بالله عز وجل Allah brought us into this world subhanahu wa ta'ala for a reason.
There's a reason and a purpose why we're here in this world. The first reason why we're here in this world is to attain beneficial knowledge. And Allah mentions that subhanahu wa ta'ala at the ending of Surat At-Talaq.
Allah Ta'ala says اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ وَمِنَ الْأَرْضِ مِثْلَهُنَّ يَتَنَزَّلُ الْأَمْرُ بَيْنَهُنَّ لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَاطَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عِلْمًا Allah is telling us and informing us that he created seven heavens and seven earths. And everything in between it. And all the creations Allah has created is subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So, us included. And then Allah Ta'ala gives us the ilah, the reasoning of why he created all of that. He says لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ So the reason why we created you, oh mankind, and we brought you into this world is so you can have knowledge of Allah Ta'ala.
That Allah Ta'ala is what? لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ To know that Allah Ta'ala has infinite ability and strength. And Allah has infinite knowledge. وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَاطَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ أَنَّهُ The second reason why we were created and we were brought into this earth is to come with righteous actions.
And the forefront of righteous action is what? It is to worship Allah alone. Allah says وَمَا خَلَقَتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونَ Allah says I did not create the jinn or the insects except to worship me. So righteous deeds.
عِبَادَةُ اللَّهِ وَحَدَةُ Singling Allah in worship is why we're here. SubhanAllah Ta'ala mentions that once. There are things that can be hindrance sometimes to that purpose and that aim we're here for.
Okay. And just before we go into that, someone might say that there's two purposes that you mentioned that Allah created us. Doesn't that appear to be a contradiction? Of course it's not because they go hand in hand.
You need knowledge in order to worship Allah. Okay. Having knowledge of Allah Ta'ala increases your righteous deeds.
Yeah. Every Salah we pray, the Surah that we must read in every Salah is Surah Al-Fatiha, right? Yeah. So what do we say to Allah? إِهِدِنَا السِّرَاطَلِ مُسْتَقِيمُ Allah guide us on the straight path.
Which path? سِرَاطَلَ لَذِينَ أَنْعَبْتَ عَلِيمٍ The path of those who you've blessed and you're pleased with. The ones who Allah is pleased with are people who've combined between beneficial knowledge and righteous action. Because the two groups that are going to be mentioned later lack one of the two.
غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ مَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ is the Yahud. What do they have? They have knowledge but no righteous action. وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ is the what? It's the Nasara.
What do the Nasara have? The Nasara have? The Nasara have? They have action without knowledge. They have action without knowledge. The people who أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنَ النَّبِيِّينَ وَالسِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ وَالصَّالِحِينَ وَحَسُنَ أُولَئِكَ رَفِيقَنَا They're the ones who combine between beneficial knowledge and righteous action.
The purpose I mentioned in the beginning that we are created for was what? To gain beneficial knowledge and righteous action. There can be things that become hindrances to that, obstacles to that, and can also sometimes divert us from that. From those things are when people start to take the world as something very high and big. Allah mentions it in the ayah:
وَذَرُوا الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا دِينَهُمْ لَهُوًا وَلَعِبًا وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا
Allah says leave off the people who've taken their religion, their deen, لَهُوًا وَلَعِبًا — they've taken it as a joke and an amusement. They don't take their religion seriously. And also Allah says وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا — this world has deceived them. They've been deceived by the world.
Also, a hindrance can be to this purpose while we're in this world: following your whims and desires. Allah mentions in the Quran:
أَفَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَهَهُ هَوَاهُ
Do you not see, Muhammad, the one who took his Lord, his desires?
وَأَضَلَّهُ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِ غِشَاوَةً فَمَنْ يَهْدِيهِمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ اللَّهِ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ
These people who have taken their whims and their desires as their Lord. What do you think you're going to see from them? You're going to realize how Allah is truthful in what He says. وَمَنْ أَصْدَقُ مِنَ اللَّهِ قِيلًا وَمَنْ أَصْدَقُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حَدِيدًا — Allah, as He tells you, it is what Allah tells us, it is as He told us.
You will find that when you try to explain something to them from the religion, they can't hear what you're saying because Allah has sealed their hearing and hearts. So, all we have to say is:
فَمَنْ يَهْدِيهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ اللَّهِ
Who can guide these people after Allah?
What we have to understand is that the eyes we have, the ears we have, the mouth that we have, the body parts we have, as it was given to us by Allah, He’s the one who tells us what we can or can't do with them. And we will be questioned for what we do with our eyes, ears, and hands. Those body parts, on the Day of Judgment, are going to be interrogated. Allah says:
وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِعِلْمٍ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالبَصَرَ وَالفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَٰئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُمْ مَسْوُولًا
Allah here is telling us that our hearing, our seeing, and our hearts, all of them are going to be interrogated. On the Day of Judgment, Allah says in another ayah:
وَتُكَلِّمُنَا أَيْدِيهِمْ وَتَشَهَدُ أَرْجُلُهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
Their body parts are going to start talking, and they are going to testify and bear witness against them.
So, you have to remember, you are a slave. The master who gave you these limbs, who gave you these body parts, who has given you this, is going to interrogate and question it, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
Wallahi, the purpose I mentioned in the beginning that we are created for was what? عِبَادَةُ اللَّهِ وَحْدَهُ وَشِبَاهُ اللَّهِ تَبَارَكُ وَتَعَالَى. The scholars have mentioned that عِبَادَةُ اللَّهِ وَحْدَهُ وَشِبَاهُ اللَّهِ تَبَارَكُ وَتَعَالَى stands on two great pillars: كَمَالُ المَحَبَّةِ مَعَ كَمَالُ الْخُضُوعِ—complete humility and complete love. This is something we give to Allah Ta'ala. Complete love is for Allah Ta'ala, and complete humility is for Allah.
Shaheed, when you prostrate and you go into the state of sujood, when you put your head on the floor, that's a state of humility. You put your most honorable part of your body, your face, on the earth. For whom? For Allah. You humiliated yourself for Allah. You humbled yourself for Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. But what's in your heart while you're doing that? Extreme love for Him. Those two came together. That's why Ibn Al-Qayyim says that Allah Ta'ala in that position exemplifies, it projects, what does it do? It shows the highest level of rahudiyah. That's the time when the slave is the most closest to Allah. أَقْرَبُ مَا يَكُونُ الْعَبْدُ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَهُوَ السَاجِدُ. That's the time when the slave is the most closest to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala because you've combined between those two pillars: كَمَالُ الْخُضُوعِ مَعَ كَمَالِ المَحَبَّةِ.
If a person takes one of those branches I mentioned and gives it to anybody other than Allah Ta'ala, he's on a dangerous path. As the poet said: عَدُوٌ لِمَنْ عَادَتْ وَسِلْمٌ لِأَهْلِهَا وَمَنْ قَرَّبَتْ لَيْلَ أَحَبُّ أَقْرَبَ. Some people are like that when it comes to the dunya. This line of poetry is talking about a man who loved a woman by the name of Layla. He loved her excessively, beyond and above what we can comprehend. حَنِي يُقَبِّلُ ذَا الْجِدَارِ وَذَا الْجِدَارِ. He kisses that wall and that wall. And then he said, وَمَا الْجِدَارُ. These walls that I'm kissing are not what's taken my heart. It's someone who used to live behind these walls that I am in love with.
So he's saying: عَدُوٌ لِمَنْ عَادَتْ وَسِلْمٌ لِأَهْلِهَا. Anyone who Layla hates, I automatically hate him. وَمَنْ قَرَّبَتْ لَيْلَ أَحَبُّ أَقْرَبَ. Anyone who loves Layla and Layla loves them in return, same with me. Some people are today like that when it comes to football, the team they support, and even in the worldly affairs, they’re like that. And Allah Ta'ala, He told us the dangers of this.
He said: وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَدَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ وَلَوْ يَرَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا إِذْ يَرَوْنَ الْعَذَابَ أَنَّ الْقُوَّةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعَذَابِ Allah tells us: وَمِنَ النَّاسِ—from amongst the people, not everybody, from amongst the people there are those: وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَدَادًا—they take besides Allah and dad. The word dad comes from the word nid, meaning someone equal to Allah. In the Qur'an, there are three terms that are used: the word nid, the word kuf, and the word mithl. And dad is used in this particular verse. وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَدَادًا—they make someone equal to Allah. The word kuf is used in قُلْ وَاللَّهُ سَمَتْ لَمْ يَرِدْ وَلَمْ يُرِدْ وَلَمْ يَكُلْ لَهُ كُفْوَ الْأَحَدْ (Say, “And Allah is Samad. He is eternal, and there is nothing comparable to Him”). Kuf means the same thing, and the word mithl is used: لَيْسَ كَمِثْرِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ (There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing).
What does nid mean? It refers to those who make what they love equal to Allah. وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَدَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ—they show their love for these idols as if it were for Allah. And it shows on their limbs. How are they like? وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ—those who believe have a more intense love for Allah. Ultimate love is for Allah.
So the reality today is we’re seeing people whose love is directed elsewhere, and I’m going to expand on that in detail, insha’Allah, through the podcast. Insha’Allah, I will discuss this at greater length. This is the first point I want to talk about.
The second point is the path football has taken today. Football has become an ideological doctrine. It is now a madhab fikri—an intellectual school of thought. Any ideological doctrine that comes and wants to remain must have three things; otherwise, it will perish over time, just like all the other ideological doctrines that have disappeared.
The first thing is وجود الأنصار—the presence of supporters, people who will back it and invest in it. This allows that ideology or doctrine to continue.
The second thing is وجود الكتب حافظة لهذه الأفكار الباطلة—the presence of books and written works that support these false ideologies.
The third thing is وجود أتباع لهذه الأفكار—the presence of followers who accept and propagate this ideology.
Any ideological doctrine that has these three elements generally survives through history. Today, when we look at football, it has these three components:
- Supporters and investors—just look at the sponsors in football, and you’ll see how it operates.
- Books and media—how many channels talk about football? Sky Sports, dedicated to sports, where football is the main topic, is a prime example.
- Followers—football fans, who are loyal to the game and its teams.
The second aspect I want to discuss is the idea of طاغوت أصري, as defined by some of its followers. Ibn al-Qayyim, in his book I’lam al-Muwaqqi’in, defines طاغوت as كل ما تجاوز به العبد حده—anything that the slave goes beyond his limits and boundaries. This includes the one who is worshipped (معبود), the one who is followed (متبوع), or the one who is obeyed (مطاع). All three are present for football.
Some people worship the players, others are followers of the game, and some obey it. This is especially visible when fans blindly obey the advertisements and promote the products associated with football players, all because the player wears them. Football's influence goes beyond just the game itself and extends into many aspects of life, showing the power it has over people.
The third point I want to speak about is the dangers of being silent about apparent evils. When we see منكرات ظاهرة (apparent evils), it is upon the du’at (callers to Islam), the people of knowledge, to speak out. When they see wrong actions, they should not remain silent about it.
Allah Ta'ala He tells us that we are the best of nation when we come with a certain quality كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ Allah says you are the best of nations not unrestrictedly like that no there has to be certain things we come with in order to be the best of nations which is what تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ you command one another good وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ and you warn one another from evil.
Allah also said وَلْتَكُمْ مِنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ let it be from amongst you a people وَلْتَكُمْ مِنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ يَدْعُونَ إِلَى الْخَيْرِ let there be from amongst you people who call to the good and prohibit the evil.
Also, Allah Ta'ala told us in the Quran that the people who choose not to call to the good and prohibit the evil that they are cursed on the tongue of Dawood and Isa Ibn Maryam. Allah says لُعِنَا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ بَنِي إِسَرَائِيلَ عَلَى لِسَانِ دَاوُودَ وَعِيسَ بْنِي بَرِيَرَ ذَلِكَ بِبَا عَصَوْا وَكَانُوا يَعْتَدُونَ كَانُوا لَا يَتَلَاهُونَ عَنْ مُنْكَرٍ فَعَلُوهُ لَبِعْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ they used to do bad actions and also they would not prohibit one another from evil and they were cursed because of that on the tongue of Dawood and Isa Ibn Maryam.
If we see evil فَإِن لَّمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَبِرِسَانِهِ فَإِن لَّمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَبِقَلْبِهِ وَذَلِكَ أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ if we see evil we have to stop it. If we can't stop it with our hands we stop it with our tongues, if we can't do it with our tongues we hate it in our heart and that is the lowest of Iman.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah he says in his kitab اختضاء صراط المستقيم the second volume page 87 he says إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّمَّا عَلَيْهِ النَّاسُ many things that the people are upon مِنَ الْعَادَاتِ النَّوْمِ وَنَحْوِهَا إِذَا لَمْ يُنكَرْ عَلَيْهِمْ فِيهِ if there doesn't come out someone and say stop doing this if there doesn't عَادَ مُسْتَحْسَنٍ عِندَهُ the people will start to think this is good there's nothing wrong with it.
بَلْ رُّبَّمَا rather what could possibly happen is ظَنَّهُ بَعْضُهُمْ إِجْمَاعًا لا يَجُوزُ إِنْكَارُ they might even think this is a consensus and it's not even you're not even allowed to speak to us against it because they'll say all the scholars said no one has ever said anything to us it's like everyone agreed that this is a good thing that كلام of Ibn Taymiyyah is powerful.
بِمَثَابَةِ مَنْ إِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ it's like the people is when it said to them تَعَالَوا إِلَىٰ مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ وَإِلَىٰ الرَّسُولِ قَالُوا حَسْبُنَا مَا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ أَبَأْنَا it's like those people when you say to them come to Allah and His messengers say they will say to you enough for us is what our forefathers were upon.
So Shaykh Usam Ibn Taymiyyah also said in his كتاب اختضاء الصلاة المستقيم لمخالفة أصحاب الجحيم he says فَإِذَا السُّوِّغَ فِعْلُ القَلِيلِ مِن ذَٰلِكَ أَدَّى إِلَىٰ فِعْلِ الْكَتِيرِ ثُمَّ إِذَا اشْتُهِرَ الشَّيْءُ دَخَلَ فِيهِ عَوَامُ النَّاسِ وَتَنَاسَوا أَصْلَهُ حَتَّى يَصِيرَ عَادَةً لِلنَّاسِ بَلْ عِيدًا حَتَّى يُضَاهِِ بِعِيدِ اللَّهِ بَلْ قَدْ يُزَادُ عَلَيْهِ حَتَّى يَكَادُ أَنْ يُفْضِيَ إِلَىٰ مَوْتِ الإِسْلَامِ وَحَيَاتِ الْكُفْرِ.
