What Is the Ruling on Using, Buying or Selling Fireworks?


Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

What is the ruling on using, buying, or selling fireworks?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Buying, using, and selling fireworks is permissible under the following conditions:

  • That using them does not cause harm or the reasonable fear of harm to people
  • That one does not squander one’s wealth purchasing them
  • That purchasing them does not prevent one from any Islamically sanctioned financial realities
  • Using them or watching them does not cause one to neglect their religious duties.

Moderation and Good Intentions

That said, the use of fireworks is neither sinful nor is it an act of worship. These types of actions are known as merely permitted (mubah). Mubah actions are not ideal and can take one away from using their time for actual acts of worship by which one draws nearer to Allah Most High.

Through good intentions, mubah actions can become acts of worship, which applies to fireworks. Intentions such as bringing joy to the hearts of family and Muslims, celebrating the blessings of Allah Most High, etc… make it an act of worship. [Haddad, Book of Assistance]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.