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.
So the word مَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ are the Jews. Generally speaking when you look at the Quran فَبَأُوا بِغَضَبٍ بِغَضَبٍ here means the Yahud. The Nasara generally spoken about as what? ظالِن Allah mentions that in the Quran وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا أَهْوَاءَ قَوْمٍ قَدْ ضَلُّوا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَأَضَلُّوا كَثِيرًا وَضَلُّوا عَنْ سَوَاءِ السَّبِيلِ i.e. Nasara And the Prophet explained that last part of the Surah Surah Al-Fatihah The Prophet explained it in the famous hadith of Adi Ibn Hatim رضي الله تعالى عنه So the point is Our purpose in this world is to gain beneficial knowledge and righteous action There can be things that become hindrance to that An obstacle to that 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 serious And also Allah says وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا This world Has what? Has deceived them They've been deceived by the world Yeah Also a hindrance can be to this purpose While we're in this world Can also be following your whims and desires Allah mentions in the Quran أَفَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَهَهُ هَوَاهُ Do you not see Muhammad? Allah said to the Prophet أَفَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَهَهُ هَوَاهُ 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 desires as their Lord Shaheed, what do you think you're going to see from them? You're going to realize how Allah is truthful in what He says وَلَا يُنَبِّئُكَ مِثْلُ خَبِيرٌ 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 خَتَمَا Allah has sealed سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِ They can't hear what you're saying وَقَلْبِهِ وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِ غِشَاوَةً There's a veil in front of their eyes So all we have to say is فَمَنْ يَهْدِيهِ Who can guide these people فَمَنْ يَهْدِيهِ Who can guide these people مِنْ بَعْدِ اللَّهِ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ People who hear this ruling today and listen to it Because they've taken their whims and their desires Their شهوة, their desires They've taken their Lord as their desires They're going to be blinded from the truth seeing it Even if it comes to them Because they're deeply rooted into this Invested everything into it They're not willing to see it They're not willing to listen to it They're not even willing to open their hearts to it And it's not because they are right in what they believe It's because of وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِ فَمَنْ يَهْدِيهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ اللَّهِ Who can guide them after Allah SWT What we have to understand, Shahid Is the eyes that we have, the ears that we have The mouth that we have, the body parts that 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 it And we will be questioned for what we do with our eyes We'll be questioned what we do with our ears And we'll be questioned what we do with our hands and our legs Those body parts, the day of judgement Are going to be interrogated Allah says وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِعِلْمٍ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالبَصَرَ وَالفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَٰئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُمْ مَسْوُولًا Allah SWT here is telling us Our hearing, our seeing, our hearts All of them are going to be interrogated Yawm al-Qiyamah Allah tells us 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 Is going to question it Subhanahu wa ta'ala Wallahi the purpose I mentioned in the beginning That we are created for was what? عِبَادَةُ اللَّهِ وَحَدَةُ وَشِبَ اللَّهِ تَبَارَكُ وَتَعَالَى The scholars they mentioned عِبَادَةُ اللَّهِ وَحَدَةُ وَشِبَ اللَّهِ تَبَارَكُ وَتَعَالَى It 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 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 whilst you're doing that? Extreme love for Him Those two came together That's why Ibn Al-Qayyim says That Allah Ta'ala that position Because it 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 Once upon a time who lived behind these walls is what I'm in love with So he's saying عَدُوٌ لِمَنْ عَادَتْ وَسِلْمٌ لِأَهْلِهَا Anybody who Layla hates, I automatically hate him Anyone who Layla brings close وَمَنْ قَرَّبَتْ لَيْلَ أَحَبُّ أَقْرَبَ Anyone who loves Layla and Layla loves them in return So anyone who Layla loves and Layla brings them close, same with me Some people are today like that when it comes to football They're a team that they support In even 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 الْقُوَةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعَذَابَ 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 and dad comes from the word nid someone equal to Allah in the Qur'an there are three terms that are used the word nid is used the word kuf is used and the word nithl is used and dad is used in this particular verse وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَدَادًا make it equal to Allah the word kuf is used قُلْ وَاللَّهُ سَمَتْ لَمْ يَرِدْ وَلَمْ يُرِدْ وَلَمْ يَكُلْ لَهُ كُفْوَ الْأَحَدْ kuf means the same thing and the word mithl is used لَيْسَ كَمِثْرِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِعُ الْبَصِيرُ what does nid mean? there are those who make what they love equal to Allah وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَتَّخِذُ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَدَادًا يُحِبُّونَ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ and it shows on their limbs those ones, how are they like? وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُوا حُبًّا لِلَّهِ their love is for Allah ultimate love is for Allah so the waqa today is we're seeing people whose love and I'm going to expand on that inshallah ta'ala through the podcast inshallah ta'ala in great details inshallah ta'ala that's the first point I want to talk about and there are five points I want to talk about the second point I want to talk about inshallah ta'ala is the path that football has taken today is these two football is an ideological doctrine it's a madhab fikri any ideological doctrine that have come if it wants to remain there are three things that it has to have or else it goes and perishes over time just like every other ideological doctrine has perished the first one is وجود الأنصار to find people who will support it people who will invest in it okay this allows that belief or the ideology that doctrine to remain and carry on the second one is to find and to have وجود الكتب حافظة لهذه الأفكار الباطلة to have books, works that are written that support this false ideology or this ideology the third one is وجود أتباع لهذه الأفكار this ideology has people who follow it so the first ones are people who are aiding it and investing in it and second one is books