When Taimur mentions something very important here He says if something very little Is like turned a blind eye with Then it leads to the big things now. So even the small things we shouldn't let it. If someone might think Oh Akhi this is so little Why are you picking on the small things If the small things are not stopped It's going to turn into the big things.
The mountain, what is it made from? It's made from pebbles. So these little things when they come together, of course, they're going to bake a big thing on us. So we have to stop the little. What then happens is that this thing becomes famous and a norm for the people and the people start forgetting where this problem initially came from. It becomes big now and they forget the initial thing that it came from.
Okay, Ibn Taymiyyah says then حَتَّى يَكَادُ أَنْ يُفْضِيَ إِلَىٰ مَوْتِ الإِسْلَامِ وَحَيَاتِ الْكُفْرِ and disbelief to live. Shatibi also has a powerful statement of this in the Kitab Al-Utasam. Also, great scholars like Hamad Ibn Ateeq He mentions a very powerful statement in this issue.
Shaykh Al-Islam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab also has a nice powerful statement. Abdul Latif Ibn Abdul Rahman Ibn Hassan Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab Also has a nice powerful statement on this particular issue. You can all go there InshaAllah and look at it.
The fourth point InshaAllah that I want to mention here is the importance of knowing Fiqh Al-Waqi'. The importance of knowing Fiqh Al-Waqi' of football. Today football we have to know its reality and the way it is and then we can place a ruling on Allah Ta'ala.
Any person who wants to place a ruling on a matter requires two things. He needs to first of all know the ruling of Allah in that particular issue and the second thing is that he has to know the thing itself that he is going to place a ruling on. That is why Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Al-Qayyim Rahimahullah in his Kitab Ilam Al-Muwaqi'in, a very powerful book, a book that Ibn Abbas called Kitab Al-Islam he called it, he says that any Mufti or person who wants to give fatwa, they can't give it unless there are two things in place.
Fahm Al-Waqi' Knowing the reality of the issue Wa Al-Fiqh Fihi The second one is Fahm Al-Waji' Fi Al-Waqa' which is the ruling of Allah Ta'ala in this matter. Those two are two things: the ruling of Allah in this matter and the thing that you are going to place a ruling on it.
In simple terms, it is what the Ulema refer to as Al-Hukmu Ala Shai Far'un An-Tasawwori. And Insha'Allah Ta'ala as we The podcast unravels, and we talk about it. We are going to speak about football and its reality. Then we are going to place the ruling on it, Insha'Allah Ta'ala, so the people, Insha'Allah, can see how the ruling is being reached. It's not just "It's Halal or it's Haram," Insha'Allah Ta'ala.
The last and final point that I want to mention is Al-Wasa'il La'ahkamu Al-Maqasid. A lot of people today argue and say football is just a means for what? For me to relax, for me to be in physical shape. Okay, remember this and always keep this in mind: The means that you take La'ahkamu Al-Maqasid. The objectives there—if the means become Haram, can you say that now my objective is fine? You can't rob a bank to give the money to charity. You can't. The poet said, "You are looking for success but you are not taking its path, for verily the boat does not sail on the shore. If you are looking for something good, take its path for it."
There is a Qa'idah that scholars mention, which is An-Nadhru Fi Ma'alati Al-Af'al Amma Saddu Al-Darair. In his book Al-Muwafaqat, he talks about these issues. There are three things they talk about, which are An-Nadhru Fi Ma'alati Al-Af'al Amma Saddu Al-Darair in the chapters of Al-Ijtihad. He expands on it in great detail, talking about it and looking at the ultimate goal of things. Fiqh Al-Wasa'il is a fundamental matter in our religion. So today, when we look at football, the means that are taken and the things that happen inside there, can we then just say, "Oh, my objectives are very good, I am trying to reach a good objective, Insha'Allah Ta'ala"? I think that is what we are going to talk about, Insha'Allah Ta'ala.
Okay, let me take a little bit of time just to summarize. I am going to try and do it off memory, so correct me if I go wrong anywhere. But I think some of the people watching at home might get an indication of where this podcast is going. Now, we haven't mentioned the ruling on it. We are not going to do that until we come to the end, Insha'Allah, and it is important for anybody who really wants to understand this issue and do it justice that they watch the podcast from the beginning to the end and they don’t just watch parts of it or aspects of it.
The first thing I say is that football has become such a norm in human life. I have personally never heard any kind of Islamic speakers talk about football, certainly not in a negative way anyway, especially in the English world. I think it has happened in the Arab world, but it has not happened in the English world. So this is a new concept for a lot of the people who are watching at home. This is the first time they are thinking about this. Just like I mentioned before when we spoke about it yesterday, and that conversation ended up two hours long. We could have just got the cameras out, we could have just done the hot seat yesterday, but it was really a thought-provoking conversation.
So I would encourage everyone who is watching this to keep an open mind. Keep an open mind to hear what is being said from both sides. Because there are certain things that you say that I still don’t agree with, and there are other things that I can understand where you are coming from. So keep an open mind throughout the conversation, is the first thing I would say.
Now let’s just quickly go through your introduction. You mentioned that the purpose we have been created for is to gain beneficial knowledge and righteous actions. And I don’t think any Muslim at home would disagree with that, to be honest with you. And you also mentioned that there are things like loving the dunya excessively that can come in the way of that. Again, I don’t think that is a point of contention for anybody watching at home.
The second thing you mentioned is now we are talking about football itself, is that right? It's like you call it methodically or ideology or something like this, which I would definitely like to go into more. Because the points you mentioned—the three points, for example: It has people who support it (as in put money in it, invest in it), the news are talking about it, which is the second point, and the third point, it has fans and followers. Because I would definitely agree that football has all those things, but I also don’t see the issue here. So again, Islamically, I think the same could be said about the business world. Accountancy has people who invest in it, the news are talking about it, people follow it. I wouldn’t say accountancy is anything problematic, but we are going to come to that. We are definitely going to come to that.
So that is the second point you mentioned, if I am correct. The third point was the importance of... And I mentioned the second thing is also It is a Dawood Asri, which means yes, that is definitely anti-Islamic. That is something that we definitely need to talk about and how you came to that conclusion. The third thing is the importance of commanding the good and forbidding the evil. Again, I don’t think anyone has an issue with that. Sometimes—and I think this is the reason you brought it in the introduction—sometimes when people command the good and forbid the evil, it might be about a particular issue that hasn’t been spoken about before in a particular language like this issue, for example. Or it might be something that has just become so normal and so accepted that it is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow. It is a bit strange. But that doesn’t dismiss the importance of it, and it doesn’t dismiss the discussion either. The discussion still needs to be had, it needs to be listened to from both sides, and it needs to be listened to with an open heart and an attentive mind.
The fourth thing you mentioned, you are going to have to remind me—what was the fourth thing you mentioned in your introduction? The fourth one was... Yeah, that is it.
This is the entire podcast on really understanding what football is. We cannot make a ruling on it unless we fully understand what it entails. Even those who consider it permissible cannot make a ruling on it without understanding the full picture.
The final point is a very key one: If the means to something are haram, then the ends do not justify the means. Essentially, this means that although people may have good intentions, for example, wanting to watch or even play football, if the means to engage in it are haram (which we are not asserting yet, as we will discuss further), then it doesn’t matter what your intentions are. The ends do not justify the means.
That was a summary of the introduction. Now, let’s talk about football itself. What do you believe is problematic about football? I believe by now people understand that you find football problematic, so what specific issues do you see? There are 41 reasons.
Insha'Allah, I will go through these 41 reasons. Some people might not find all of them convincing, and that’s fine. I don’t aim to force anyone into accepting my point of view. If any of these points convince you, Alhamdulillah; if not, I am sure there are other points that might make sense to you. If we agree on one of these points, I will leave the ruling until later.
But if we find and you agree with me on one of these 41 reasons, then Insha'Allah, we will go through every single one of them.
Now, I want to focus on watching football specifically. I don’t want to discuss playing football too much because that’s a different topic. I am talking about watching football—where a person sits back, grabs a remote control, and watches a game. This is the part I want to focus on.
Of course, not everyone who watches football fits into all these categories. Some people might just watch because their family is watching it or because they're not particularly supporters of the game. But most people will fall into other categories, and we are discussing general rules here. It’s important to talk about the general issues most people face while watching football, although there will be some exceptions.
The first issue I want to discuss is the absence of Al-Walaa Wal-Baraa, which is allegiance and disassociation. These are fundamental principles of our religion. Our faith strongly stands upon the concepts of loyalty and disassociation. A person’s Iman is incomplete without these.
Allah says in the Quran:
"The believers do not take disbelievers as allies instead of believers. And whoever does that has nothing to do with Allah." (Al-Imran 3:28)
This verse emphasizes the importance of maintaining loyalty to the believers and disassociating from the disbelievers. Ibn Jarir At-Tabari, in his Tafsir of this verse, says that anyone who aids or allies with the disbelievers against the Muslims, supporting them in their religion, is free from Allah.
So the concept of Al-Walaa Wal-Baraa is very serious. Sometimes it can even lead to apostasy, though not necessarily in every case. But at the very least, it is a sin and can be considered minor disbelief (Kufr Asghar). This is something we must carefully consider, as it is a serious matter that can harm one's faith.
Now, does Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) address the concept of Al-Walaa Wal-Baraa? Before going into it further, I think this topic deserves more time, and we might need a whole podcast dedicated to this issue itself.
And I think we've said that before as well, but particularly to this topic of fuqbo', it is really important. I can understand why you started with it. What are the other evidences, the other ayat in the Quran? I know you said you don't really want to mention them.
Allah says:Arabic:وَلَوْ كَانُوا آبَاءَهُمْ أَوْ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ أَوْ إِخْوَانَهُمْ أَوْ عَشِيرَتَهُمْ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ كَتَبَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْإِيمَانَ وَأَيَّدَهُم بِرُوحٍ مِّنْهُTranslation:"Even if they were their fathers, their sons, their brothers, or their kindred (people). For such He has written Faith in their hearts, and strengthened them with a spirit from Himself."
Arabic:قَوْمًا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ يُوَادُّونَ مَنْ حَادَّ اللَّهَTranslation:A people who believe in Allah and the Last Day, who show love towards those who oppose Allah and His Messenger.
Arabic:وَلَوْ كَانُوا آبَاءَهُمْ أَوْ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ أَوْ إِخْوَانَهُمْ أَوْ عَشِيرَتَهُمْ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ كَتَبَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْإِيمَانَTranslation:"Even if they were their fathers, their sons, their brothers, or their kindred..."
Allah says in another ayah:Arabic:يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ أَوْلِيَاءَTranslation:"O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies..."
Arabic:وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْTranslation:"And whoever among you takes them as allies, then surely he is one of them."
Allah says in another ayah:Arabic:يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ أَوْلِيَاءَTranslation:"O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies..."
Don't take them as allies, close friends, people you love—don't. Why?
Arabic:بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍTranslation:"They are allies of one another."
Arabic:وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْTranslation:"And whoever among you takes them as allies, then surely he is one of them."
Then after, what does Allah say?
Arabic:فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌTranslation:"Then you will see those in whose hearts is a disease..."
The word "مرض في قلوبهم" (disease in their hearts) everywhere in the Qur'an is referring to the munafiqeen (hypocrites), except one place. One place that Allah used "في قلبه مرض" and it wasn't referring to the munafiqeen—it's referring to Muslims. Which one?
Arabic:وَقَرْنَ فِي بُيُوتِكُنَّ وَلَا تَبَرَّجْنَ تَبَرُّجَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ الْأُولَىٰ ۖ وَأَقِمْنَ الصَّلَاةَ وَآتِينَ الزَّكَاةَ وَأَطِعْنَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ ۚ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذْهِبَ عَنكُمُ الرِّجْسَ أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُمْ تَطْهِيرًايَا نِسَاءَ النَّبِيِّ لَسْتُنَّ كَأَحَدٍ مِّنَ النِّسَاءِ ۚ إِنِ اتَّقَيْتُنَّ فَلَا تَخْضَعْنَ بِالْقَوْلِ فَيَطْمَعَ الَّذِي فِي قَلْبِهِ مَرَضٌ وَقُلْنَ قَوْلًا مَّعْرُوفًاTranslation:"And stay in your houses, and do not display yourselves like that of the times of ignorance, and perform As-Salat, and give Zakat, and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah wishes only to remove Ar-Rijs (evil) from you, O members of the family (of the Prophet), and to purify you with a thorough purification. O wives of the Prophet! You are not like any other women. If you keep your duty (to Allah), then be not soft in speech, lest he in whose heart is a disease should be moved with desire, but speak in an honorable manner."
Surah Al-Ahzab—that one is referring to the people, the believers as well. It's not the munafiqin specifically. Every other place in the Qur'an where you look at it, if you realize, if you see Allah saying "those whose hearts have the illnesses," it's munafiqin.
So here, Allah is saying:Arabic:فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ أَيْ مُنَافِقٍTranslation:"Then you will see those in whose hearts is a disease (i.e., hypocrites)..."
Allah is referring to those people who take the non-Muslims as allies and close friends. Allah is referring to them as what? What is He referring to them as? He is referring to them as people who are hypocrites and munafiqin.
Arabic:قَدْ كَانَتْ لَكُمْ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ فِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ إِذْ قَالُوا لِقَوْمِهِمْ إِنَّا بُرَآءُ مِنكُمْ وَمِمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ كَفَرْنَا بِكُمْ وَبَدَا بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمُ الْعَدَاوَةُ وَالْبَغْضَاءُ أَبَدًا حَتَّىٰ تُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَحْدَهُTranslation:"There has been an excellent example for you in Ibrahim (Abraham) and those with him, when they said to their people: 'Verily, we are free from you and whatever you worship besides Allah, we have rejected you, and there has started between us and you hostility and hatred forever until you believe in Allah Alone.'"
And it's sad because these people are enemies to Islam, but we show them...
So I think that was important. And all we've done is, you've mentioned the Qur'an, I'm sure there's many Ahadith that talk about this topic as well, but from the Qur'an we've proven that even just the aspect of taking non-Muslims as friends, as close friends, as allies, you're basically either falling into Ithm or Fisq at the very least, or Nifaq or Kufr. And when you're taking them over and above the Muslims, it's even worse.
