Does calling something that is haram beautiful or liking it make a person exit the religion of Islam?
Question 1: Does calling something that is haram beautiful or liking it make a person an unbeliever? If it does, in what situations does it happen?
- Unfortunately, I am very angry because I am currently in an uncertain situation since today’s Islamic scholars do not fully explain the topics they talk about and do not think about what they say, causing the public to have a problem about meaning. I will not forgive any scholar or Islamic wise person who does not do his job well. I hope they will be punished for what they made us suffer...
- As for why I say so: One of them says, “A person does not become an unbeliever if he likes any song, even if he does it knowing that it is a sin. However, if he likes a naked woman knowing that it is a sin, there is a problem.” It is impossible not to go crazy. Is it not a sin to listen to songs? He likes the sin!!! Then, why does he become an unbeliever when he likes the naked woman? Both are sins. Then, he becomes an unbeliever when he says the former. That is how they leave man in conflict.
- As for my exact question: I can no longer call almost anything beautiful in my life. I could not like them. Even while playing computer games, I cannot say “Oh, what a nice goal”. So, what are its types?
- For example, when I see a woman wearing a miniskirt and I say, “She’s a very beautiful woman”, do I become an unbeliever?
- Or if I say “This woman’s legs are very beautiful”, do I become an unbeliever?
- Let me also state this: I do all of them knowing that they are sins or haram...
Question 2: In some books, it is stated that calling haram beautiful is unbelief. What is meant by it?
- For example, there are expressions like this: A person who says to a hafiz who recites the Quran with taghanni (melodious voice), “How beautifully you read the Quran” becomes an unbeliever.
Submitted by on Thu, 28/11/2024 - 14:21
Dear Brother / Sister,
Answer 1: Calling a sinful situation or behavior beautiful (good) does not make a person an unbeliever.
- There are two important mechanisms in humans:
One is belief, which stimulates sublime feelings, and the soul, heart, conscience and mind that regard the orders and prohibitions of Islam as beautiful and admire them.
The other is carnal desires that excite mean feelings and show denial and rebellion as good.
Some people are unbelievers and some are believers.
Some believers are sinners. They are people who live in a dilemma. On the one hand, common sense and conscience on the side of belief suggest obedience to Allah, and on the other hand, there are inferior feelings that advise man to disobey Allah and obey the evil-commanding soul.
Although man preserves his belief, he can be carried away by the desires of his soul. While the heart and conscience hate committing sins, the soul and mean feelings take pleasure from sins.
At this crossroads of thought, man’s free will comes into play. If the desires of the soul outweigh, the soul says, “You will attain salvation by repenting in the future; do not give up committing this or that sin and enjoying the pleasure for the time being!”
If the desires of the heart, common sense and conscience, which are the seat of belief, prevail, the person’s will chooses to keep away from sins.
So, the covering that protects a person’s belief is one thing and the mechanism that causes sins is another. Therefore, committing a major sin - even knowingly, lovingly, by regarding it as beautiful, or by liking it - does not make a person exit the religion as long as he does not deny it.
- The principle of the religion of Islam regarding the issue is this: “A person does not become an unbeliever due to any sin he commits as long as he does not call what is halal haram and what is haram halal.”
Answer 2:
- Something that pleases the soul is also beautiful in its sight. Undoubtedly, the concept of “beauty” here - as we have stated in our first answer - is not real, it is figurative; it is not scientific, it is sensual; it is not of belief, it is of devil. However, it is expressed with the concept of beautiful.
Moreover, there are hundreds of issues that are haram and hence ugly (bad) according to some Islamic scholars and halal and hence beautiful (good) according to others. Which of them do you push outside of religion?
- It is one thing to regard something as beautiful because one’s soul likes it - as a result of an innate feeling - and it is another thing to say that something that the religion of Islam forbids is beautiful - because it is haram. There is a great difference between them.
- Within the framework of our subject, whether everything is beautiful or ugly is considered from two perspectives.
First: The thing in question is beautiful or ugly due to its position.
Second: It is beautiful or ugly according to Islam.
According to the first option, there may be no harm in regarding something as beautiful from one perspective, even if it is haram, depending on the intention.
According to the second option, regarding something that Islam considers haram as beautiful has the risk of unbelief. It is possible for those two options to come together.
For example: A person may have a beautiful wife from the People of the Book. If that man regards his wife’s unbelief as beautiful and says, “This woman is very beautiful”, he exits the religion of Islam. However, if he says, “My wife is very beautiful,” not because of her religion, but because she is his beloved wife, it will not be the slightest sin.
Claiming otherwise means denying the verse of the Quran because the Quran allows marriage with a woman from the people of the book. Since it allows marriage, there is no obstacle for that husband, like every other husband, to love his wife, who is from the people of the book, to regard her as beautiful and to say, “She is very beautiful.” In other words, the Quran finds it appropriate for a husband to say “she is very beautiful” about his unbelieving wife.
- What is meant by the expressions in the sources in question is that a person who knowingly says “This is beautiful” out of spite though it is considered haram, that is, ugly, in Islam becomes an unbeliever. Otherwise, it cannot be said that a person who hears someone reciting the Quran with a melodious voice, likes his voice and says “You have recited it beautifully” without thinking about taghanni at all is an unbeliever.
- Now imagine that there are thousands of different views among madhhabs (sects). One might say halal for something and another might say haram for the same thing; one might say fard for something and another might say mubah (permissible) for the same thing. Since no scholar regards haram as beautiful, all parties regard their own view as beautiful and the other side’s view as ugly. In that case, there will remain no Muslims.
- Likewise, for example, according to Hanafis, wudu is not invalidated by touching a woman’s skin but according to Shafi’is, it is invalidated. Every scholar can regard his own opinion as right and good, and the opinion of the other party as bad. Can we doubt their belief?
Questions on Islam
- Does a Muslim who says ‘a nice thing’ for something haram become an unbeliever?
- Does committing a major sin make a person an unbeliever?
- Fiqh decree on abandoning prayers
- Ruling on one who accidentally commited kufr due to negligence
- What do the Ahl as-Sunnah believe about the nature of beauty and ugliness, and how are these qualities determined?
- What things constitute Kufr? like what statements and actions, examples?
- Is it permissible for a man to buy a present for his wife on Valentine’s Day?
- 4- The delusion coming in the form of doubt regarding issues of belief
- Is it permissible to call a sinner an unbeliever?
- What are the harms done by sins to man?