and history written about it documented and the third one is having followers that will follow it any ideological doctrine that has that generally lives on through history okay football today if you look at those three it has it first one is supporters and people who invest in it then look at the the football sponsors sponsors that's حديث ولا حرج I mean I don't think I need to explain that the second one which is books and everything let's just go to the news how many channels do you have to go do you go through and there's football being spoken about or channels are designated for football only Sky Sports and it's designated for sports and football spoken about in sports football I think is the highest right yeah okay that's fun the third one is followers yeah definitely of course that's fans that's the fans the second thing I mentioned and I said is that it's طاغوت أصري according to some of its people Ibn Al-Qaimani defined طاغوت and when we understand it then we can say is that the case for football or not Ibn Al-Qaimani's كتاب إعلام الموقعين he says in the first volume page 53 he says that الطاغوت is كل ما تجاوز به العبد حده it is anything that the slave goes outside his boundaries beyond and above his boundaries من معبود is someone who's worshipped أو متبوع or followed أو مطاع or he's obeyed all three of them is present for football there are some people who worship the players okay they worship them some of them متبوع and they're followers of this they don't worship them but they're still followers of this and there are some مطاع and they follow it anything that their fans so the last one they obey it and not follow it the third one is to obey it obey it so they obey them if they wear advertisements today that we watch they convince us to buy these products because this football player he's wearing it or he's the one so they'll pay the footballer millions of dollars just to wear their because his followers are going to watch it the third point I want to speak about is the dangers of being silent about apparent evils when we see it it's upon the Duat and the people of knowledge and those who have knowledge when they see المنكرات الظاهرة apparent منكر out there they should not be 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 يُضَاهِ 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 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 wants to give fatwa They can't give it unless there is 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 is what the Ulema Refer to as Al-Hukmu Ala Shai Far'un An-Tasawwuri 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 They argue and they 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 Okay The means Al-Wasa'il La'ahkamu Al-Maqasid The objectives there If the means become Haram That you took 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 he said You are looking for success but you are not taking its path For verily the boat 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 ulama mention which is An-Nadhru Fi Ma'alati Al-Af'al Amma Saddu Al-Darair In his Kitab Al-Muwafaqat he talks about these issues There are three things They talk about which is 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 He talks about it 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 is 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 We are going to talk about Insha'Allah Ta'ala Ok let me take a little bit of time just to summarise 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 They 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 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 that we have been created 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 is like you call it methodically Or ideology or something like this Which I would definitely like to go into more Because the points that 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 who 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 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 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 So this is the entire podcast Really understanding what football is Because we can't make a ruling on it and nobody can make a ruling on it Even those who believe that Aslan is permissible we can't make a ruling on it Unless we fully understand what it is And then the final point again A very key point is that if the means to something Is haram then the ends don't justify the means Essentially is an easy way of putting it So yes some people might have good Intentions for the reason why they want to watch football They might want to play football even But if those means are haram Which again we are not saying they are yet We are going to talk about it throughout this podcast Then obviously it doesn't matter about your intention The ends don't justify the means That was a summary of your introduction Now we are going to talk about what I like to do at least Is really talk about football itself And really get into the detail What do you believe that is problematic Because I think by this time people have understood that you Believe football is problematic What particular things in football Do you believe to be problematic So there is 41 reasons Wow So the first one inshallah I am going to go through 41 reasons Some people might think some of these reasons Might not be convincing to them Again I don't Feel like I want to force Convincing people If it convinces you good alhamdulillah If it doesn't then I am sure there are other points I have mentioned That you think ok that is a point And it is enough for me To just find one of these To say that I will give the ruling later But if we find And you agree with me that one of these Are present from the 41 If we get the chance to go through every one of them Inshallah And also I want to distinguish between I don't want to focus on two things at the same time I want to focus on watching football I don't want to spend too much time talking about Playing football That is another discussion I am talking about watching football Where a person sits back Takes a remote control Screen in front of them and they watch a game That is the one I want to focus on Again I know not every single person Is going to fall under the categories I have mentioned Ok Because somebody might just be watching it And is not a supporter Sitting there because his family are watching it He might not fall under some certain things But I am sure he is going to fall into other things And we have to talk really about a general rule So you might mention something that is present In the majority of people who watch football But there might be some exceptions of people who don't fall into that Like you mentioned But we have to talk generally otherwise we can't go into every single specific person Ok So the first one I want to talk about is The absence Of Al-Walaa Wal-Baraa Ok Loving and hating In our religion the concept of Al-Walaa Wal-Baraa Is a Aslun Min Usuli