Now we're going to talk about whether you find that in football. And one of the highest branches of Iman is what? Loving for Allah's sake and hating for Allah's sake, right? Or the Qur'an narrated it, and Imam al-Tabarani narrated it. The Prophet told us that the highest branch of Iman is what? To love for Allah's sake and to hate for Allah's sake.
So it's not a small part of our religion, it's a very fundamental part of our religion with many different evidences that indicate towards it. The Prophet also said in the hadith of Ibn Abbas, Allah Dhu'l Tala' anhuma, man ahabba fil-lahi, anyone who loves for the sake of Allah, wa abghada fil-lahi, and he hates somebody for the sake of Allah, wa wala fil-lahi, and shows allegiance for Allah's sake, wa adda fil-lahi, and he hates somebody for the sake of Allah Ta'ala, fa innama tunalu walayatullahi bithalik, that person will attain through that the wilayah of Allah Ta'ala, wa layajid abdun ta'mal iman, a person will not taste the sweetness of an Iman, wa inkathurat salatu, even if his prayers are a lot, wa sawmuhu, and his fasting is a lot, hatta yakuna kathalik an-nasees, until he becomes like that, wa qad sarat mu'akhatu an-nasee ala amri al-dunya, wa dhalika la yujdi ala ahlihi shayya. So someone might say these hadith show the virtue of it, it doesn't mean it's a sin if you do it, but it just shows the virtue, but the ayat of the Qur'an were very very clear that it is a sin, it's a very very serious sin as well.
So now what are we finding in the football game now? We're finding people loving non-Muslims, he's a football player, they love him, sometimes in the football game he does a Christian side when he's coming, when he scores, no problem. Some of the football games or teams, they have a Christian side on there, the person's wearing those things, he supports that team who have those things, okay, Allahu Akbar. A person supports Arsenal for example, another one supports Manchester or Chelsea, they're two brothers in the same house, from the same mother, each brother has his love and allegiance for his team.
He hates his brother for supporting that team. Yeah I wouldn't say he hates him, but yeah okay. I've seen brothers who stop talking to each other because of a football game, you've never seen one? No I think this is a very strong point, I have my own things to contribute as well, but go ahead, I don't want people to think that you're just jumping to extremes, just hate, you know hate is a strong word.
I like your, do you think, do you have seen brothers fighting over? Yeah I have, I think, see when I mentioned at the start that when we had the discussion and even this podcast, I actually wanted it to be an open discussion instead of really a big confrontation, but I mentioned earlier that there's certain things that I disagree with you on this point and there's certain things that I agree with you on this topic rather. This particular point for me is something I completely agree with, coming from a background where to be honest with you I was very heavily invested in football when I was younger, I'm I did the maths earlier and that's why the number is exact, but I went to university and I chose my university based on my football team. I supported Manchester United, I said I'm only going to university in Manchester, I don't care what other university, I'm just going to go there.
So I went to university in Manchester, I worked at the stadium, the stadium is called Old Trafford, I was working there as a steward, do you know the guys in the jackets, I was one of those guys. After that to be honest with you, I haven't really followed it too much because I got busy with other things and I came into the dean a bit more alhamdulillah, but even now occasionally I still hear about football and one thing that I would say about this particular point is I know myself, and again there were football fans who were even bigger than me, bigger than me, but I know myself that sometimes when I met someone and I might meet someone called Steve, a non-Muslim and he's a Man United fan, I say who do you support? He says Man United, I'm like yeah that's it. In the same conversation I see someone Abdullah and he supports Arsenal, I say who do you support? He says Arsenal, Arsenal me, I can't get out of here man.
Now I've had a non-Muslim and a Muslim in front of me and I've certainly got something in my heart more towards a non-Muslim, definitely this happens, I'm telling you this happens. I know the reality of football, you've done a lot of research into it, the theory, but I can inshallah give you the practical, I'm telling you this happens. What's the difference between Manchester, Man United and Manchester City? Okay it's funny because when you said Manchester I was thinking oh Manchester, there's two teams in Manchester, you can't just leave it unrestricted, they're both in the same city.
Okay so Manchester is one city, it has two teams, Man United play in red, Man City play in blue. That's the difference you need to know for now, Man United are better than Man City some people say in the past, now Man City, there's a lot. But when I lived in Manchester at university I was there, I saw the tension between the two cities, it's a physical fight sometimes, which again I'm sure is a point maybe we'll cover later on, physical fights, I'm telling you I've seen physical fights.
The other thing that comes in this issue, again you can't deny it, I don't think anyone can deny it. And again we're not saying this applies to everybody, someone might watch football without supporting anything but I'm saying the general rule for most people, you might have a penalty where the other team are taking the penalty. Let's say for example Man United are playing Liverpool, Mo Salah who's a Muslim, he's taking the penalty against my team and make dua to Allah, please let him miss, please let him miss, please let him miss.
The goalkeeper is a kafir, he's a kafir goalkeeper, I'm saying please let him miss because it's my team right, I don't want my team to lose. So now you're making dua against a Muslim and again this is not a, okay people might not make dua but people might want him to miss, you want something evil to happen to a Muslim, you want him to miss. Why? Because the goalkeeper is a kafir but it's because of your team, it's your team, you can't let that team go.
It's like we hear back in the day the postcode wars. The funny, the sad thing that I take from the story is you're making dua for a guy who is, if he scores he gets points and he gets higher in his position and you know he gets more famous and he gets more money, it's your team, that's what it goes down to, it's your team, you feel good when they win and you feel depressed when they lose. You don't even know if you're going to Jannah, you don't know where you're going to be when you go into a grave, you're concerned somebody else is shooting.
This for me, it's like, I can't see. Yeah, you can't wrap your head around it, you can't understand it. You're wasting your energy into making dua for a football game.
I've seen people who said I woke up qiyam ul-layl for my team. Wallahi, I've seen this. Honestly, I've literally never watched a football game in my life but alhamdulillah I'm not going to watch it now but what I've seen from people and what my research has done, I've seen, you guys told me yesterday, the other day, England lost, right? When you told me, I went and I looked into it.
I looked at people and the only people I know, family members, I made some phone calls, how are you, is everything right, are you sad? Because I know they love football. Shahid, wallahi, depressed, sad. I'm going to come to all of those points, inshallah ta'ala.
What my cousins was like, how on earth did England allow kids to shoot the penalty? What were they thinking? He's so invested into it and his family members need him, he could have gone shopping for his mom that day and got her food. There are more important things in your life you can be more preoccupied in doing. Yeah, I think there's definitely, and again, we're going to come to all of these arguments when you put them together, it's very strong.
But I also don't want people to think that, yes, of course, there's always something better. We're talking about father than maflool, something is better. I agree, I could have been doing better than watching football.
But we're talking about ishq al haram, we're talking about fisq, nifaq, kufr. We're talking about loving a disbeliever over a Muslim. Now, that team that you support, they don't just have Muslim players, they also have Muslim fans, right, that support the other team.
You're loving these people, your kafir goalkeeper, more than the Muslim players, the Muslim fans. You want them to, ultimately, they're going to be sad if they lose as well. Let me tell you something.
Let's look at the Italian revert and the English revert. The reason I'm saying that is because you Pakistanis go back to Pakistan, that's your country. Somalis go back to their country, that's their countries.
Everyone goes back to their country. So no one really owns the UK. Let's talk about the English revert.
So you've got an English revert, and you've got an Italian revert. When the game was going on, both of them are Muslims. They're both allegiance are to their country and to their names.
Are they going to have disagreement and something towards each other because of the game? Yeah, ultimately, they want their team to win. They know if their team wins, he's going to be upset. So ultimately, they want their Muslim brother to feel upset.
So yeah, there's no escaping that. That's why I think this point is particularly strong. I mean, I would tell you, I used to cry if my team lost.
I used to cry if they won as well, tears of joy. I was so invested in it, so serious in it, that I'm telling you, if I met a Muslim, and I met a kafir, and the kafir supports my team, automatically, I like him more. That's the truth of my situation.
Again, I can't speak for everybody. And maybe people weren't invested in it that much. But anytime you support a team, ultimately, there's something in here where you want Muslims on the other side to not be happy.
So this point, I think, in particular, especially with the ayats that you mentioned, again, people have to remember, we're talking about football. But now we have the ayat from the Quran. They're really directly telling you that you can't take non-Muslims as allies over Muslims.
And then we have football where, inevitably, that does happen. Let's say you're a player now. Let's say you're playing a professional football match, for example.
You're in a team with non-Muslims. On the other team, there's a Muslim. Of course, you have to be closer to your team.
It's a very serious issue that I think I've never thought about previously, in all honesty. I never thought about it this deep. But it's something that's very, very serious.
The next point is attashabuhu bil-kuffar, imitating the non-Muslims. People watch football, imitate the football player, the clothing he wears, the haircut he has. They follow him and they're imitating him.
This takes us back to the issue of al-walaa wal-baraa, which we were talking about before. Allah says, يَا أَيُّهِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ أَوْلِيَاءَ (O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies).
Some people may say, "They like, they cut the sides," and so on—yeah, yeah, they did that, he cut his hair. Everyone knows it, yeah, it's true. Does he not fall under the hadith, "Anyone who imitates a people is one of them"? This hadith is narrated by Ahmed and Abu Dawood.
Again, I think people would probably understand that this definitely happens in football. Now, I want to bring the ayah and the hadith you mentioned. Are there any other points you'd like to add? We've done a podcast on this issue, right? Yeah, we did.
You will follow the path of those who came before you, hand span by hand span, until if they enter the hole of a lizard, you will follow them into it. You’re talking about the Christians and the Jews, as mentioned in the prophecy of the Prophet ﷺ. This is narrated by both Bukhari and Muslim, and the hadith is in the collection of Imam Muslim.
Ibn Taymiyya said that the bare minimum this hadith can imply is that it is haram, and it can go as far as kufr—similar to the point we mentioned before.
So, what if someone says, on the podcast they watched, that you mentioned it's only tashabbuh (imitation) if you take something unique to the non-Muslims, like the haircut David Beckham had—everyone knew it was his haircut. This is an important point to mention. If you’re following it because of this individual who is a kafir, of course, then you are definitely imitating them. Even now, when people score a goal, they celebrate it, so even though it has nothing to do with their religion, it's just a pastime, a hobby, just football, just a haircut—it becomes normalized.
Remember we said that if a norm becomes well-known among a particular group, it becomes tashabbuh with them. This point may come up later on, I don’t know if it does, but we can talk about it later.
When you’re talking about following someone’s haircut or someone’s celebration, it can reach a higher level than that, where you have posters of them on your wall. This is definitely a case of idolization. Do you have this later on in your lecture, or do you want to cover it now?
This issue of idolization—do you want to take it later or cover it now? We can take it later. The next point we have is ihya’ da’wah al-jahiliyyah wa al-asabiyyat al-qawmiyyah (reviving the call of ignorance and nationalism). Some people excessively show allegiance to the extent that they treat a football player as their idol, sticking their poster on their wall, which is the concept of idolization. But when you're talking about supporting a country or nationalism, calling to that particular team, even some people say, "Please man, leave Arsenal." So, he becomes a da'i (caller) to his team, and he's happy. He says, "My brother used to support Arsenal, alhamdulillah, now Allah has guided him to Chelsea."
Yeah, see, the conversation you hear as people are talking: the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) and the Sahabah, one time they fought against each other. The word Muhajirun and Ansar is mentioned in the Qur'an. Allah mentions the word Muhajirun and Ansar in the Qur'an, but when they used that to fight one another and cause division, the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "Are you going to use jahili (ignorant) callings?" Muhajirun and Ansar are shari'ah terms—not just shari'ah terms, but praiseworthy terms. Shari'ah meaning Allah used them in a praiseworthy manner. But when they used that for dispute, argumentation, conflict, and animosity, the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "Are you going to use the jahili callings while I am amongst you?"
The Prophet said in another narration, which is found in Bukhari and Muslim. And here you are, chanting these terms. So, what you’re saying is, again, to break it down for the people: these two terms, which are mentioned in the Qur'an in a praiseworthy manner, when the Muslims at that time took those terms and used them to create separation, dispute, argumentation, and whatever else you want to call it, the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "Now we have terms that aren’t even mentioned in the Qur'an—Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Fulham." These terms aren’t even mentioned in the Qur'an or the Sunnah, and people are clinging to these names and using them to dispute.
One thing I want to do during this podcast is really reflect: you might do your research on a theory, and you might come across something and say, "Look, this is what happens." I really want to reflect, "Has that happened? Does that happen? Have I seen it happen?" And yeah, I think, if I’m being honest and truthful, yeah, that definitely does happen. You have two Muslims: one supports Chelsea, and the other supports Arsenal. And you’ll be like, "Why are you with Chelsea, man? Why are you with Chelsea?" And that term itself—those terms—are now being used to create separation between the Muslims.
Okay, yeah, that’s another point. Also, don’t you think this destroys the concept of the best from amongst you being the one who is righteous?
Okay, what do you mean by that? We mentioned before that there might be a football player who is a Muslim, however much of a sinner he is, however wrong what he’s doing may be—he’s still a Muslim. At the end of the day, he’s not a kafir. This Muslim, in all ways, shapes, and forms, is your Muslim brother. But you're going to prefer another football player over him, praise him, and go overboard in praising him over your Muslim brother? Sometimes, you might even speak about him in ways that I’ll come to, inshallah.
It doesn’t matter to you. For you, the akrabakum (your closest) is the best in the football game, but that's not the best to Allah; it’s the best to you in the game. That’s the best one to you.
Yeah, I think this really needs to be covered when we talk about idolization because someone might say, "Look, I say Ronaldo is the best footballer I’ve ever seen, he’s the best, I’m not praising him. I’m saying he’s the best footballer. It’s a fact. He’s better than the Muslim players." No problem, I can say that, but we’re talking about football ability. I’m not saying he’s the most pious. I’m not saying he’s the best out of all of us. I’m saying he’s the best footballer. So, I’m restricting you, what’s wrong with that?
This is what brings about love, allegiance, and admiration for him. When you bring up someone, automatically, you're like, "I want to meet this guy, I want to be in his presence, he means a lot to me." This guy was the one who scored the goal for my team. By default, this is this guy. That’s what they say, right? They get so excited, they scream. That’s what they say.
Look, the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) said in a hadith: "Shaytan has given up. Shaytan has given up that the Muslims worship him in the Arabian Peninsula." Shaytan gave up. So what does he do? The thing he’s going to cause is division between the people. Shaytan has decided he’s going to come through this game, and he’s going to bring people to hate one another, bring about animosity.
