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Fatwa CenterOpposed to playing cards with mixed sexes
Question
We have some friends here and we visit them whenever they call us. They force us to play cards with friends, male and female, and I strongly oppose it. Please explain what we should do.
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
Men and women sitting together in the same meeting causes many Islamically forbidden matters, like unlawful looking, and probably touching. No doubt this is a way that leads to committing fornication and adultery.
The Law-Maker, Who is All-Wise, forbade all kinds of means that could lead to mischief or make someone commit this mischief.
Therefore, dear brother, you have to avoid playing with them, as there is no obedience to a creature in disobeying the Creator.
If playing cards leads to losing a right or missing an obligation like being preoccupied from performing the prayer, or from obeying the parents, or from fulfilling other obligations that Allah prescribed then it is forbidden.
However, if playing cards does not lead to neglecting nor does it any right and does not preoccupy the person from obeying Allah, then it is permissible, but this undermines the virility of a man, especially if he spends much time in playing cards.
This is of course if there is no other alternative but to play. And if there is an alternative, then it becomes evidently forbidden. Allah says:" O, you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), gambling, AlAnsab, and AlAzlam (arrows for seeking luck or decision) are an abomination of shaitan's handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may be successful."(Al Ma'idah5:90)
It would be absolutely forbidden to play these cards if this leads to enmity or hatred.
A Mu'min (believer) should preserve his time, and should not spend it except on what benefits him in relation to his religion or his worldly life.
Time is one of the greatest bounties that Allah has bestowed on human beings, and it is the first thing a person will have to account for on The Day of Judgment.
Al-Thirmidhi reported in his Sunan that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: "No child of Adam will move on The Day of Judgment until he answers five things: His life and how he spent it, his youth and how he used it, his wealth and how he collected it and in what he spent it, and what he did with what he learnt."
The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) also said: "Many people are deceived by two gifts (i.e. they do not make good use of them), the gifts of health and that of free time. Reported by Bukhari.
Allah knows best.
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