Hadha Al-Deen Our religion one of the Most powerful things it stands on Is allegiance And Disassociation That's one of the things our religion stands on And a person's Iman does not really Come into place If he doesn't come with this Ok Allah says in the Quran لا يتخذ المؤمنون الكافرين أولياء من دون المؤمنين ومن يفعل ذلك فليس من الله في شيء إلا أن تتقوا منه تقى ويحذركم الله نفسه الله تبارك وتعالى In this verse he says to us لا يتخذ المؤمنون Allah says لا يتخذ المؤمنون That a believer Does not take الكافرين The disbelievers They do not take them as close Allies besides the believers ومن يفعل ذلك And anyone who does that Takes the non-Muslims as their close allies فليس من الله في شيء It has nothing to do with Allah إلا أن تتقوا منه تقى Unless there is a duress and coercion Then they are not a different issue Then Allah says ويحذركم الله نفسه Allah wounds you from Himself وإلى الله المصير And everybody is going to return back to Allah The great scholar Ibn Jalil At-Tabari In his Tafsir of this Ayah he says رحمه الله من اتخذ الكفار أعوانا وأنصارا وظهورا يواليهم على دينهم Anyone who takes the Kuffar Supporters, Aiders and all of that Okay Because of their religion ويظاهرهم على المسلمين And gives them aid and support Over the Muslims فليس من الله في شيء This person has nothing to do with Allah Is this just talking about aspects of war or is this general? It's general So sometimes it becomes disbelief And sometimes it can be less than that Ibn Jalil At-Tabari here he says من اتخذ الكفار أعوانا وأنصارا وظهورا من اتخذ الكفار أعوانا وأنصارا وظهورا يواليهم على دينهم يواليهم على دينهم So if it's على دينهم it's كفر بالله Okay ويظاهرهم And he aids them على المسلمين فليس من الله في شيء And he's got nothing to do with it يعني قد بريء من الله He's free from Allah برتدادي Because of his apostasy و الدخول في الكفر Because he entered into disbelief إلا أن تتقوا منهم تقى Unless you are under their سلطان فتخافهم على أنفسكم So you fear for yourself فتظهروا لهم الولاية بأنسنتكم Because you're scared of them and you're under them And you're frightened You show it from your tongue that you support them و تظهروا العداوة But in your heart you have animosity and hate for them And his كلام رحمه الله It carries on ابن الكثير Says something very similar regarding that ayah رحمه الله رحمة واسعة I don't want to go into all the ayat in the Quran That talk about this issue قضية الولاء والبراء As you can see it's a very serious issue It's an issue that can lead to apostasy Now Is it apostasy in all of its forms? No no no But it's خرام At the very least So the bare minimum it can become Is that it's Sin of course That Allah Ta'ala prohibited And it is also It can be كفر أصغر It can be what? كفر أصغر Now, does Fuqbo have this concept of الولاء والبراء Just before we go into it Because honestly I think الولاء والبراء is something that we should spend a little bit I know we've got a lot to talk about But it's something we should spend a little bit more time on Just because I think it really deserves a podcast in of 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 ولو كانوا آباؤهم أو أبناؤهم أو إخوانهم أو عشيرتهم أولئك كتب في قلوبهم الإيمان وأيدهم بروح منه أولئك كتب في قلوبهم الإيمان وأيدهم بروح منه قوما a people يؤمنون بالله واليوم الآخر يوادون من حاد الله قوما a people يؤمنون بالله واليوم الآخر يوادون من حاد الله who show love towards who من حاد الله ورسوله those who have enemies of Allah and his messenger كفار ولو كانوا آباؤهم أو أبناؤهم أو إخوانهم أو أبناؤهم أو إخوانهم أو أبناؤهم أو إخوانهم أو إخوانهم أو عشيرتهم أولئك كتب في قلوبهم الإيمان Allah says in another ayah يَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَ أَوْلِيَاءٌ يَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَ أَوْلِيَاءٌ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُمْ مِنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُمْ مِنْكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ Allah says in another ayah يَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَ أَوْلِيَاءٌ don't take them as allies, close friends people you love, don't why بعضهم أولياء بعض وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُمْ مِنْكُمْ anyone who does that from amongst the believers فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ then after what does Allah say فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِ مَرَضُ you will see those who have illnesses in their hearts the word مرض في قلوبه مرض everywhere in the Qur'an is referring to the munafiqeen except one place one place that Allah used في قلوبه مرض and it wasn't referring to the munafiqeen it's referring to Muslims which is which one وَقَرْنَا فِي بُيُوتُكُنَّ وَلَا تَبَرَّجْنَا تَبَرُّجَ الْجَاهِلِيَةُ الْأُولَى وَعَقِبْنَا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتِنَا الزَّكَاةَ وَعَطِعْنَا اللَّهُ وَرَسُولَهِ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذْهِبْ عَنْكُمْ الْرِجْسَ أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ وَيُطَهِرَكُمْ تَطْهِيرًا يَا نِسَاءَ النَّبِيِّ لَسْتُنَّ كَاحَدٍ مِنَ الْنِسَاءِ فَلَا تَخْطَعَنَا بِالْقَوْلِ فَيَطْمَعَ الَّذِي فِي قَلْبِهِ مَرَضٌ وَقُلْنَا قَوْلًا مَعْرُوفًا سورة الحزام 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 فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَضٌ أَيْ مُنَافِقٍ 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 يعني القرآن Allah says قَدْ كَانَتْ لَكُمْ أُصْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ فِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ إِذْ قَالُوا لِقَوْمٍ إِنَّا بُرَاءٌ مِنْكُمْ وَمِمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ كَفَرْنَا بِكُمْ وَبَدَى بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمُ الْعَدَوَةَ وَالْبَغْضَةَ أَبَدًا حَتَّى تُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَحْ 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-barak, which we were talking about before. Allah says, يَا أَيُّهِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّقِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَ أَوْلِيَاءٌ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءٌ بَعْضٍ وَمَنْ يَتَوَل they like they cut the sides and yeah yeah yeah they did that he cut his hair everyone yeah it's true does he not fall under the hadith anyone who imitates a peoples from them hadith Ahmed narrated and Abu Dawood so again I think people would probably understand that definitely this happens in football now I want to bring the ayat and a hadith like you mentioned one of them are there anything anything else you will follow we've done a podcast on this issue yeah we did we did you will follow the path of those who came before you you will follow them hand span arm span until if they enter the hole of a lizard you will follow them into it you talk about the Christians and the Jews foment the prophecy of who else Bukhari and Muslim both narrated it and the wadi was the wadi of Imam Muslim so this hadith Ibn Taymiyya said Ibn Taymiyya said the bare minimum that this hadith can be is