Which brings me to another point now: hurling insults, and in some places, even killing one another because of games. What happened between Egypt and Algeria when they played? Some people were killed. These are not extreme examples, though. It doesn’t happen normally. People get beaten up, right? Yeah, there are football hooligans, but again, this is a really important point, and I think this is something that is going to come up time and time again in the podcast.
Don’t judge football by the actions of fans. For example, some Muslims drink—that’s not what the game does to you, not necessarily. It’s got nothing to do with it. The game didn’t say, “Do this.” They penalize the teams if someone does that. People who watch it, who are invested in the game, this is what the game does to you? No, this game doesn’t do that to you. But that’s the actions of some fans. Football doesn’t condone it. It doesn’t say it’s good, it doesn’t say it’s right. Football is free from it. It’s just that some fans do it.
I’m saying to you, are you telling the people who watch this game, who are invested—remember, there are people, I said at the beginning, who are not fans, who might just sit there because family members are watching it and they’ve got other things—they are not really invested in the game. Inshallah, I’m going to speak to them about that. But the people who are fans, who support it—are you telling me they don’t insult one another?
Okay, I’m saying yes, it can happen, but isn’t that the action of a fan, and that’s wrong? Just like a Muslim drinking: you don’t attach that to Islam. No, if this is happening in a very high number, you question why this is happening. Even if football says, the Premier League says, "Don’t do it, you’re not allowed to do it," it’s not what they say or do. Islam says drinking is not permissible. You have a Muslim who drinks. If a kafir sees that, he’s going to say, “You Muslims drink.” We’re going to say to him, “Don’t judge Islam by the actions of Muslims.”
So why can’t a football player say to you, “Don’t judge football by the actions of fans”? I’m not judging the football game. The game is bigger than FIFA. They can say what they want on their board, "Don’t do this, don’t do that," but the game does that by default. The game does this to the person. I’m saying, playing makes people insult one another, name-call one another because it’s the nature of competition. Your team lost, and your brother will come and laugh in your face.
There are a few more points I want to speak about. People get very aggressive, insult one another, name-call. You have to question: if this is happening to so many people and you look at cigarettes—does it not say it harms your health? And doesn’t it say it’s going to kill you, right?
But people are still buying into it. That’s the case. Like, kids are being disrespectful to their parents after the game is lost. They’re being very disobedient, insulting sometimes their siblings who don’t even watch the game. Your sister, who doesn’t watch the game, has nothing to do with it, yet you’re insulting her because your team lost. The Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) said that from the greatest major sins is for a person to curse his own parents. How can somebody insult their own parents? He said, "If you insult the parents of someone else, then they insult your parents." You insult someone’s parents, and they insult your parents.
Let me understand this, because I think I might have understood it. You make a strong point, but I just want to make sure the people at home understand it as well. You’re saying that these actions of insults, arguments, and vile speech are caused by the game? What you mean by that is, if there was no football, or if the person wasn’t watching football at that time, he wouldn’t just randomly shout insults. Is that what you’re saying? Whereas the example I gave, which was Qiyas Mal Fariq (analogy of a Muslim drinking alcohol), that Muslim is going to drink alcohol whether Islam tells him or not. There’s no direction, no link. Is that what you're saying?
I’m with you now. I understand what you’re saying. That person who insults his Muslim brother, if there was no football match, he wouldn’t be doing that. It’s only the football that’s causing that. That’s a fair point. It’s a causing factor to make people very aggressive. لَيْسَ الْمُؤْمِنُ بِالطَّعَانِ وَلَا بِاللَّعَانِ وَلَا بِالفَاحِشِ وَلَا بِالبَذِيءِ (“A believer is not one who insults, curses, behaves indecently, or speaks abusively.”)
If you keep seeing yourself like that… I’ll tell you something—there are a few people when you hang around with them, they make you develop a certain mindset. They bring out the worst in you, so you avoid those people. They might say to you, "Bro, listen, I’m here to care for you." They can say nice words, but you know, when you sit with them, they always take you to a place where your iman (faith) reduces. You can’t be in their presence. So, a believer, one of his characteristics is لَيْسَ الْمُؤْمِنُ بِالطَّعَانِ وَلَا بِاللَّعَانِ وَلَا بِالفَاحِشِ وَلَا بِالبَذِيءِ.
People are insulted on the television, bro. The guy can’t hear you. Yeah, that’s true. Your name-calling a football player—this is saying to the football player, he can’t hear you. And you’re getting tired, stressed, and frustrated, and look at the language you’re using. It gets worse when the footballer is a Muslim. Backbiting also can come into this. And again, I just want to reiterate, some people might watch this and say, "I don’t really do that. I just like to watch football and relax. I don’t get aggressive." Again, these points might not apply to everyone, but they do apply to some people, and some points will definitely apply to everyone. You can’t escape certain aspects, which we’re going to come to.
Another thing that we find is that after these football games finish, a lot of mischief and harms are caused by the fans and supporters after the game is over. Look at today, look at when the England game played. I went to the news—BBC, YouTube—check it out. Leicester Square, what happened? What happened? I think the football fans, they did… we used to sometimes go to shuyukh (scholars) for dars (lectures). We used to go to a masjid in North London, Masjid al-Sunnah. The shuyukh would do dars, we’d sit there, take notes, benefit, learn. It’s a football night, right? There is Tottenham Hotspur. After the dars, the shuyukh would say, "Brothers and sisters, leave now before they come out of the game." Because if Tottenham has lost... I think I saw a statistic that when England loses, domestic violence goes up by a certain percentage, or whatever. Even now, you were telling me the other day, the two people who shot for the England football team were two Black guys, right?
Yeah, three, they missed the penalties. So, what happened is that racism has basically come out as a result of that. Now, it’s been two days later, and people— even on that day, I knew it myself, but my friend told me, he said, "I’m worried now. I’m worried." He said, "I’m worried it’s going to be racism." Because five penalty takers: two of them were white, they scored. Now, three of them were black, they missed. It’s got nothing to do with their race, it’s got nothing to do with that. It’s the penalties, yeah? But as a result of that, I think— I haven’t seen the news, but someone was telling me that there’s been a huge amount of racism in the UK. Someone even said people have been stabbed again. This needs to be checked because I’m going off memory, and what I’ve been told might not be correct. For now, people can verify it.
Doesn’t that bring me to the point I said? It does, yeah. People get injured, glassed, bottled. I remember one day I was coming from Tottenham, and there was a game. I was on the District Line, and I was wearing my thobe. I’ve never been terrified the way those hooligans were. Alhamdulillah, in the UK, you wear jackets, so it looks big, yeah. Is that what you’re saying? No, I’m just saying you couldn’t see my thobe properly, so I had to pull my thobe up. Yeah, I mean, it’s Alhamdulillah. I’m not a scared type of person, don’t worry. I’m not scared like that, but it’s the case. Why even scare people like that? Because look, in Islam, there’s a policy, as the poet said, you can’t throw people into the ocean, or the sea, or river, or a lake, or a pond and say, "Hey, be careful, don’t let the water touch you." It doesn’t work like that. We know the way football is, and then we say, "People don’t get angry, don’t get violent, don’t get aggressive, don’t..." It doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t work. The game, by default, is going to bring this to the table for most people here, which means, in English, the minority has no ruling. We don’t base a ruling on the minority; we base it on the majority of people.
Another harmful thing that happens is man-made laws applied here in the game. For example, first of all, Allah says in the Qur’an: وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهِ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ ("And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed—those are the disbelievers.") Okay? The Prophet also said, لَحَدٌ يُقَامُ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَيْرٌ لِأَهْلِ الْأَرْضِ مِنْ أَنْ نُمْطَرُوا ثَلَاثِينَ صَبَاحًا and in another narration, إِقَامَةُ حَدٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَيْرٌ لِأَهْلِهَا مِنْ أَنْ نُمْطَرُوا أَرْبَعِينَ لَيْلَةً (A hadith from Imam al-Nasa’i, authenticated by Sheikh Nasser). Some scholars have weakened it, others have strengthened it, but we’re coming to an issue known as حُكْمُ بِغَيْرِ مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهِ ("Judging by other than what Allah has revealed"). We've spoken about this issue, but let’s not delve into it because some forms of it can be seen in the podcast we did.
The bare minimum is Kufr Asghar (Minor Disbelief), which is higher than major sins. So, where the man may lose in football—okay, we know in our legislation, what we have in our Sharia, we have عبادات (acts of worship), المعاملات (social transactions) in our fiqh books. If you look at it, when scholars speak about fiqh, they divide it into four, or even two if you want to say it. Let’s make it four: عبادات (acts of worship), then we have المعاملات (marriage, divorce, khula), all of those are in there. Then you have الجنايات (crimes committed) and then الحدود (capital punishments). Okay, punishments for those— that’s what our legal Islamic legislation revolves around. It talks about, after Aqidah, these are the things you study in fiqh.
Now, football consists of... it’s a game of coming into contact with one another, right? When a person attacks another person, breaks a person’s bones, or breaks a person’s leg, or a person gets injured, or someone puts a finger in a person’s eye, do they go to the chapters of الجنايات (Qisas—Eye for an eye, ear for an ear, tooth for a tooth, injury compensation)? Do they say that? No, that’s because it’s a game. That’s the game. But in our religion, we have— it doesn’t matter whether it’s a game or not—Islam, as you mentioned at the beginning, is صَالِحَةٌ لِكُلِّ زَمَانٍ وَمَكَانٍ (It is suitable for every time and place). Islam governs everything. It conforms to everything. Our religion enters every minute thing. You go to the toilet, you’re told how to clean yourself. So, if you’re playing a game, Islam is going to put principles in place for you so there’s no transgression.
You can say the same thing about working in a company, for example. My company has certain rules. We have certain rules that we have to abide by. Is that now ruling by other than Allah? So, what we say is that the ruling is of two types: إدارة تنظيمية بحث (administrative rules), which I didn’t mention here. For example, how many minutes a game is played for—90 minutes, right? How many people play on each side—11 on each side. One goalkeeper, not five goalkeepers. This is fine, this is the nature of the game. That’s fine, that doesn’t go against the Qur’an or the Sunnah. How big the football pitch has to be, you know what I mean?
Who's offside? Penalty? Where he's shot from? All of these are administrative - this is fine. We're talking about قوانين تخالف حكم الله تعالى (laws that contradict Allah's rulings) that go against the laws of Allah which the football players are forced to follow.
For example, some of them (and I'm going to expand on some of them) - for example, some of the laws that they go into is:
- The player is made to love his football team member even if he's of different religion. It doesn't have to - of course it doesn't have to. It's just like your colleague. You're at work, you've got a non-Muslim colleague - doesn't mean you have to love them. You work together, of course. It's a job for them. Some of them even come out and say "We don't get along but it's a job." Years later you realize they had big rifts - "You didn't realize these two guys..." I agree with you, two or three people you might not get along with - no problem. But you can't get along with the entire team members?
What you've mentioned is no different to me in my corporate job. In my company, I've got non-Muslims I have to work with them. I'm like... some of them... No, no, no. You can come into your work and do your work and leave. It's got nothing to do... You might not even know your team members, your people you're working with. Here it's a team thing - I need to know who the striker is, the goalkeeper needs to know... Yeah, I mean you have to be... I don't agree with this point. You're part of a project in your work, you're part of a team, part of a project. Your job is to deliver this project - every day you have to work together. I don't see it any different from that.
Okay, what about the continuation of playing football whilst the Salah is going on? Okay, so now what we're saying is... My work continues, I can play my Salah? I have to leave and go for the Salah. Footballers... I'm sure if Mo Salah said "I'm not playing today unless you let me pray my Salah," I'm sure the manager is going to say "Okay, we'll let you play." Is that important? What's the problem whether they do or not - that's a different issue. When he's playing in the game, while he's playing in the football, he can't walk off the pitch. Whether he does it - that's his choice. I'm not talking about whether he does it or not. I believe he's not allowed to.
Okay, what gives you that understanding? Where's your evidence for that - that you believe he's not allowed to? These are non-Muslims who are running... The non-Muslims run my company but I can still go to pray. Okay, let's pause your company for now and let's focus on the football game. The football game that we're playing here - they're the non-Muslims. They are the ones who put the legislations in place. They're not going to conform to a Salah by the Muslims or a festival by the Muslims. Arsenal doesn't care about your Salah. Manchester does not care about your Salah. Chelsea doesn't care about the Salah for a Muslim player.
You're going to mention to me a powerful football player who's going to be given an exception because of his name and his fame. Maybe there might be a few people they might say "Okay, you know what, you can turn the game over and we will listen to you." Like Messi for example - he's the manager of his team basically. He's a player but he runs the team - he's got that much influence. The overwhelming other football players - if they go on that pitch, have to finish the game. They can't leave and walk out of the game.
Okay, I'm going to let the viewers... I disagree. I'm a Muslim footballer and I've not got any power. I go to my manager and I say "I need to pray my Salah." Are there so many Muslims in the UK who are not allowed to pray in their workplace? No? Yeah, there are. I know because people come to me in the ministry. I thought by law you have to let the Muslims pray? No, not necessarily. I thought it was a law. Let's say they're not - the contract says you have to work from this to this time. There's a lot of companies who don't do that. They won't let you pray. They say "We pay you for this time. If you want to pray, pray at your break time." And the Salah is actually going out at that time - especially in winter. So a lot of people ask us about that - "Can I still stay at my workplace? I'm missing my prayer," etc.
So my belief is the football players are like that. So that non... Sorry, go ahead. It's the same kafir over here. They set rules that don't... You know the poet he said - don't dismiss my point based on an example that may not be agreed upon. The example may not be valid. But you and I both have to agree that this whatever board runs the football game - they are not Muslims and they are going to have that the players have to abide by. Whether it be, for example:
- Forcing/making it a law how the dressing code is going to be (so if they have to wear a Christian symbol, they have to wear it - they have no choice)
- This is the mark of their gain - they have to wear it
- For example, showing their awrah
- For example, travelling to the lands of the disbelievers (which I'm going to expand on later - which is one of the... I'm going to mention when it's allowed, when it is not, with these conditions we're going to discuss that inshaAllah)
The football player has to support - one of his definitions is the concept of aiding. The football player in his contract he's told that he has to aid and support his team. No, there's a few things we have to really... What I'm saying is a footballer is an employer-employee... Sorry, he's an employee. Now that Muslim who's in his workplace - he comes to you, sheikh, with a question: "I can't pray..." You're going to say "You have to find another job." But you wouldn't say the whole accountancy industry is haram. The Muslim who's working as an accountant, for example, and he says "Sheikh, I'm working for a company and the company don't let me pray my salah." No. For example, we would say... For example, if nursing does not allow - for example, does not allow women to wear hijab.
