Christmas: Seasonal Gifts for Christmas

I work in a European country, and in December the management of our company gives parcels to all employees to celebrate Christmas. These come in a box and include sweets, food and some Christmas items. Should I decline to accept such a gift in order not to take part in the celebration of Christmas?

If you decline to receive the gift, you put yourself in an unnecessarily difficult position with your employers. Your action will be taken as a sign of ill will, which is certainly not entertained by you. No amount of explanation will remove the ill feeling that results from such a decline, because the Company is not asking you to celebrate Christmas. They are celebrating it by showing some goodwill to their staff. Besides they will not question you whether you use the gift on Christmas day or on some other day.

You can easily take the gift and donate it to a charity or give the food to some poor person. In this way, you put the gift to a good use, without offending your employer or putting yourself in a difficult position. [What would be your reaction if the Company were to hand you a check as a Christmas gift?]

Computers: Creating Character Animation - Is it Permitted?

After my graduation in computer science, I want to be a professional game developer. However, I have heard that in Islam, picture and music are not allowed. In computer games, there is character animation where figures and characters are not drawn by hand, but are generated by using mathematics. The same is often the case with the music sound. Do these fall in the same prohibited categories? Is it permissible for me to pursue my interest in a professional way?

The prohibition on pictures and images clearly stated by the Prophet, peace be upon him, apply to such pictures as are intended to be similar to God's creation. This includes statues, 3-D-imaging, and other works of art where the artist aims to produce a life-like image. There is a case well known when a famous sculptor was so much enthralled in his work that on completion of a statue, he ordered it to speak. When it would not, he broke it with an axe. This is the sort of work the Prophet, peace be upon him, refers to when he says of such artists. They want to produce the like of God's creation. Nothing of this applies to our modern pictures, whether taken by camera or generated by computers.

Moreover, numerous scholars of the highest repute agree that photography is not included in the Prophet's condemnation of making images. Photography is no more than a printout of a reflection with a lens in the same way as a mirror, which is practically a lens, reflects our images. No one suggests looking in the mirror is forbidden. Forbidden music is that which instigates obscene or sinful thoughts, or is associated with evil thoughts or beliefs, such as devil worship. Music played as game background is very different from that, and it is mostly monotonous. Unless the game has some obscenities or evil thoughts, it is hardly likely to generate such thoughts.

Computers: Games on Computers - Are They Inappropriate?

I am convinced that computer games are not appropriate for a Muslim young person because 1) they waste a lot of time. 2) They may contain un-Islamic ideas as they are made by non-Muslims. 3) They may have a negative effect on health through fixing one's eyes so intensely on the monitor. 4) They stop people from thinking about some beneficial ways to use their leisure time. Please comment.

I would first like to say that I am impressed by my young reader's arguments - who has also chosen to remain anonymous - and by his choice of the word "inappropriate" to describe computer games and time that is wasted in playing them. Some people may go as far as saying that playing such games is forbidden, giving the same reasons, but we cannot do that. This is because only God has the authority of forbidding anything. To start with, everything is permissible unless we have a statement or a basis to make it forbidden. Hence, we refrain from saying to anything that it is forbidden until we are certain of the basis on which we establish such a view.

That computer games waste a lot of time is a fact. Many are the young people who spend hours on end playing them. This may lead to neglecting essential duties, such as attending to one's studies or one's work. Or they may lead a Muslim to neglect his prayers, or giving them a secondary position. Islam is keen that Muslims use their time beneficially.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, tells us that one of the first things we have to account for on the Day of Judgment is the use of our time. He also says: "Two blessings in which many people have a raw deal are health and spare time." This Hadith means that people abuse these two blessings, causing themselves ill heath by their actions and wasting their spare time without trying to do something which benefits them either in this life or in the life to come. Thus they are unjust to themselves by wasting these two blessings.

Having said that, I should add that Islam does not forbid that people should have some fun. The Prophet, peace be upon him, also says: "Give your hearts and minds some relaxation every now and then, for when hearts are tired out they become blind." If one finds relaxation in computer games, then he may play them, provided he does not allow such games to dominate his time.

As for the fact that these games are generally made by non-Muslims, this does not affect the ruling. If a game is made by a Muslim and contains some un-Islamic ideas, it is unacceptable. So we have to look at each game independently and consider its contents. It may be acceptable or may not be acceptable, regardless of its source.

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