the bare minimum is that it's haram and it can go as far as kufr again similar to the point before so what if someone says on the podcast they watch on our podcast you mentioned that it's only tashabbuh if you take something that is unique for the non-muslims that haircut that David Beckham had everybody knew it was David Beckham's haircut so this is an important point to mention if you're following it because of this individual who is a kafir of course they were definitely even people now when they score a goal they celebrate it so even though it's got nothing to do with their religion it's nothing to do with it it's just a pastime, just a hobby, just a football, just a haircut it's the norms, remember we said if the more norms becomes known for certain people it becomes tashabbuh in them okay this point might come later on I don't know if it does and you can tell me and we can talk about it later but I think within this really when you're talking about following someone's haircut or following someone's celebration it can really reach a higher level than that where you have posters of them on your wall and this is definitely have you got this later or do you want to cover it now? this issue of idolization and really taking them to you want to take it later or you want to do it now we can take it later the next one we have is which is also going to be touched on here ihya'u da'wa al-jahiliya wa al-asabiyat al-qawmiya al-asabiyat al-qawmiya nationalism and people believing la yas'aluna akhahum hayna yandubuhum fin na'ibati ala ma qala burhana excessive allegiance to the extent that the person ya'ani he takes that football player sticks him in his wall which is the concept of idolization but you're talking about supporting a country nationalism calling to that particular team even some people they say please man leave Arsenal man so he becomes a da'i caller to his team and he's happy he's like my brother used to support Arsenal alhamdulillah now Allah guided him to Chelsea yeah see the conversation you hear as people are talking the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam the sahabahs one time they fought against themselves the word muhajireen al-ansar is mentioned in the Quran it is Allah mentioned the word muhajireen al-ansar but when they used that to fight one another and cause the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam they fought against each other the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam they said the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam he said are you going to use jahili callings muhajireen al-ansar is a shari'a term not just a shari'a term it's a praiseworthy term yeah shari'a meaning Allah used it in a praiseworthy manner but when they used that for dispute and argumentation and conflict and animosity when it was used in that way the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam he said are you going to use the jahili callings and I'm amongst you the Prophet said in another word the Prophet said Bukhari and Muslim both narrated it and here you are you're chanting it so what you're saying is again to break it down for the people that these two terms which are mentioned in the Quran in a praiseworthy manner when the Muslims at that time they actually took those terms and they used it to create a bit of a separation dispute, argumentation, whatever you want to call it the Prophet said now we have terms which aren't even mentioned in the Quran Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea Fulham, these terms aren't even mentioned in the Quran or the Sunnah people are clinging on to these names and they're using it to dispute one thing I want to do during this podcast is really because 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, he supports Chelsea you support 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 is the one who is righteous okay what do you mean by that we mentioned that before there might be a football player he's a Muslim, however sinner he is however what he's doing is wrong or whatever it may be but he's a Muslim at the end of the day he's not a Kafir this Muslim in all way form or shape he's your Muslim brother but you're going to prefer another football player over him and praise him and go overboard in praising him over him, sometimes you might even speak about him which I'm going to come to inshallah wa ta'ala it doesn't matter to you for you the akrabakum is the best in the football game it's not the best to Allah, it's the best in the game that's the best one to you yeah I think this really needs to be covered when we talk about the idolization because someone might say look I say Ronaldo is the best footballer I've never seen he's the best person I've never 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 and allegiance and admiration for him when you bring up someone, automatically you're at your, 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 shot 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 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 that he's going to come through this game and he's going to bring people to hate one another animosity, you're bringing about which brings me to another point now hurling insults 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, there are football hooligans but again, this is a really important point now 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 said don't do this, they penalise the teams, if someone does that people who watch it, who are watching the game this is what the game does to you this game does this 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 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 etc they've got other things that inshallah I'm going to speak to them about but the people who are fans, who support it are you telling me they don't say insults to another person okay, I'm saying yes it can happen but isn't that the action of a fan that's wrong just like a Muslim drinking you don't attach that to Islam no, if this is happening on 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 a 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 I'm not judging the football game the game is bigger than the FIFA they can say what they want on their board don't do this, don't do this, 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's another few points I want to speak about people get very aggressive, insult one another name calling you have to question if this is happening by so many people and you look cigarettes say harms harms your health does it not say it? and it says it's going to kill you, right? but people are still buying it that's the case like kids are being disrespectful to their parents after the game is lost being very disobedient insulting sometimes their siblings who don't watch the game your sister who doesn't watch the game has nothing to do with it, you're insulting her because your team lost the Prophet said