It's now become a law for all nursing women, then a sharia ruling will be taken on this matter. I'm saying football is not like that. Again, when we're going to distinguish between me and you playing football by ourselves, that's a discussion. I'm talking about these main things. I'm also talking about watching football. They have laws that they put in place—this is what the board FA, I think FIFA is an international one, the FA is in England (Football Association, Premier League under the FA). I think so. The FA are not Muslim. Their ahkam that they pass, the things they mention, go against each other. Push all my examples out of sight.
What about making the player wear a t-shirt that has an alcohol promotion on it? What about that? He has to wear it. But this way, you're getting something misunderstood as a player. Let's say I'm a player. Yes, because I can go to another team. That's my point. Just like I have a choice to not work for this company—I'm an accountant. I don't want to work for this company because they're selling alcohol. I'm going to work for this company as a footballer. This team has no problem. Do you get it?
Can I play on a pitch that has alcohol promotion on it? I'm saying you can run from one example to another. There is a law that you can't. What about when it has the mark? Does that football player have to still wear it? He has no choice. He still has to wear it. But I think you made a good point about the pitch, the gambling promotions around the pitch. That's a valid point because now you're not talking about a team; you're talking about the industry. All my examples might not even be valid. I'm saying to you because I don't watch the games, to be honest. I don't know. They haven't given me their contract that they make, but I know they're not Muslims. You and I both know they're not Muslims. So, there are definitely laws, and I have a bad feeling when it comes to non-Muslims.
I believe personally that no one is allowed to leave for prayer. I don't believe they will allow that. I don't think it's a law for them. They say you can go and pray unless there is pressure from the player where they can't, and they're doing it for their own benefit. They're bending the rules for him. Another problem, another problem in football is people's aura being seen, and the aura that's being seen is the thighs, for example.
The Prophet ﷺ said, "The Prophet ﷺ said conceal your..." The Prophet ﷺ said in Abu Dawood and Tirmidhi, "Some thighs." The Prophet ﷺ also said, "Don't unveil your thighs. Don't ever look at the thighs of a person who is alive or someone who is dead." Abu Dawood narrated it. So, this one, I don't think... Ok, yeah, Imam An-Nawi in his Sharh mentions and he mentions the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ and he mentions that the aura of the man is between his what? Navel to his knees.
Somebody might say, "Look bro, I'm sorry, but this is not agreed upon. I don't believe the aura is this," for example. No problem. Don't the football players take off their shirts? They shouldn't. The football rules don't allow them to. Which one? There's a yellow card if you take off your shirt. It's not allowed while the game is going on. After the game is over, you can. So, they do it after the game. That's when they give their t-shirts to the people, and the auras are being seen.
Ok, what about if a woman is looking at it? Yeah, it's not allowed. So, the aura is showing now. Women are looking at these men. Did the Prophet ﷺ not prohibit a woman from looking at a man? Of course, the Ulama are unanimously in agreement that it's haram for a woman to look at a man if she's looking at him with shahwa (desires). Imam Al-Nawawi in his Sharh al-Muslim mentions, "وَأَمَّا النَّظَرُ الْمَرْأَةِ إِلَى وَجْهِ الرَّجُلِ الْأَجْنَبِي فَإِن كَانَ بِشَهْوَةٍ فَحَرَامٌ بِالتِّفَاقِ." If a woman looks at a man, a man who's ajnabi (not her mahram), it's haram by unanimous agreement. We don't even have to bring evidence for it; it's a unanimously agreed-upon matter.
What about if women are looking at these football players and they actually love how he looks, they've got his pictures on their social media outlets? Yeah, I think a lot of Muslims could understand that point—that women shouldn't watch football. What about a man looking at another man's aura? Is that permissible? No, it's not allowed. This point is important to me because I think it's another one that no one can escape. Men are not allowed to look, and women are not allowed to look.
And another thing I'm telling you, I'll be honest with you, which leads to some women joking with their husbands and saying to them, "If only you were like Ronaldinho, for example, or Ronaldo, or this or that. If you looked like him," as a joke. That can't even be a joke. Are you a do youth? These are... I know some people might look at me and say, "Akhi, take a chill pill, relax, man, pump your brakes," but these are things, as I said at the beginning, if we don't stop the minute things—these are not even minute things—but even if it's small to you, we have to stop them because they're going to become big. They're going to become very big issues in our lives.
Shahid, wallahi, it's sad that I deliberately didn't mention there's a powerful statement of Shaykh ul-Islam, the great Imam, the Muhaddith, sorry, Hafidh Ibn Kathir. The Muhaddith Ibn Kathir, he says something very powerful. He talks about the Shia. He mentions... He's talking about sports that were started in aCity called Medina Tussalam. These are sports like swimming and wrestling. Generally, you would think, "Okay, these are good things, they help." Ibn Kathir, what does he refer to them as? He refers to all of this, and busying the Muslims with all of this. He says it only comes from قليل العقل (those who have little intellect) and فاسد المرؤة (his morality and dignity are very low). Why?
And Shahid, I read something similar to this in his kitab, which will be mentioned down here in another place. He even mentions that there were two teams that were present in Baghdad. One team was called Fadlun, and another was called Mar'ushun. Ahl al-Sunnah (the Sunnis) used to support one, and the Shia used to support the other. And this is where they would argue with one another. Shahid, this was a time when the Muslims were at the top. We had the Khilafah, the Muslims were in their glory days. Just the other Ramadan, just finished the other day. What happened in Ramadan? What was happening? The Zionists were going to be killing the emirs and Muslims who were praying. Some people were protesting and screaming, saying, "Oh, we are brothers." A few days later, they're in front of a screen, watching football. The Zionists and the non-Muslims have planned and plotted against us so much, Shahid, that we're watching football and preoccupied with this. Our lands and countries, the resources and benefits, have been reaped and taken from us. Shouldn't we prepare ourselves as Muslims in terms of knowledge, education, physical preparation, to get ourselves ready in all forms, instead of wasting our time watching this?
To this level, Shahid, wallahi, the money that's being spent on buying these televisions and all these things that people are doing, while people are starving. I'm not saying that people shouldn't have these things, but the level to which these things are being invested—people need to look at it. But coming back to the issue of looking, you're not saying that Muslims always have to busy themselves. You understand that as a human being, you need time to wind down, time to relax. But you're saying the level it's taken to.
Of course. What do you mean by that? Because football is played once a week, for example, on average. Look, people are talking about it before and after; they're having laughs and jokes. It takes time for people, even when the game's not being played. Okay, this is a religion, it's a deen. People go to chat rooms, checking it, messaging friends. Yeah, it's a lot. It's mentally time-consuming, even if it's happening very rarely, like once or twice a week. It's happening, but it's still taking people's time. And this is your umur (lifetime).
Now, coming back to the issue we were talking about, which is looking: we have the aura of a man, which can't be looked at by a man or a woman. But imagine women who are looking at these things and getting affected by it. Yeah, I mean, after seeing all of this, starting to judge their husbands, saying, "Look at you, how fat you are. Look at these players." Yeah, judging their relationships are going out of the window. The men are watching these things—wrestling and things like that, seeing women naked—and judging their wives because of that. And all of these are present. Those are all present, yeah.
I think that's one thing that, again, goes back to when I said at the start, there's certain things I don't think anyone can dispute in a football match, especially if you believe that the aura, the thighs, are for the man. Especially if you believe that, of course, it's exposed. Even if the shorts are here, there's one point he's going to do a tackle, he's going to cut. No doubt. And like you said, after the match, they swap shirts, whatever. Yeah, I think, particularly during the match, I think really, if anyone was really thinking about it, watching a football match, you're watching someone's aura now.
That's really something that has become small in people's eyes, that, "Okay, yeah, I'm watching football, that's not my intention, I'm not really doing it for that, I'm just going to watch the game." But ultimately, you're doing something where you're disobeying Allah for 90 odd minutes. You're disobeying Allah, and you're pleased with it, you're happy with it. You're cheering and you're getting involved. Yeah, I think it's a big issue. I think it's a really big issue, actually. To be honest, one of the scariest things that I saw, SubhanAllah, was before this podcast, I was looking at it. And I saw it even when I prepared this topic many years back, is how, SubhanAllah, a football player will take off his t-shirt he played a game, sweating, and then takes off his shirt and throws it into the crowd, or he will give it to a certain person. Shahid, the kid or the person gets emotional, takes that t-shirt, kisses it, or he will take off his shoes. Yeah, Shahid, his shoes—he'll give them to someone. It's a really, really, really important point. Again, one of the strongest points for me is that now you have a non-Muslim as well.
What do you mean by that? You have to explain. This is someone trying to look for baraka (blessing) in someone. He's not really, he just really idolizes him to that level, where he's so happy with this. It's a prized possession. No, it's not. Actually, you're looking for baraka in this guy’s shoes. No, the guy won't wear it and think, "I'm going to score 100 goals." No, it's not. He's just going to put it in his bedroom.
Of course, no, no, no. It doesn't necessarily mean that you wear that thing. It doesn't mean that. He didn't think it's good. He finds it as a blessing. What do you mean by blessing? Like something he's happy with? No, he finds this as a blessing. This is baraka. "I've got the shoes that Fulān (so-and-so) played this game with, and he shot with them." Yeah, okay, okay. Maybe. But I think it really is—we're probably saying the same thing. We're probably saying the same thing now.
This is, again, not something that is for a small amount of people. I think if you had 100,000 people in Wembley, for example, 98,000 of them would love to have that shirt at the end of the game. It’s not a small issue. It's not. Let’s say you're a football fan right now, and I told you that your team that you support—the captain of that team shouted your name out on television. Of course, you’d feel very happy. I'm with you on this. That’s what I’m saying. This is a very strong issue.
On the flip side, Allah called you out in the Qur'an. Allah called you out, yeah? So if a non-Muslim has some... I can bring your ear close, listen to what Allah has to say. You're not doing that. So, if a non-Muslim mentioned my name on TV, for example, and I’m happy with that, was that haram? What's the issue with that over Allah and His Messenger? No, I’m not saying over Allah, of course. No, I’m saying that’s the way people are, Shahid.
People know the boxes that the football player promotes, and he does his advertisements. They know that. They know the ones he was wearing in that game. They know, but they don't even know Abu Bakr’s real name. They don't know the Prophet's full name. They don't know basic things in their religion. Shahid, you know, look, there is an excessive love here that’s not there for the right things. That’s what I agree with you on. I’m saying this could really reach a level that is very dangerous.
I’m talking about a level of taking these people as idols, not necessarily bowing down and doing sujood (prostration) to them, but I’m saying the way people... And again, I’m talking from experience. I know people, I know people who are into football. I’m saying the way they love—they have a picture of him on the wall in their bedroom. If they were given his shirt, they would be so happy. They’d go home, treasure it. This is very, very serious, Shahid.
And wallahi, I’ll be honest with you, there are non-Muslims who have done good, NHS doctors, nurses, those working in the lab making the COVID tests and trying them out. Ya’ni, I’m not saying this issue is just about non-Muslims. It's about the lowest of the low. What is this guy? What significance does he hold? He's kicking around a ball. He’s just mastered this field. What benefit do you bring me? You don’t bring me any benefits, to be very frank and honest. Why am I going to idolize you? For what value do you hold for me?
Like, the doctor here—even if she’s anonymous, she’s a non-Muslim—she brings some benefit to you. She's a doctor, she's taking care of your health and everything. I see more love for this than for a footballer. And even that’s not right, but you see more of a reason. You know what? I’ll give you a story.
For example, I’ve mentioned a bit of my history. I don’t know if I mentioned this to you yesterday, but there’s not football, this is tennis. There’s a tennis tournament, okay, Wimbledon. It’s a very famous tennis tournament. As a kid, I used to go to Wimbledon every single year. I don’t know how many... The District Line goes and finishes there, right? Yeah, maybe. I just... Yeah, I think you’re right. I can't remember. But yeah, I used to go there.
There was a tennis player who wasn’t even a good tennis player. He was like the number two in Britain. There’s a guy called Greg Rusedski. That shows how old he is—he doesn’t play anymore. This guy, for example, wasn’t even the top player. There was another guy called Tim Henman, who everyone used to love. He was the main guy in England or Britain, the UK. And there was a guy called Greg who was half Canadian or something; he even spoke with a Canadian accent. But Britain took him because he was playing tennis. At the end of the match, he threw his shirt into the crowd. On BBC TV, you grabbed it.
"I remember as a kid, 14 or 15, I don’t know, I grabbed it. I remember watching the video on BBC, and after I went home, I watched it. I said, 'Yeah, as soon as I get it, I’m going to show it to my friend.' Look what I got, look what I got! I got it. To this day, I think, to this day, it might have been taken down in my house in the UK—not my house, but my parents' house, where I was growing up at that time. I don’t want to say this, I’ve moved out of the house, so I don’t know, but to this day, in the UK, I believe that on my bedroom wall—my old bedroom wall—that shirt is pinned to the wall, and unwashed. His sweat is still there. I’m not going to wash it, of course, because it’s Greg Rusedski’s. This shows just a simple example. Again, I wasn’t really... he’s not Muslim, right? Of course, no, he’s not Muslim, he’s not Muslim.
First, there was Covid at that time. But do you understand, like health problems are there, he swore... not even that. The religious problems. I’ve taken this guy’s shirt, and I’m thinking, amazing. Let’s put all this... how savage he was, like it must be to take a man’s clothes, his sweat... yeah, I know, it’s weird as well. It’s so nasty. Nasty, okay? You see where this is... if you’ve seen it and look back at it now, and you felt it. Imagine the thousands of Muslims who are still like that, who believe in that, who are actually driven with love and passion—blind love for a non-Muslim. You can’t even be like that to a Muslim, let alone a non-Muslim.
A lot of people might be watching this, honestly speaking, they might say, you know, I’m not at that level. But I’m going to say something that really affects everyone who watches football. I believe when you’re watching football at home, now, you’re not in a stadium, you’re just watching it on TV. There’s a thought that comes into your mind. And I asked some people this as well yesterday. I asked someone, I said, 'Does this thought ever come into your mind?' Because even this brother that asks is a practicing Muslim, if it happens to us, not then, you can assume that’s happened to a lot of people. The thought that comes into your mind when you’re watching this is that that non-Muslim on screen, he’s living a good life. He’s getting so much money, he’s famous, he’s doing something that he loves to do—he just plays football all day. How amazing is that? And he’s getting... now you start looking at him, and think, that’s a man who is destined for the hellfire. He’s a Catholic, he’s the lowest of the low, like he’s not even a high non-Muslim. He’s a low, even non-Muslim. And you’re looking at him, and you’re thinking, his life is really good, man.
