We have a member who requested this thread. If you can please answer the questions for @sweetequation
Q1: What type of entertainment is allowed in Islam since singing/music, dancing is not allowed?
Q2: In dramas people acting as husband/wife are not real. Is that sin for them to be close and do all those things which they shouldn’t?
Q3: What about people who watch them and they are na mehram to us too?
Q4: If drawing of living things is not allowed then what about cartoons b/c if by drawing one commits sin then by watching cartoon isn’t that sin, too?
Q1 - The answer to this is that in some cases singing and dancing is not a sin, however yes for all other questions Q2 through to Q4 - yes they could or may constitute sin. Making cartoons has some lenient interpretations too because some argue they do not represent real forms of life. And to be honest there are arguments for the other questions that swing both ways given slightly different premises …
The best thing to do is to write down a list of things you know are obligations either Fard so they are necessary to do or Haram which are necessary to avoid. Then go down the list towards the things that need to be avoided and those that should be done for khair. If we can seriously and honestly say that we are doing the obligations without error or without any difficulty then we should gradually progress to the state of avoiding all of these things out of a sense of warra. However, should we try to be hasty in trying to be pristine in these lesser elements when we have not even perfected the kabira - then we create a condition that is extreme within ourselves and it will not last or it will manifest in a type of imbalance that will torment us and in turn torment others around us.
Some people like to render things as haram when they are not and some people like to render things halal when they are not … What we should do is recognise what is right and what is wrong but also prioritise the big things first and then move to the smaller matters next in order to progress as continually improving beings. If there is a saint who does none of these things above - then he/she is a saint and we cannot copy them without first going through the same rigour and training as they have gone through and becoming with the tawfiq of Allah (SWT) saints as well. So the key here is to know your own condition. Know what you can do and achieve and know what would be too difficult to leave or do … Then gradually edge towards becoming better. Use each Ramadan or each Monday or whatever time period to reflect and think that you did x, y, z without error so now it is time to take on another Sunnah or another nafila … but to take on too much too quickly is extreme and extremes should be avoided in Islam. You could see someone praying tahajjud every day - that may seem to be extreme - but that is not extreme for him or her - it may be for you at the moment. So clearly different people are at different stages of this journey. Tawba is a good thing because it allows this stage by stage process to work.
I advise that we look at all doubtful matters in a way that we want to avoid them - but actually avoiding them and being consistent in that is an ongoing programme of correction.
Today I think what I did well yesterday and re do it, I think what I didn’t do well, do tawba and correct it - if I can’t then seek forgiveness for it, but never making it acceptable and finding every way to correct it. Firm resolve can mend us in our ways but to do evil and enjoy it or diminish its importance will eventually make the nufs revel in its enjoyment and we begin to justify those things to ourselves and then we seek out dubious opinions to make these faults acceptable thus removing our guilt and making us heedless of repentance.
Simply for those things in Q1 - Q4 - make excuses not to do them - delay them, yet for other acts like praying nafila and reading Qur’an - find reasons to do them and when a thought comes to do good like - give charity - then do those acts without deliberation.
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