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Fatwa CenterPlaying e-games is forbidden if it includes anything that violates the belief
Question
I love to play a strategy game called "Age of Empires 2" and I thought there is no problem playing with it until I realized some potential issues:1- There is a button called "Create Villager", you have to wait for a while and then a villager that can be used in farming or mining appears out of no where, Is that considered as mocking Allah's abilities?2- You can build a religious building in the game and it depends on your civilization (Turks and Saracens build masjids, Britons build churches), and there are two things that confuse me here, the first is that I may play with a non-muslim civilization and that way I will build a church or something, the other is that if there is another muslim civilization, I may have to destroy their buildings which may include a masjid, there are no order from the game to destroy a certain building like a masjid and there are no religious references. Is that okay?3- There is a monk which can heal players or convert a player to his civilization which I think means to change his religion indirectly. Do I get that right?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu`alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Playing e-games is forbidden if it includes anything that violates the belief of the Muslim or any of the rituals of religion, such as belief in associating others with Allah The Exalted in worship, or imitating any of the Divine Attributes like creation, or imitating Jews and Christians in glorifying rabbis and priests, or imitating the erection of Churches or the destruction of Masjids.
If playing such a game will lead the person to commit such previously-mentioned prohibited acts, it is impermissible to play it. However, in case the game does not have these prohibited matters or it is possible to remove them or skip them while playing, it is then permissible to play it.
Yet, in case the person is unable to realize the essence of this game, safety necessitates that he should keep away from it, even if he finds no one who strictly prohibits it since it is but a mere act of playing, which does not deserve the person to make considerable efforts in searching for the Sharee'ah ruling on it. In other words, the person would find no difficulty to abandon such a game. This is yet supported by the Hadeeth of the Prophet 
reading “What is lawful is clear and what is unlawful is clear, but between them are certain doubtful things which many people do not recognize. He who guards against doubtful things keeps his religion and his honor blameless, but he who falls into doubtful things falls into what is unlawful, just as a shepherd who pastures his animals round a preserve will soon pasture them in it.” [Agreed upon]
A Muslim should fill his time with what incurs benefit for him in the life of this world and the Hereafter. He should not fall prey to these devices of distraction and amusement since they would make him invest his time in vanity, taking into account that the person would be held accountable for time – a fact recorded in the Prophetic Hadeeth reading “Man's feet will not move on the Day of Resurrection before he is asked about his life, how did he consume it …” [Narrated by At-Tirmidhi; he classified it as good and authentic]
Allah knows the best.
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