I’m telling you, this thought was... I’m telling you very seriously, this thought I believe enters into everyone’s mind. Everyone. I’m speaking, you know, generally, but I can’t really think of many people. I’m telling you, I had this thought even after I was practicing Islam. I’m a practicing Muslim, I know the Deen, I know as in, I know the Day of Judgment is real, I know all these things are real. But I’m watching the football, and I’m thinking, oh, this guy... if I was that, I would be a Muslim. But I would love that life, man. Get to play football, get money. That’s a very dangerous thought to have about a non-Muslim. Very dangerous thought, I’m telling you. This is a reality.
I asked someone a question yesterday, and I even thought about the answer myself as well. And I thought, if someone asked you a question, 'Who would you rather spend a day with, or let’s just say one hour, two hours with Cristiano Ronaldo or a normal Muslim guy, just a nine-to-five Abdullah, a normal Muslim guy?' If I asked you that question, who would you say? Honestly, you have to be honest. Or I’d be honest. I’m saying, I guarantee everyone who watches football, myself included, I’ll pick Ronaldo. I have to be honest. I’m being honest. It’s a sad reality. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m not saying it’s good, but it’s sad. I’ll pick Ronaldo.
Why would I pick Ronaldo over this normal Muslim? Because to me, Ronaldo has a certain value. Why has he got value? Because of the hype around him. He’s famous, he’s the best footballer, celebrity, all of this. Again, he’s kicking a ball around the pitch. That’s all he’s done. He’s a non-Muslim. Regardless of what he’s doing as a profession, as a non-Muslim and Muslim, I should never value this guy in anything. Not even one thing. But the fact is, I’ve attached the value to him. I’m like, yeah, I’d spend two hours with him, I’ll just get to ask him questions. You know, what’s it like?
And this non-Muslim, who, so this Muslim, who’s better than Ronaldo in every way, shape, or form, I’m saying I’ll push him to the side. I asked another practicing brother this question again. Similar answer. I’m saying, all of these people that you asked, I guarantee if they watch football, they’re going to choose Ronaldo if they’re honest with themselves. Why have we attached the value to a non-Muslim? Because of this. And again, it’s not just football. It’s a lot of sports that come into this.
Is a Muslim, a person who believes in Allah and a person who doesn’t believe, are they the same? They’re not even the same. And you’ll say he’s better? Yeah, obviously the person will say, I don’t say he’s better as a person, but I want to spend time with him. I want to spend time with him. It’s a problem. Spend time with your mother and Cristiano Ronaldo? Yeah, no, I would say my mother. But I’m sure some people out there would say, out there would literally say, 'The woman who gave birth to you?' Yeah, it’s true. Nine months was pregnant for you, she’s taking care of you, look at how far you’re off the ground. She’s done all of that for you, and today you will choose a non-Muslim who doesn’t know who you are, hasn’t done anything for you. You will choose to spend time with him?
I’m telling you that that question you just asked me about my mother. I haven’t seen my mother in a long time. She’s in the UK. She came to the UAE not recently but last year, but because of Covid, I went to go have a say. I’m saying this answer now, my mother. I’m saying you asked me this 10 years ago when I was into football, I just said Ronaldo definitely. I’m saying there’s a question I ask people at home. If you believe that you’re not really into football, you believe that other points we raise don’t affect you, I’m saying ask yourself sincerely, 'Who would you rather spend time with, a normal Muslim, nine to five, just a normal person, or Ronaldo, or Messi, or Federer, or your sports hero?' I believe if you really are sincere, and you’re asking your question at home, I think you’ll have your answer now.
Listen, intensify the question, and I know, Alhamdulillah, everybody would answer this in a good way. Spending time with the Prophet, of course. And I believe, yeah, I also believe that, yeah, they will all say the Prophet. No one would actually choose a football player over you. And I believe they mean that when they say that. Same, why don’t you learn about him then if that’s what you really mean, and you do mean it, we know you mean it. But why don’t you learn about him then? If he means that to you, you put him on the number one. Well, if some say, 'I do learn about him,' and no, the majority of them don’t know this. That’s the sad reality. I have a class, I was before I started my Seerah class. Brothers who are in the masjid, not the ones who are on the streets, the ones in the masjid. I stopped, I said, brothers, tell me the Prophet’s name, Muhammad. Hey, my jaw dropped. My jaw dropped. I asked basic questions about the Prophet, they didn’t know. Yeah, so I’m saying, brothers, yes, you do maybe like Muhammad, means everything to you. And you do, yes, he, you do love him more than any football player. I know, Alhamdulillah, Muslim brothers and sisters around the world are not that bad. But then they should learn about him. Give time to him. You’re learning about this football player, how much he was bought from, how much he was sold, how much he’s worth, his net profit, how much followers he has on his social media, you know all of that. At least learn basic stuff about the Prophet, who’s done more for you than any individual’s ever done for you. Yeah, because of him, because of Allah and after that him, you know what’s right from what is wrong. You know it, he’s taught to set the path for you to Jannah and told you to stay away from that path towards Hellfire.
Okay, deserve for you to spend that time and to learn about him. What else did you want to talk about? Any other points you want to mention? The harm that it also has is that it diverts you from the remembrance of Allah. The Prophet ﷺ, he said there are no people who stand up from a gathering they were in, where they don’t remember Allah. It’s like they stand up from the corpse of a donkey, and that the Day of Judgment, they’re going to regret that gathering. What was I doing? I sat there for one hour, and I never remembered Allah. You’re going to regret it. The Prophet ﷺ said, there’s not a people who sit in a gathering that don’t remember Allah, that don’t send salutations on the Prophet ﷺ, it’s going to be a state of regret for them. It’s what it’s going to be. Yeah, it’s going to be a state of regret for them. They’re going to regret not being able to. And that happens all the time. You’re so engrossed in the football game, the opposite is being said. Our language are being used. Yeah. Okay. What about Friday, Khutbah al-Jumu’ah is on and a game is on. Yeah, there’ll be some people that would watch the game. You’re not, some people... your frequency of the tense is very weak. Some, the majority of the people, they miss the Khutbah al-Jumu’ah."
"I'm talking about those who are fans and players who watch it. Okay, we know the masjid, the day it’s full is when there isn't a game. When there is a game, we know that we can tell people were in the masjid. No, I was the khatib of the masjid. I know, you've seen the numbers drop when there's a game. Wow, of course, we've seen it. We've seen it, the Jum'ah, it gets worse now. People actually, at home, they won’t even pray Salah, and now even worse, some of them leave the Salah in its totality. They don’t even pray. Because remember, praying the Salah later, you don’t have to pray that Salah. If that time goes, it’s like a shop if it’s closed; you can’t go in. The time of the Salah is gone. You deliberately miss that Salah. The Prophet ﷺ said, and Imam al-Tirmidhi narrated in his Jamia, the person who leaves the Salah is a... what? It’s a disbeliever. It’s a disbeliever. That’s the strongest opinion, that is no longer a Muslim. You’re deliberately missing it, you know?
Again, anecdotal, my own experience. Again, even when I used to watch football—this is maybe my early days of practicing Islam—I still used to watch football, even back then. Even when I used to pray, I did pray, Alhamdulillah, I used to go quick. I’d go at halftime or whatever, wait for the halftime, and go to the TV. Okay, halftime now, okay, I’ve got 15 minutes, I think I’ll go upstairs quick, very quick, and the whole time, you’re not thinking about anything except that goal, that goal, man. I’m telling you, this happens, and it happens to people who are practicing, who are praying. Let alone the people who aren’t even praying, who will watch the whole match and say, "Every other day of the week I’ll pray, but this one, it’s the final, man! It’s the final, how can I miss the final?" Let alone the people... there’s different levels to this. There’s people who don’t even go to the Jama’ah in the masjid, there’s people who will pray at home but they’ll do it quick, there’s people who won’t pray at all on that day or during the match.
I’m saying again, we have to reiterate, someone might be watching this and say, “You know, if it comes to the Salah, I’m always choosing the Salah. I don’t choose that over football." Again, there are certain points we might mention which don’t hit home with you, but it doesn’t dispute the fact that there are other points that you cannot escape that we’ve mentioned so far in the podcast.
Again, another thing I realized is destroying wealth. A lot of people waste so much money on football. Whether it be the PS4 game that they buy, the clothing that they buy because of the fact that it was promoted by their football team—t-shirts that they buy. I mean, the wealth in general that’s been spent, even by governments and organizations—the wealth that they spend, what value does it hold? It has no value in Islam, in your religion, in your Akhirah. It’s actually preoccupying the Muslims with that which is less important than that which is important. You see, football should just be something people play. It’s been overly concentrated on. So, there’s a few times that this will come up. Now, if someone sits here and watches and says, "Are you saying that football is something I do to enjoy, to relax, that I shouldn’t be going overboard in the usage of your wealth?" Eat and drink but don’t go overboard in drinking. You’re not allowed to overly eat, you’re not allowed to overly drink. Also, don’t go overboard. It means leaving the disobedience of Allah by overly spending. The Prophet ﷺ also said, the hadith Ahmad and Ibn Umar narrated: The Prophet ﷺ said, "Eat, drink, give in charity, wear clothing as long as two things don’t happen: overboard and don’t be arrogant." So even the drinking that’s allowed, you can’t go overboard with it. Not just loud but you need it. You’re drinking.
So, if we even say watching football is allowed—people, they watch the highlights, they would call it. They watch previous games, they watch YouTubers commenting on that game. Yeah, I mean, they watch the actual game itself, they go out and watch the game again so they can learn those skills. Okay, what time? And well, overly done, like every single penny we spend that isn’t in that which is getting us closer to Allah or that which is not allowed, you will have to respond to it. You’re pounding that penny. I know people who’ve got dishes in their houses, down the sky and this and that, only just because they want to watch sports from it.
So, are you saying that, what if someone says, they return back to you and say, "Look, yes, I do spend money on these things, but that’s because I need some relaxation. I need to enjoy. You’re saying Muslims can’t have fun?" What did I say? The word islah means to go overboard. People are going overboard in these things. So, the one who just does it, like for example, just watches it once a week, you're okay with him? No, there are reasons. Okay, there are other reasons in place. So, I said it doesn’t apply to everybody, these points.
Another harm that comes from it is destroying time. People are destroying their time. Allah Ta'ala told us, look at this: Allah swore by what? Al-Asr. Al-Asr means Al-Dahum, Al-Zaman, Al-Time. Allah swore by the time, mankind is in a state of loss. And then there’s four people taken out: knowledge, knowledge, which is... those four. If you’re not in those four, you’re from two blessings that people have, and they don’t realize it until Allah takes them away from them: two blessings that people have, they don’t realize its value: health and free time. When the person dies, what is it that he’s going to be asked about? Four things are going to be asked: your time, how did you spend it? Your youth, how did you spend that time? All day I was sitting in front of a screen, I was watching the World Cup, I was watching this, I was watching that, I was watching highlights
I was watching this again: "Your wealth - where did you get it from? Where did you spend it?" You're going to be asked all those questions - narrated, authenticated in... So all of these things - it's things that we have to answer for. Do we have the time for it?
Also, another thing is the clapping that's done. Okay, the clapping that's done when the goals are scored, or even the... you know, whistling that people do. All of these things - what is the sharia regarding these things?
Abdullah ibn Abbas he said: "Quraysh used to go around the Kaaba naked - they whistle and make noises like that, clapping and all of that." That's what they thought was an act of worship for them. Mujahid mentions something similar to that. So it was something the Quraysh... he prohibited. For what? For a person to do such a thing.
The women are only allowed to make noise/clapping when they're in the Salah if the Imam does a mistake.
"What about the dancing that happens in the game? When the football player scores the game, he dances, right? Yeah, celebration. Is it permissible?"
By unanimous agreement of the scholars, is that... they unanimously agree upon that dancing for men is haram by unanimous agreement. Women - there's an exception. Women can (for their husbands and this and that) - no problem. A man cannot dance by unanimous agreement.
"Don't you think you're thinking too deeply about this? The guy just scored a goal!"
Of course, I'm going to look at everything in our religion. I told you - our religion is... and at the beginning, I told you I have to focus on every little point about a matter.
He said: "The Quran prohibited from dancing - what's the evidence for that?"
The word "marahan" here - some of the scholars explained it to me: "What? Arrogant?" When they score, how do they act arrogant, right? They're arrogant - the way they walk, the way they puff their chests, and the way they... the movements that they make, their gestures. People pick that up and they do it - they dance.
All of these things - as a Muslim, when you see this and this is... do you start thinking: "Allah has been disobeyed here?"
He said: "All of these things... Shahid, actually, I actually really want the people to really look at all of this and say: 'Wow, I didn't know the Quran spoke about all of these things!' It's true - I didn't know the Hadiths of the Prophet spoke about all of these things."
The Prophet (ﷺ) said in a Hadith - when it comes to whistling and clapping - the Prophet (ﷺ) said:"The only ones that are allowed to clap in the prayer are the women." Sahih.The men have to just say "Subhanallah." The women have to... the women are not allowed to speak in the prayer - they're not allowed to... they just make... so men are not allowed to clap. That's something for the women. Men are imitating the women in this matter.
Speaking about the Hadiths of the Prophet (ﷺ)... I'm sorry to go back to something we were discussing earlier. You mentioned a Hadith to me yesterday which I'd like to bring forward inshaAllah.
We're talking about the way we look up to - or some of the Muslims look up to - non-Muslim footballers and things like that. "Are you allowed to praise a non-Muslim and say he's so good at football?"
There's a Hadith that scholars talk about - it's authenticity like in discussion back and forth - regarding:The Prophet (ﷺ) said:"Don't say a munafiq or a disbeliever is a master or good. Don't praise him. If he is, then you've angered your Lord."You're not allowed to praise him and speak highly of him.
So if the Hadith is authentic... there's another... there's a look of back and forth to it. But the point is... the point is, I don't want to force... I don't want to press my argument on that. I'm saying: even if there was a sharia prohibition on this issue...
I can't... someone who said "Allah hasn't got a child"... "Allah has a child"... sorry, someone who doesn't believe in Allah's existence. Someone who doesn't even worship Allah - who disobeys Allah after He created him and brought him into this world.
