Gifts of Knowledge

ʿUthaimīn: If someone were to ask if this has spread in the community, and we ask Allaah for well-being and we ask Allaah to protect our country from it, does it have any causes? I say yes, it has causes.

1) The youth.
2) Wealth.
3) Free time.

Free time, lots of our youth now are free with no work, well-off, their food, drink, clothing, residence are all there. And the youth have energy and are reckless, that is why it is mentioned in a ḥadīth that, “Allaah is amazed at the youth who doesn’t have an inclination towards desires and disobedience [ṣabwah],” i.e., deviation, because among the reasons for the youth to go astray, except for those who Allaah protects, is this wealth and free time and youth.

Another reason is looking at obscene pictures in magazines and newspapers which our enemies have started to send to us like locusts, do you know locusts or not? When locusts are stirred up and they come at you from every angle what can keep them away? Our enemies have started to send papers and magazines [to us like that] from outside because they know that there is no Kingdom, and I say this while I am sitting in the Ḥaram in front of the Kaʿbah, there is no Kingdom, as far as I know, better than this one in its path, manners and in making the Book and the Sunnah the judge, and I do not say that it is perfect, it is not perfect, and if I said it was reality would refute me, but I say that it is the best Muslim country that can be found.

That is why its enemies concentrate on bringing things which will be a cause for its moral degradation, and a cause for its intellectual deviance, such that they also attack the Saudi judiciary system even though it is taken from where? From the Book and the Sunnah. They attack it, wanting it to be like the justice systems of other countries.

I say that these papers and magazines are a reason these vile sins have spread, whether homosexuality or zinā, and Allaah’s refuge is sought.

That is why a man who is in charge of his children and family, when he sees such magazines in his sons and daughters’ hands, he must turn them away from them by persuading them and using good means to do so, not stupidly and violently and insolently, but rather by convincing them. Then if they listen then that is what we want, and if not then he can go to [the next level, which is] what? Which is what? To being stern, we can burn these magazines and dispose of them.

Another part of that is what they watch on cable channels where they see detestable things, things that corrupt one’s thinking and which go against tawḥīd and are full of innovations and things that corrupt one’s ʿaqīdah, against which any sound intellect let alone someone who knows the Straight Path, will bear witness that watching it is not allowed. Why not? Because of the major reprehensible things it leads to.

And if it were argued that there is some benefit in it, like the amount of white hair found on a black bull, then that good is negligible in comparison to the huge corruption found in it.

And if you think about our society you fill find a big change during these two years when these satellite channels started to become more widespread, especially amongst the youth who sit watching them in the places where they hang out together [istirāḥah] and in the desert and other places. There has been monumentous change because they watch things that their souls call to, youth that have free time and no work.

And the strange thing is that some fathers who are responsible for their families are the ones who bring these satellite channels to their houses themselves, they bring them to their houses and they can see their families, their boys and girls and wives and sisters watching these munkar things which corrupt morals and they won’t say a word.

Or sometimes the man might not be the one to bring it into the house himself but his wife does because she is employed or the children might and so on and so he will see them [doing that] and just pass by them, going and coming, [he will see them] watching these evil films and will not stop them.

This is something we know and have heard about and if that is the case then I ask you, my brothers, here in Masjid al-Ḥarām, has this man fulfilled his trust which Allaah placed on him when he has allowed his family to watch those things that destroy manners and the ʿaqīdah or has he betrayed them?

He has cheated them because he was able to prevent them, he has betrayed them and if he has betrayed them then let us listen to what the infallible one said ﷺ, “Any servant in charge of people who dies while acting dishonestly towards them, Allaah would forbid his entry into Paradise,” and this ḥadīth includes those lesser than the bigger people in charge, because the Prophet ﷺ said, “A man is a guardian over his family and is responsible for them,” so if this is what the Prophet ﷺ said, “A man is a guardian over his family and is responsible for them,” and, “Any servant in charge of people who dies while acting dishonestly towards them, Allaah would forbid his entry into Paradise,” and this man was able to stop his family from watching these channels which destroy one’s manners and thinking and beliefs [but didn’t], then it is feared that he may fall under this warning.
Fatāwā al-Ḥaram al-Makkī, 1418, 6a.