Beware of toy!

Beware of this toy!

Q. What is the ruling of the toy that has appeared in the markets, which children and teenagers play with? It consists of model football players arranged in rows on a table. A small ball is introduced and the rows of models are moved by hand. The one who loses pays the cost of the game to the owner of the game, and more commonly nothing is paid.

Is it permissible and that similar to it according to the Sharee’ah?

A. If the description of the game is as you have mentioned, it consisting of rows of models that are played with and the paying of the loser the cost of renting the game, then it is forbidden for the following reasons: Firstly: Busying one’s self with this game is a frivolity and it wastes the player’s time.

He loses much of the welfare of his religion and his worldly affairs. This game could become a habit of his and a means that leads to worse, such as the different types of gambling. Everything that is as such is forbidden according to the Sharee’ah.

Secondly: To produce models and pictures of live beings and possessing them is of the major sins, due to the authentic Ahadeeth in which Allaah, The Most High and His Messenger (saw) have cautioned those who do this with fire and severe punishment.

Thirdly: The paying of the loser the cost of using the game is forbidden, because it is wastefulness and the squandering of money in mere game and frivolity. The renting of the game is a void transaction and the earning of the owner from it is the attaining of ill­ gotten property and the consumption of wealth through falsehood. So this is a major sin and of the illegal gambling games.

May Allaah bless and send peace upon our Prophet (saw), his family and companions.

The Permanent Committee [Fataawa Islaamiyyah: 4/439]