I honestly can't speak greatly and highly and glorify him like that. I can't; my heart won't allow me. If someone says insult your mother, your own mother, you wouldn't dismiss your mother's value or you wouldn't like him in any way, shape, or form. You'd have enmity towards him. What about Allah? And now you're saying this guy is such a good player, I want to watch him, I like the way he plays.
Also, the concept of backbiting. The backbiting that's taking place, people are backbiting each other. The Prophet said, "Do you know what backbiting is?" The Sahabas, they said, "It is to say about your brother what he dislikes." The Sahabas then said, "What about if my brother is what I said about him?" Then they said, the Prophet then said, "If what you are saying about your brother is actually in him, you backbited him. But if you're saying then you've just forged a lie against him."
The Prophet said during his farewell pilgrimage, "Your blood, your wealth, your honor is haram from one another like it is haram today, this day, in this particular month, in this particular land." Then the Prophet said, "Have I not conveyed it?"
The Prophet also said in another hadith (Sahih Muslim), the Prophet also said in Hadith Abu Dawood: "One of the greatest forms of riba is what? It is to speak about the honor of your brother." Do people not backbite one another? That's what I was going to say—how is this coming to football? Do they not backbite particular football players that are Muslims? And say, "Oh, he's rubbish, he can't do this, look at him." Backbiting even your brother who's on your team, he supports Chelsea—you're talking bad about him.
I think there are a number of different levels: either fans to fans, or fans to players. I think one of the things is a lot of people take this issue very very lightly. I've seen my friends do this very lightly. They'll say something about, for example, Mo Salah or a Muslim footballer. They'll say, like you said, "He can't do anything, he's rubbish." The issue is, he's still a Muslim. You've backbitten him. Some people think, because he's a celebrity, it doesn't count here or something like that. There's no excuse for that. There's no excuse at all.
What about the mockery that happens? People do to each other, mocking the fans, mocking each other after the game, even in the game. When the goal is scored, and you want to get under your brother's skin, you jump in front of him and you start mocking him.
"O you who believe, do not mock a people from a people who may be better than them, nor women from women who may be better than them, and do not insult yourselves, and do not fight over titles. Evil is the name of disobedience after faith, and those who do not obey, they are wrongdoers." Meaning mockery, which is to look down at somebody and to belittle them and to ridicule them.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) mentioned that there are people who are humble and righteous. How many of the most humble and righteous people does the Prophet speak of? So, you're listening to that sometimes, and you're even saying this. Where does that come in football? So one team is playing, and the other team is thinking bad of the other team, and they're rubbish, they're not going to do anything. Then some Muslims or you might have su'ul dhan of a Muslim player, or even in the game, that people play within themselves on the pitch—su'ul dhan. You start thinking about your Muslim brother negatively.
The idea is not that people take these things very, very, very personally. Bukhari and Muslim both narrated it. Also, the concept of name-calling and we mentioned that when they score, the way they are. Muslim narrated that the Prophet said, "Shall I not tell you about the people of Naar?" Bukhari and Muslim both narrated that Allah does not look at the person who drags his garment out of arrogance. A man was walking one day and he was wearing his garment and he was fascinated and he was full of himself.
Then what happened? The earth swallowed him, and he went into the earth. He is going deeper into the earth because of all that arrogance. Arrogance is a quality that people pick up from this. When they score, and the people who are watching, they become arrogant from all of this.
We only have half an hour left before Salah, and I know after Salah you have to go. You are teaching a class, so I want to kind of wrap things up because I have some questions of my own that I want to cover at the end. I know you said you had 41 points, but I don't think we have covered half of that. But are we okay to conclude? Is there any really important point that you want to talk about just quickly before we conclude? I want to know the ruling.
I have some questions of my own. I want to go into the ruling in a little bit more detail, like what about one we mentioned, which is the concept of, you know, we mentioned Tarweeh for Muslims, you know, scaring a Muslim. We mentioned scaring a Muslim when they play the football game. Is this okay? So, you mentioned this yesterday to me, and I found it funny. I didn't really, in my head, I couldn't understand it, what you mentioned. I think you got up and you said that when the player pretends to shoot, so he puts his leg back but he doesn't shoot just because, you know, this thing, and the defenders are like this, right? And you're saying, Shahid, what about that? The defenders are Muslim, for example. Now, you are not allowed to do that. And I said, "Yes, come on man, really? You are going into really extremes. This is just a game. It's just fun. It's just, you know, it's football. How else are you going to get around the player? You need to do these kinds of things. It's accepted before the game, all of these things."
Then when I went home, to be honest with you, I thought about it. And this morning I thought about it, and I think I'll tie this in with another issue, which is about tackling. You might, in football, obviously, very common, barging. In fact, barging is a better example. It's tackling. People might say it's not allowed in football. Barging, you're not allowed to shoulder barge, these kinds of issues. Now, I thought about it: okay, it's part of the game, it's football, so what? They're all men, it's not a big deal. I thought about something this morning. I said, if you agree, like someone else would agree, that you're not allowed to do this outside of football. You can't, if you're non-Muslim, you can't barge into someone like this just randomly. You can't take their leg, you can't kick their ankle, you can't scare them, you can't do this, right? You can't do this. What do you do? I don't know, stand up and it's a fight. Okay, but you can't.
What my point is, you can't do these kinds of things. Right, even barging, for example, is part of the game, like you said, you can't do this outside of football. So now we know this is not allowed. We know Islam says you're not allowed to do this. We know that for a fact. It's not permissible for a Muslim to scare another Muslim and everyone, especially the issue of barging. Because I think people might say, "I'm not getting scared if someone does this." But the issue of barging, especially, which everyone agrees is part of the game, if someone says you're not allowed to do this outside of Islam.
Okay, I'm really going to have to wrap it up. I know you've got more, I know you've got more, but we're not going to finish today, and I really want to finish today. I know you've got a class later on as well, so I'm sorry, but we're going to have to wrap it up now. I wanted to say we've mentioned a lot of points on this podcast. We've mentioned a lot of different points. We said at the start we weren't going to mention the ruling until the end. What is the ruling on football then?
So, the hukum of football from all of this, after I mentioned all of these prohibited matters in it, I don't believe anyone who's looking for the truth, seeking the truth, that he could come to any other ruling other than that, that it's haram watching football because of all of those things that are connected to it. Now, like I said at the start, I've not heard anyone in the English-speaking world ever, ever even suggest this—that watching football can be possibly haram.
So, who preceded you in this? When they were asked about football, the year was 1401. This question was put to them, and there were four men who were sitting in that board. There was Abdullah, Abdullah Abdulaziz, all four of them, which are of a legion. They gave the fatwa that football is not allowed. Four great scholars of Islam also, the scholars that made it haram, are Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Ibn Muhammad Al Qasim, Sheikh Abdulaziz Ibn Ubaidah, Sheikh Abdullah Ibn Ghudayana, Sheikh Hamood Ibn Abdullahi, Sheikh Abdulaziz Salman, and many others who pointed out the prohibition of it. Their evidences that they provided, that they gave, clearly and categorically show how can it be haram to watch these games when all of these mahadith are present in it?
I think I saw Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen, I think, might have said something similar. I think I'm not sure about that, but I think I might have seen that as well. So what's important is it's not coming from you, it's not coming from your back pocket. It might be the first time someone has heard of this, especially in the English-speaking world, but it's been spoken about in the Arab world. No one might have spoken about it in English, so I think it's important to be aware of that… football is not like this.
It's an important thing to mention. Football is an active choice you're making. It's not part of your work.
It's not a benefit you're getting. It's just something you actively choose to watch and enjoy. If there's a halaam connected to it, it's... And you know, the difference here is, pay attention here.
When you go to a supermarket and there's music playing in the background, you're hearing it, but you're not listening to it. And we distinguish between the two. Like when you're watching the game, a lot of the times people are listening to the commentators, what he's saying, and the game, to listen to it.
There's music in it. Shahid, what people don't tend to understand is this does not just stay as watching a football game. It moves into your personal life as well.
Guess what happens? You buy a PS5 game because of that team, and you start playing it now. You start wearing that T-shirt outside and inside. You start praying salah with it.
You're inviting people into the... People see you with that T-shirt, they know you support that team. I mean, Shahid, I really think some people just look at the concept of watching a game and it's like, oh, we just watch football. Why is it haram for? I think some people, and this is the reason I wanted to make my point, is they might say, just like you're not listening, you're not hearing it, or you're not listening to the music, you're not intending to listen to music at a supermarket or something, they might say, I just wanna watch football.
All these other things that are connected to it, I'm not really there for that. But the point is, it's not like shopping for groceries. It's not like going to work.
It's a thing that has got no benefit for you. It's just something you're actively choosing to do. In that situation, even if you're not here for the haram elements and you're here for the ball being kicked around or whatever, even if it's not allowed, even if it's not allowed at all because you've made an active choice to watch something that's haram as an enjoyment, as a pastime.
Okay, there are some Shubhahat that people, the questions that people bring up. So I've got some of these listed now and I just wanna quickly go over them. We haven't got too long, but I just wanna quickly go over them.
Some people say that, okay, you're telling me football is haram now, for example. The kids, if they don't watch football, they're gonna be out in the shisha cafes, they're gonna be out on the streets. Isn't football better than engaging these haram activities? What are they gonna do after and before the game anyways? Plus you're talking about something might happen that it might stop them from this and it might not stop them from it.
It's based on dhan, speculation. We know these haram things are present in watching football. So you want me to fall into something we know it's haram, but it's something that might happen that this might preoccupy them from doing haram.
They even watch the football whilst having shisha. They watch it in a shisha cafe. The honest, the truth is you can't justify it and say it's haram, sorry to say it's halal and it's permissible because of this speculation that you created and Allah knows if it's the case.
Might be the case for one or two, three people. But look at all the harms that are coming in it. The animosity and the hates that happen between people based on this.
It blocks you from the remembrance of Allah. And all of the other things that we mentioned. All of that which we mentioned.
All of those are. We know certainty those things are present. Okay? Like in this, what you're mentioning here, Allah is speculation.
It could possibly stop them from it and it probably not. Okay, another question people ask is, and again we didn't talk about the ruling on playing football. I'm not talking about professional level.
I'm talking about brothers going to the park and playing football. Is that okay? Is that permissible? Yeah, that's different from the concept of watching football. It could be some benefits that we see like the youth might be strong and might find strength and everything from it.
But even that, Shahid, if we look at it, with that being said, there sometimes can happen, even with that, there could be haram things that happen in there. Some people, they turn out to be other bad people when they start playing games. They can become very violent.
Yeah. Generally speaking, a believer to become strong, al-mu'min al-qawiyyu khayrun wa ahabbu ila Allah min al-mu'min al-da'if wa fee kullin khayr. Hadith Sahih Muslim.
Yes, right, the strong Muslim is better than the weak Muslim. But the strength here, first of all is their iman. Okay.
Second then is the physical side of it. But if this activity that you're doing, and it's, I mean, it's gonna bring you into things which are haram, it's not allowed. Plus, all this time, people, you know a lot of people, they say, ya'ni, wallahi, I need to be physical good.
And his heart is bad. And physically looking good is not praiseworthy. Allah spoke about the munafiqin.
What did He say? Wa idha ra'itahum tu'jibuka ajisamum. When you see them, their physical amazes you more. Look how big his triceps and biceps and all are.
Ma'a dhalika, he's, ya'ni, weak in terms of his, ya'ni, yahasabuna kulla sayihatin alim. Humul aduwa fahadhanahum qatalahumul la'an la yufakoon. He's very weak, his personality.
Allah doesn't look at the physical side, per se. Hadith Sahih Muslim, Hadith Abi Huraira. Inna Allah la yanzuru ila ajisamikum wala ila suwarikum walakin yanzuru ila qulubikum wa amalikum.
Allah looks at people's hearts and their actions. So first of all, focus on that, and then look at your physical side. No problem when it comes to that.
So you're saying, for example, playing football is not the same as, so when you're playing football on a professional level, there are certain things you can't remove. But as a group of brothers, you can agree beforehand that there's no shoulder barging. Everybody has to cover their awrah at all times.
So you can put certain, you have more control over the game. So what you're saying is not quite the same ruling if you're taking, there might be problems that arise from it, but you're saying, aslan, it can be, it's mubakh to play football in the park with just brothers, as long as you're making sure of, you're conscious of everything, the shariah. And even if Allah, somebody says, look, there's benefits in something, it doesn't mean it's permissible.
The khamr has benefits. يَسَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ قُلْ فِيهِ مَا إِثْمُوا كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُوا لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُوهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِنَّ قِيمَةٍ The benefit can be in something, but it doesn't mean because there's benefits in it. Look, learn archery.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, أَلَا إِنَّ الْقُوَّةَ الرَّمْيَةَ This is Sahih Muslim. Honey, the strength is in where, if you're looking for quwa and strength, archery, it's a beneficial thing. Go learn it.
It's quwa that the Prophet referred to it as. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said it in hadith al-Imam al-Nasa'i narrated, and other than him, and the wording of this hadith is slightly different, but the meaning is the same. The Prophet said, كُلُّ شَيْءٍ يَلْهُ بِهِ بِنُ آدَمٍ فَهُوَ بَاطِلٌ Everything that preoccupies the children of Adam is bātil, it's not allowed.
The Prophet said, إِلَّا ثَلَاثًا إِنْكْسَبْتُرِيهُ رَمْيُهُ Archery. عَنْ قَوْسِهِ Archery for him. وَتَأْدِيبُ فَرَسِهِ And also horse, and disciplining his horse, and horse riding and stuff.
وَمُلَعَبَةُ أَهْلُهُ And also playing around with your family members, your wife and your children. فَإِنَّ هُنَّ مِنَ الْحَقِّ That's from the haqq. There are different wordings in the hadith.
وَلِذَا لِكَ Some of the scholars, I'm a large number of scholars actually, you can actually say the جمهور العلماء, they didn't unrestrictedly say that all types of sports are the أَصَلِتْ that it's الِبَاحَة They didn't. They actually said that, with this, they said that the play, it's allowed if three things are not present. They always restrict that with it.
They say, if it's not تَرْكُوا وَاجِبٍ You're not leaving off a واجب when you're doing it. Or فِعْلُ مَحْذُورٍ Or you're not doing حَرَامٍ in it. Or ضَرَارٍ Or harm is not in it.
With those three, the scholars mentioned it. If those three are present, they said that this type of sport or this type of activity is not allowed. Great scholars have mentioned it.