from the greatest things from the greatest major sins is a person to curse his own parents how can somebody insult his own parents he said he insults the parents of somebody else then he insults you insult someone's parents then he insults your parents you insult his parents he insults so let me understand this because I think I might have understood it I think you make a strong point I just want to make sure the people at home understand it as well you're saying these actions of insults and arguments of vile speech or whatever you're saying the game has caused this 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 that's what you're saying whereas the example that I gave which was Qiyas Mal Fariq which is a Muslim drinking alcohol that Muslim is going to drink alcohol whether Islam tells him or not it's got no direction it's got 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 who's causing 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 Mu'min is not like that if you keep seeing yourself I'll tell you something there are a few people when you hang around with they make you become a certain mindset they bring the worst out of 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 reduces you can't be in their presence those type of people what are you told to do you're told to leave their surroundings and not be around them so a believer one of his characteristics is لَيْسَ الْمُؤْمِنُ بِالطَّعَانِ وَلَا بِاللَّعَانِ وَلَا بِالفَاحِشِ وَلَا بِالبَذِيءِ people are insulted 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 and you're stressed and you're frustrated and look at the language you're using and now it gets worse when the footballer is a Muslim backbiting as well can come into this and again I just want to reiterate some people might watch this and might say I don't really do that I just like to watch football and just relax I don't get aggressive again these points might not apply to everyone but they 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 these football games once it finishes there are a lot of mischiefs and harms that are caused by the fans and the supporters after the game is over look at today, look at when 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 be sometimes, we used to go to shuyukhs have dars we used to go to a masjid in North London, masjid al sunnah the shuyukhs will do dars we're sitting there, we're taking notes, we're benefiting, we're learning it's a football night right there is Tottenham Hotspur after the dars, the shuyukhs they say, brothers, sisters in the middle of dars sometimes, in the middle of the dars, they say sisters leave now before they come out of the game because if Tottenham have lost I think I saw a statistic I saw a statistic that when England lose domestic violence goes up by x percentage or whatever, even now you were telling me right, the other day the two people who shot for the England football team were two black guys, right? yeah, three yeah, they missed the penalties so what was it 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, 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 kidding 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 a district line and I was wearing my thobe, I have never been terrified the way those hooligans were and Alhamdulillah in the UK you wear jackets so he looks big, yeah is that what you're saying? No I'm just saying you can'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 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 the 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 have no ruling we don't base a ruling on the minority we base it on the majority of the people another harmful thing that he has man made laws are applied here in the game for example first of all Allah says in the Quran وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهِ فَأُولَّئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُونَ okay the prophet also said لَحَدٌ يُقَامُ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَيْرٌ لِأَهْلِ الْأَرْضِ مِنْ أَنْ نُمْطَرُوا ثَلَاثِينَ صَبَاحًا وفي رواية إقامة حد في الأرض خير لأهلها من مطر أربعين ليلة الامام النسائي the hadith is Hassan Sheikh Nasser authenticated some scholars have weakened it on others we're coming to an issue known as حُكُمْ بِغَيْرِ مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهِ we've spoken about this issue let's not take it to because some of its forms can be some of its forms can be in the podcast we did the forms that it can become but what's the bare minimum it's Kufr Asghar Kufr Asghar it's higher than major sins so where the man may lose in football ok we know in our legislation what we have in our sharia we have عِبَادَاتَ المُعَامَلَاتَ in our fiqh books if you look at it when the scholars speak about fiqh they divide it into four or even if you want to say two let's make it four عِبَادَاتَ act of worship عِبَادَاتَ then we have المُعَامَلَاتَ النِّكَاحَ الطَّلاقَ الفِسْخَ الخُلَعَ all of those are in there then you have الجنايات جنايات are crimes that are committed and then الحدود which are capital punishments ok 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 صح when a person attacks another person and breaks a person's bones or breaks a person's leg or a person gets injured or a person puts a finger in a person's eye do they go to the chapters of الجنايات العين بالعين والأذن بالأذن والسن بالسن والجروح الكصاص اليد باليد 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 صالحة لكل زمان ومكان 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 two types there's إدارة التظيمية البحث there's 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, 11 صح? one goalkeeper not 5 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 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 player 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, you're working, 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 they had big rifts you didn't realise 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 that 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 site 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 aura 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 inshallah 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 play 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 pay my salah no for example we would say for example if for example 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 we're talking about watching football they have laws that they put in place this what's 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 that they mention goes 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 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 it on a pitch that has alcohol promotion on it I'm saying you can run from one example to another example 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 they 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 that 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 