Thursday 18 Ramadan 1445 - 28 March 2024
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Showing video tapes in which there are crosses in the mosque

Publication : 06-09-2000

Views : 7617

Question

We have some videotapes in the Islamic centre, and as part of our cultural program in the mosque we want to show a video tape which shows a play about the history of al-Quds (Jerusalem). It is free of music, and it shows the history from an Islamic point of view. But one of the actors wears a cross because he is playing the part of a priest. Is there anything wrong with showing this tape to the Muslims only, for it will inform the young people here, and the children and adults, about an important matter which is of concern to Muslims nowadays?

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

Mosques are built to be filled with the remembrance of Allaah and for the establishment of salaah, and for the teaching of Islamic knowledge. Allaah has ordered the mosques to be raised, i.e., venerated. Part of that veneration is to protect them from everything that will compromise their sanctity, such as vain talk and idle entertainment, and other kinds of falsehood in word and deed. Showing plays in the mosque, even though it is for an Islamic purpose, does not befit the sanctity of the mosque, because these films are based on acting and image-making; these are the two main features of all kinds of entertainment, no matter what kind they are or what their aims are. The Muslims should do without them by teaching instead; it is possible and is easy to teach instead without them. And hardly any plays are free of some kind of munkar (evil; reprehensible action), to a greater or lesser extent.

 Acting is more obviously doubtful. If these films have to be shown, then it should be done somewhere other than the mosque, out of respect for its sanctity, and so as to avoid making any kind of connection between the mosque and entertainment.

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Source: Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahmaan al-Barraak