Shahid, look at this. Allah mentions in the Qur'an Surah Tawbah وَالَّذِينَ اتَّقَذُوا مَسْجِدًا ضِرَارًا وَكُفْرًا وَتَفْرِيقًا بَيْنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَإِرْصَادًا لِمَنْ حَارَبَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ مِنْ قَبْلُهُ وَلَيَحْرِفُنَّ إِنْ أَرَدْنَا إِلَّا الْحُسْنَةُ وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ Allah mentions a group of people wanted to go. They built a masjid when the Prophet ﷺ was away.
The reason why they built it was to divide the Muslims, to cause disunity. Is masajid part of Islam? Is it a place? What do you think it is? Is it sunnah sharia? Of course it is. Is it qurbatul ilahi? Is it something to get closer to Allah? It is.
But when the masjid became a means to disunite the Muslims, the Prophet ﷺ was told, لا تقوم فيه أبدا. Don't go and pray in the side-down masjid. Are you with me? Yeah.
So if we know this sport is causing disunity, it's causing riffraff, it's causing depression to youngsters, it's causing all these موانع المحذير, how can it be permissible? And just the fact that it has teams, it automatically disunites, right? Yeah, it disunites people. Okay, some people might flip that on you and say it brings the ummah together. Like for example, you saw the nation of England recently, they're all united together because they all want to win the World Cup.
If you have a Muslim team playing a non-Muslim team, the whole Muslim country of this team, Saudi Arabia playing and of France for example, how are Saudi Arabia going to be united on this? They're going to be united on that certain game. The next day they're disunited. Who said also that the unity should be based on a particular nation? The unity of Muslims should be what? All over the world.
Okay, let's just say all over the world. You've got a Muslim team versus Saudi Arabia, France, the whole Muslim ummah saying we want Saudi Arabia to win. Not just Saudi Arabia, we want the Muslims to win.
Isn't that a good thing? Can't football bring people together is what I'm saying. What about the few Muslims that are going to be in that football team as well? In the other team? In the other country? No, even there, all the Muslims together. You know what happened? Like for example, what happened in the fighting, you know this UFC thing? You know, last year I think it was, it was very famous.
Connor, McGregor and Khabib. You know Khabib, this fight? Okay, they had a fight. Now that was like Islam versus Kufr.
It was Islam. It wasn't, it wasn't. What I'm saying, we're not saying that.
What I'm saying is the Muslims who were in Connor's country, I think he's from Ireland, the Muslims who were in there were still supporting Khabib. It brought Muslims together though. Some Muslim men were supporting Khabib.
Yeah, what I'm saying is, can't football bring people together as well as disunite? That's my point. Can't it bring people together? Look, first of all, when it brings the people together, it doesn't bring them together on religious grounds. It brings the people on a certain event and they disagree later.
That's number one. Second thing I want you to, is that when you say it brings the people together, what about the non-Muslims who came with the Muslims on Khabib as well? Yeah. Who supported him? There's a large number of non-Muslims who supported him.
Actually, all Russians were supporting him as a Russian national. Yeah. Okay.
That's a problem. And again, with all honesty, the game is not allowed, Aslan. Yeah.
So whether a Muslim is doing a non-Muslim, it doesn't change the ruling. This game is not allowed to punch a person in the face and et cetera. Okay.
What if, and again, your answer at the end probably covers this one as well, but what if someone says that actually football is actually helping us Muslims in the UK? Mo Salah is scoring goals for Liverpool. Suddenly, there's not as much Islamophobia. People aren't abusing Muslims.
They're actually learning about Islam. It's a form of dawah. Three, four, five days later, Mo Salah is going to go online and he's going to hug a woman.
And then all the Muslims are going to feel like, that's fine then. They're going to justify his actions. And just when he does the good, what about the wrongs that he does that all the Muslims are justifying, are accepting, and he's normalizing these things for us.
And again, we mentioned at the start that if the ends don't justify the means, someone might say it's good dawah, people are coming to Islam, but you've done something halal to get there. So it's a problem. Okay.
This issue of it being mubah, Aslan, like, you know, just enjoying yourself, masmidi, relaxation, a lot of people might watch this and say, you're saying that the Muslims can't even just relax and wind down, except if they're doing archery or the things you mentioned can't Muslims just relax? What do you do for relaxation? I read. But I'm saying, I enjoy myself doing that and spending time with my kids. But if somebody doesn't, okay, no problem.
I don't want to force everybody to be like me. If you don't feel comfort and joy, those things which I enjoy, I'm sure playing it with your siblings, your brothers, your friends is fine. Why do you have to watch another guy making money? This guy is in his nine to five job, Shahid.
He's working. It's like me sitting in the office and watching a guy do his job. He's typing on the computer.
I'm watching him. He sends an email. I'm sitting right next to him.
That's how I see people watching football players. This guy's getting a job. Every minute that goes, his salary is playing.
What he's doing, I find it very smart. Not because he's doing haram. Haram? What are you doing? Skin brother who's at home still living with his mother.
You're going to chop. You haven't got a job. Right after that, you're telling your sister, go get me food.
I want to eat. Shahid, let's be honest. Play a role in your own house.
Play a role in raising your children. It's sad. But for a Muslim who says, I just want to relax and I do that all six days a week.
But just for one day, I just want to relax a bit. You're saying do something that's not haram, basically. What about the Prophet? For example, I've got a hadith here.
You know the time when the Prophet was seeing an Ethiopian woman playing with her children and Aisha came to his shoulder and she stayed there for a while. Isn't this a time when the Prophet was watching non-Muslims here? How does that play into the issue? First of all, it's an issue of enjoyment. Why is he looking at a woman? There's an Ethiopian woman, right? So he's looking at a woman.
But it's for the purpose of enjoyment. I'm saying to you, first of all, let's not mix a few things together. You have to prove that the Prophet was looking.
He wasn't. We don't have that. Again, there are many other connotations that could be connected to it.
We're not looking at a person. Football, I told you, there's a lot of things that are in football. The promotion of alcohol.
The promotion of signs that are against Islam, like the Christian sign. The football player spitting in the pitch. People picking that up.
Him doing the Christian sign when he scores. Prostrating for other than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. There are Sharia prohibitions that were present there.
It's not me watching brothers play football. On a football pitch. That's not the case.
Here what's taking place is so many haram things. So here, what you're saying is, It's two different things. Even when Umar came and the Prophet said, It says Umar here.
Indeed I see the shayateen among men and jinn have run away from Umar. So this is clearly something that's not praiseworthy that's happening. But out of enjoyment, the Prophet is watching and even invites.
Sorry, he even invites. The Prophet ﷺ corrected Umar in the start. But the point I'm trying to come to.
We've dealt with this issue when it comes to music. What I'm basically trying to say is that What the Prophet did here is totally different to what we're talking about here. We're not just talking about watching football.
We're watching a promotion of alcohol. The second thing is, The glorifying of a player on a level that you can't even imagine. You can't even imagine.
Shahid, remember when Ronaldo? Ronaldo. When he moved the Coca-Cola from the table. And he pushed it to one side.
How many Muslims spend time retweeting that? Talking about it, discussing it. Who is he? What value does he have? Who is he? He's nothing. At that time that you're doing that.
Palestine, what was happening there? Right at that moment. Muslims are suffering in China. All of that.
You are under, now as a Muslim. Islamophobia is on the rise. A few weeks before you were in a protest.
Screaming and shouting and crying. For the people of Palestine. You were screaming on the pulpit for the issue of the Chinese.
The Uighur Muslims. The Uighur Muslims and the concentration camps that they're keeping them in. And a few weeks later, you're watching football and you're supporting.
I don't know. Final point from my side. Final Shubha that people bring.
Isn't it mentioned in some of the biographies of the great Muslims in the past? In the past that they played football? See, this is another distortion in the playing that people do. Taking the word Qurra. And thinking that that's the same as football.
They mention. Imam Ibn Kathir in Kitab al-Bidai wal-Nihai. When he spoke about the biography of Nuru al-Din Muhammad Ibn Zaki.
He did mention, he said. But the Qurra here, it's not what these people. They're referring to.
No, not at all. It's totally different from it. It's actually what they call today.
Pole game, right? Polo. So it's a polo game. Horse riding when hitting.
Yeah, where the person is sitting on the horse. He's got a stick and there's a few people playing. They did that because it was like a form of preparation.
As soldiers and armies. It was used. The Salafis used to like this.
So that game that Ibn Kathir mentions. It's a polo game. It's basically different to this one.
So it was a form of preparation for jihad. And learning. Basically be able to sit on your camel.
And also be able to swing the stick. The ball was made out of hair or something like that. They used to hit it.
And those benefits like that. So in terms of its language and what it is. It's a different thing.
And it's also in terms of its ruling. So it's two different things. Again, don't take football out of the context that we mentioned it.
If you just say football is haram. No, I didn't say football is haram. I said watching football.
In all of these things that it has. If you bring me a scenario. Where all of that is not present.
Then of course it becomes halal. I'm just saying I don't see a situation. You're really talking about watching organised professional football.
You're not talking about two brothers. Who just go in the park and kick a ball. A couple of times for three minutes, four minutes.
You're not talking about that. So it's important that you mention that. One thing I think we didn't mention.
Which I actually think is a really important point. I think you did actually. The football shirts that the people wear now.
A lot of them have crosses. England for example. The flag has a cross on it.
Barcelona shirt I think has a cross on it. Manchester United has a red devil on it. What does the Sharia say about wearing crosses? Shahid do you know what is really sad? The cross is there.
Which is a religious symbol. On top of that it's a country that colonised Muslim countries. Gave Palestine to the Zionists.
You're representing them. You're supporting them. Shahid wallahi.
I don't think Muslims are unaware of all of this. They know the ruling of this and they know the ruling of that. I think that is obviously an important point.
More than that. These flags. You're wearing a cross.
That's a religious symbol that you're wearing on your shirt. You're wearing a red devil. Shaytan.
How anyone can really think about this and think that it's ok. So I just wanted to mention the point about the football shirts. And plus most of them have the names of non-Muslims on the back.
You know that right? They have like Messi's name on their back. Taking him to the masjid. Yeah.
My heart dropped when I saw these people in the Kaaba. He physically can't come to the Kaaba. But his name is in the Kaaba.
He physically can't come to the Kaaba. Ok. I just want to summarize it very quickly.
We have to go inshallah soon. And then I'll give you a chance to just summarize it as well. I think you know even when preparing.
Not really preparing because we didn't really prepare for it. But when thinking about doing this topic. I really thought that a lot of people watching this at home.
Will think that this is something extreme. Something they've never heard of before. Something that's very difficult to swallow.
And I can understand where they're coming from. I myself even when we spoke about it yesterday in a great length. Like I said I've come from a background where many people who are into sports.
I'm in a similar background. I'm no different to them. But really when I understood it.
And I went back and forth with you numerous times. And we spoke about many different issues. I think the Muslim really thinks honestly and sincerely about this topic.
And thinks that yes football in my whole life I've seen nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it. What's the issue? But now that you mentioned all these Muharramat that are connected to it.
Which I can't remove. And I don't agree with all of your points that you mentioned. And there's more points you didn't mention.
I might not agree with some of them as well. But the ones that I personally cannot strip away is the issue of Awrah. You're clearly watching someone's Awrah when you're watching football.
The issue of Alwala Walwala is so big. I can't tell you how big that is knowing from personal experience people who support football teams. The issue of looking up to non-Muslims.
Like I said before when you watch a football game you can't help but think this guy's living a life. This guy's a footballer. You can't help but admire them.
You can't help but praise them. Ashariya talks about all these things but many people might not have been aware of them. The issue of like you said the harming that comes to the Muslims or even other people, non-Muslims even shoulder barging, kicking someone's ankle.
If you say this is not permissible outside of football then it's not possible for it to be permissible with football. Football doesn't mean anything in Ashariya. It can't change rulings.
The issue of free mixing in a stadium for example. You see men and women all free mixing. They don't say this is only brother's side, this is sister's side.
And when you're watching at home, someone might say I'm not in the stadium. You're watching at home, the camera automatically goes to the crowd. It goes to the crowd.
You're watching the football and there's a woman there that you've just seen. These kind of things I know we take it light. I know we take it light.
I know in the past I've taken it light. But these kind of things that there's no doubt that they're haram. No one would disagree with them outside of football.
So now you have football, it doesn't justify them in any way. And I think honestly we do take a lot of these things light but this is a topic where a lot of these are connected. Even one of these proves that it's haram.
The fact that a lot of these are connected. Not to mention the issue of wasting time. This is not something that is beneficial at all.
In the sense that it's not bringing a worldly benefit to you. There are other ways to relax that don't have these haram elements. It's not like going to the supermarket to get your shopping.
It's not like going to a restaurant to eat. This is literally, I think the word you used yesterday was taffy, right? It's nothing. So a lot of these kind of things really when I thought about it, and it took me a whole night.
I'm not going to lie. Last night thinking about it. This morning thinking about it.
What I urge the Muslims who are watching this who find this difficult to swallow, who might be big football fans is just think about it. Watch this podcast even a couple of times. This is just meant to provoke some thoughts.
Whether you agree with the ruling, that's up to you. Our job is to convey the ruling but really I want to make people think. I want people to understand the system that they're part of.
It's a non-Muslim system that has got many, many issues. Many, many issues and you're part of this system and you're making an active role of watching this system. It's something that's very problematic for me and I'm saying that as someone who's come from a previous history of being a football fan.
That's all I wanted to say. And I finally want to say Shahid, Jazakallah Khair. You do a lot of work behind the scenes.
People don't know. And we have a lot of back and forths and discussions and dialogues about many different topics. And Mashallah you've always stood a ground where unless you're convinced with evidences and proofs, you're not willing to take it.
So some people think sometimes that the position that you take here is devil's advocate per se, but it's actually what takes place a lot of the times behind the scenes. You're actually always opposite to what I have to bring to the table. So you really put me in a position where I have to really rephrase my arguments and sharpen it.
So Jazakallah Khair. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala add it to your scales of righteousness yawm al qiyamah. And I think you do a lot of work.
Jazakallah Khair. Honestly, there's a good point in this issue. Some people might think that I'm just playing the role again, I'm on your side.
Honestly, this particular topic, like we discussed it yesterday for maybe two hours, maybe three hours I'm not sure. But when we spoke about it, I'm not a person who really just, because you say something I just blindfold, I have to understand myself. I have to question, I have to understand.
And that's why I'd encourage the people at home as well, really think about these points in a lot of detail. Don't just dismiss them easily because it's about something that you've never heard or anything like that inshallah. So okay, I think we'll close it here now inshallah.
Subhanakallah wa bihamdik Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Anta Astaghfirullah wa atubu ilayk