been seen is the thighs for example the Prophet said the Prophet said conceal your the Prophet said Abu Dawood narrated it in Tirmidhi some thighs the Prophet 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 he mentions and he mentions the Hadith of the Prophet and he mentions that the aura of the man is between his what? navel to his knees I somebody might say look bro I'm sorry but this is not 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 doesn't allow them to which one? there's a yellow card if you take off your shirt it's not allowed whilst the game is going on after the game is over you can so they do 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 the Prophet did he not prohibit a woman 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 and desires Imam Al-Nawawi in his Sharih al-Muslim he 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 it's not her brother or none of that she looks at him bishahwa with desires فَحَرَامٌ بِالتِّفَاقِ it's haram by unanimous agreement we don't have to even 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 women are not allowed to look and another thing I'm telling you I'll be honest with you which it 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 to you small 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 hafidh ibn katheer the muhaddith ibn katheer he says something very powerful he talks about the shia he mentions the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the he's talking about sports that were started in a city called medina to salam these are sports that are swimming wrestling. generally you think ok these are good things they help ibn katheer 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 had haql was very little فاسد المرؤة his morality and dignity was very low why? and shahid i read when i was and he says something similar like that in his kitab it'll be down here in another place and he even mentions that there was two teams that were present in in in in Baghdad okay the one team was called fadlun and another was called mar'ushun ahlul sunnah used the sunnis used to support one and the shia used to support one and this is where they would argue on one another shahid this was one a time the muslims were they were at the top we had the khilafah the muslims were on glory days just the other ramadan just finished the other day what happened in ramadan what was happening the zionists were going to be you killing the emirs and muslims who were praying people some people were protesting and screaming and saying oh we brothers a few days later they're in front of a screen playing watching football the the zionists and the non-muslims have planned and plotted against us that much shahid that we're watching football and we're preoccupied with this our lands and our countries the resources and the benefits have been reaped and taken from it shouldn't we prepare ourselves as muslims and knowledge wise education wise studying learning physically to get ourselves ready in all forms of the preparation instead of wasting our time watching this to this level to this level shahid wallahi this the money that's being spent buying these televisions and all these things that people are doing people are starving i'm not i'm saying the level that these things are the investment that have been put into it people need to look at it but coming back to the issue of looking coming back to the issue of you're not saying you're not saying that obviously muslims always have to busy themselves always busy obviously you understand that as a human being you need time to wind down need time to relax but you're saying the level it's taken of course what do you mean by that because football is played once a week for example on average look no people are talking about it before after they 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 it's a deen it has a car weird people people go to charts checking it message friends yeah it's it's it's a lot it's time consuming mentally even if it's happening very very once a week or twice a week it's happening but it's it's taking people's time and this is your umur now coming back to the issue we were talking about which is looking we have met aura of a man can't be looked at by a man and a woman but imagine women who are looking at these things and getting affected by yeah i mean after seeing all of this starting to judge their husbands and say look at you how fat you are look at these players who yeah judging their relationships are going out of the window the men are watching these things yeah wrestling and things like that seeing women naked and things like that judging their wives because of that and all of these are present those are what those are all present yeah i think that's one thing that again it 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 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 he like you said after the match they swap shirts whatever yeah i think um particularly during the match i think really if anyone was really thinking about that watching a football match you're watching someone's aura now that's really something that has become small in the 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 and 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 with sweating he takes it off yeah throws it inside the the crowd and or he will give it to a certain person shahid the kid or the person goes gets emotional he takes that t-shirt kisses it or he will take off his shoes yeah shahid his shoes he'll give it someone yeah it's a really really really important point again again one of the strongest points for me is that now you have it's a non-muslim as well yeah what do you mean by that you have to explain this is trying to look for baraka in someone yeah he's not really he just really idolized him to that level where he's so happy with this it's a prized possession no it's not it's actually you're looking for baraka in this guy's shoes no yeah the guy won't wear it and play with it and think i'm gonna score 100 goals no it's not he's just gonna put his bedroom of course no no no no one doesn't necessarily mean that you wear that thing it doesn't mean it he didn't think it's good finds it as a blessing as 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 fulan played this game with and he shot with yo yeah okay okay maybe but i think it really is we're probably saying the same thing we're probably saying the same same thing now this is again and not something that is for a small amount of people i think if you had a hundred thousand people in wembley for example 98 000 of them would love to have 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 yeah and i told you that your team that you support the captain of that team shouted your name out on television of course you feel very happy i'm with you on this that's what i'm saying this is a very strong that's what i'm saying on this flip side allah called you out in the quran 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 the 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 over a lot of course no i'm saying i'm saying i'm saying that is the way people are shahid people know yaani the boxes that the football player yaani promotes and he does his advertisements they know that they know that the one he was wearing in that game they know and 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 like shahid you know look like there is an excessive love here that's not there for the that's what i agree with you that's what i agree with you 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 soju to them but i'm saying the way that people and again i'm i'm talking yeah exactly i'm and i'm talking from experience again i know people i know people are into football i'm saying the way that they love they have a picture of him on the wall in their bedroom if they were given his shirt they would be so so happy they'd go home they treasure it this is is it's a very very serious issue and shahid wallahi i'll be honest with you there are non-muslims who have done good nhs yaani doctors nurses who covid the people in the lab who are making these covid tests and trying out yaani i'm not this issue is not just about non-muslims as well it's the lowest of the low what is this guy what significance does he hold he's kicking up around the 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 in the doctor here even if she's an anonymous she's a non-muslim or he's a non-muslim he brings some benefit to you he's a doctor he's taking care of your health and everything i see more for for for love for this then and even that's not right but you see more of a reason i you know what this is also i'll give you a story for example again i've mentioned a bit my history i don't know i think i mentioned this to you yesterday there was a there's not football this is tennis there's a tennis tournament okay western football there's a wimbledon okay it's a very famous tennis as a kid i used to go to wimbledon every single year this was i don't know i don't know how many the district line goes and finishes there right yeah maybe i mean i just yeah i think you're right i think i can't remember i can't remember but yeah i used to go there there was a tennis player now who was not even a good tennis he was like the number two in britain there's a guy called greg rosetsky that'll show how old he is he doesn't play anymore this guy for example he wasn't there was a guy called tim henman which everyone used to love he's the main guy in england or britain uk and there's a guy called greg was actually half canadian or something he even spoke with a canadian accent but britain took him because he was gonna tennis or something at the end of the match he threw his shirt in the crowd okay on bbc tv you grabbed it i'm the one as a kid 14 15 i don't know i grabbed it i remember watching the video on bbc after i went home i watched it i said yeah as soon as i get it i went to my friend look what i got look what i got i got 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 think i believe 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 gonna wash it of course because it's greg rozeski this shows as 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 so he's not muslim first there was a covid at that time but do you do you understand like health problems are there he's he swear 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 clothes he's sweating yeah i know it's weird as well it's so nasty nasty okay you see where this if you've 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 muslim you know a lot of some 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 not look for a shirt you know you're just watching it on tv there's a thought that comes in 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 is 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 a not 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 that i'm telling you 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 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'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 the hype around him he's famous he's a 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 spent two hours with 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 krista 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 with you she's uh 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 is just a normal person or ronaldo or messi or federer or your sports hero is 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 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 in the masjid not the ones who are on the streets the one in 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 may be 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 it was bought from how much it was sold how much he you know is worth his net profit how much followers he has on his social media you know all of that at least learn basic stuffs about the prophet who he's done more for you than any individuals 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 sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said there are not a 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 sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said there's not a people who sit in a gathering that don't remember allah that don't send salutation of the prophet aleyhis salatu was salam it's going to be a state of regret for them it's what it's going to be what 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 khutbatul jum'ah is on and a game is on yeah there'll be some people that would watch the game you're not some people shahid your frequency of of the tense is very weak some the majority of the people they miss the khutbatul jum'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 that you've seen the numbers drop when there's wow of course we've seen it we've seen the jum'ah okay it gets worse now people actually in at home they won't even pray salat and now even worse some of them leave the salat in its totality they don't even pray because remember praying the salat later is you don't have to pray that salat yeah 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 said and imam ut-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 my own experience again even when i used to watch football this is maybe my early days of practicing islam i just used to watch football still back then even when i used to pray i did pray alhamdulillah i used to go quick i'd go half time or whatever wait for the half time i'd go the tv okay half time now okay i've got 15 minutes i think go upstairs quick very quick and the whole time you're not thinking about anything that goal that goal man i'm telling you this happens until 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 so there's people there's different levels of this there's people who don't even go to the jamia 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 in 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 they waste so much money on football whether it be ps4 game that they buy from it the clothing that they buy because of the fact that it was promoted by their football the team t-shirts that they buy i mean the wealth in general that's been spent even by governments yeah and organizations the wealth that they spread they spend on these things which is something what value does it hold it has no value in islam in your religion in your akhira 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 say are you saying that football is something i do to enjoy to provide that you shouldn't be going overboard in usage of your wealth eat and drink but don't go overboard into drinking you're even 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 also said the hadith ahmad and ibn umar generated the prophet said eat drink give in charity wear clothing as long as two things doesn'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 need it you're drinking so if we even say watching football is allowed people are 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 they watch the game again so they can learn those skills okay what time and well and overly done like every single penny we spend that it's not in that which is getting us closer 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 relaxations i need to enjoy you're saying the muslims can't have fun what did i say the word islah needs to go overboard people are going overboard in these things so the one who just does it like for example just watch it one a week once a week you're okay with him no there are the reasons okay there are other reasons in place so i said it doesn't might not apply to everybody these points another harm that comes from 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 are taken out knowledge knowledge which is a those four if you're not in those four you're from two blessings that the people have they don't realize it until Allah takes it away from them two blessings the 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 that 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 are done okay the clapping that are done 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 happened 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 said in a Hadith when it comes to whistling and clapping the Prophet said the only ones that are allowed to clap in the prayer are the women sah the men have to just say subhanallah the women have to say 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 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 inshallah 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 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 is to say about your brother what he dislikes the sahabas they 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 his farewell pilgrimage what did he say? hadith Bukhari Muslim the Prophet said your blood your wealth your honour 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 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 honour 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 even ok backbiting even your your other brother who's on he supports Chelsea you're talking bad about him I think there's a number of different levels either fans to fans fans to players I think one of the things is a lot of people they take this issue very very lightly I've seen my friends do this very very lightly they'll say something about for example Mossala or something like a Muslim footballer they'll say like you said he can't do nothing he's rubbish that issue he's still on the tear judgment the fact he's a footballer he's a celebrity it doesn't mean anything he's a Muslim 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 and the that happens that 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 he mentioned there are people that are humble and righteous meaning how many of the most humble and righteous the prophet said so you're listening to that sometimes you're even saying this where does that come in the football? so one team is playing the other team is thinking bad of the other team and they're rubbish they're not going to do and then some muslims or you might have su'ul dhan of a muslim player or even in the game that people play within themselves for the pitch su'ul dhan that you start thinking about your muslim brother the idea is not people take these things very very very personal 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 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 haa then what happened? the earth swallowed him and he went into the earth he is going deeper into the earth because of all of that 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 because I have some questions of my own that I want to cover at the end I know you said you had 41 I don't think we have covered half of that but are we ok to conclude is there any really really important points 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 Muslim you know scaring a Muslim we mentioned and scaring a Muslim when they play the football game yeah this ok 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 are 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 a fun it's just you know it's football how else are you going to get around the player you need to do these kind of things it's accepted before the game all of these things and 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 kind of issues now I thought about ok 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 ok but you can't what my point is you can't do these kind 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 on this podcast 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 when the year was 1401 this question was put to them and they are four men that were sitting in that board there was Abdullah Abdullah Abdulaziz all four of them which are a of a legion they gave the fatwa that football is not allowed force great scholars over Islam also the scholars that made it haram is Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim Sheikh Abdul Rahman Ibn Muhammad Al Qasim Sheikh Abdulaziz Ibn Ubaidah mentioned Sheikh Abdullah Ibn Ghudayana mentioned Sheikh Hamood Ibn Abdullahi Sheikh Abdulaziz Salman and many other who pointed out the prohibition of it their evidences that they provided that they gave clearly and categorically shows 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 the English so I think it's important to be aware of that and to of and to be aware of that and to be aware of that and to be aware of that and to be aware that and to be aware of that and to be aware of that and to of that and to be aware of that and to be aware of aware of that and to be aware that and to aware of that and to be aware of 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
