Is It Permissible to Write Fictional Stories About Magic and Free Mixing?

Answered by Shaykh Abdul Rahim Reasat

Question

My question is about fiction. Is it permissible to write stories in which men and women interact?

More generally, what are the limits of ensuring a story conforms to Islamic principles? For example, can characters commit sins as part of the narrative?

Also, is it permissible to include fictional elements such as superpowers or a magic system?

Answer

In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.

All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all beings, and may peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace).

Writing fictional stories is permissible, and writing about interactions between men and women is also fine as long as the content is permissible.

Do not write about inappropriate physical interactions or themes of love and romance outside of the Shari’a-approved boundaries. This is not too dissimilar to the boundaries scholars have placed on poetry. [Nabulsi, al-Hadiqa al-Nadiyya]

See your writing as a means of sharing good and some elements of the teachings of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace. He, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The best of people are those who are the most beneficial to people.” [Tabarani, al-Awsat]

Make this your intention: whatever you write about, give it a deep moral message, either something that focuses on showing gratitude to God or gratitude to his creation, or making the right choices: morality, kindness, generosity, gentleness, empathy, mercy, etc.

This should be the core of your content and the beating heart of what you write.

Beyond this, it is permissible to write about people having superpowers, and magic would also be permitted as long as it’s not presented as being a malicious tool of harm, and it’s not glorified in any way.

Present it as a tool and make it secondary, but deeply rooted in morality.

An example of this would be Superman. As a child, I read a number of comics about this character, and the key central theme was hope.

He presented hope and the idea of always trying to do what’s best. This is the kind of approach your writing should take: glorifying something worthy of glory.

Avoid using any sort of anti-heroic characters, and make the morality unambiguous in your story. And if you avoid aggrandizing anything indecent or impermissible, you’ll be fine.

Depicting deaths or murder, if it has the purpose of getting the lesson of the story across, would be permissible. Allah knows best.

Allah grant you the best of both worlds.

[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

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Am I Allowed to Write an Islamic Fantasy/Sci-Fi Novel? – Explains that writing fictional stories is permissible when they promote beneficial values and avoid content that contradicts Islamic teachings.

Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began studying Arabic Grammar and Morphology whilst studying for a degree in English and History. After graduating, He traveled to Damascus and studied Arabic, Hanafi Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Theology, and Logic with Shaykh Adnan Darwish, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman Arjan al-Binsawi, Shaykh Husayn Darwish, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, the late Shaykh Rashad Shams, and others. He then moved to Amman to continue his studies in those fields, as well as in Tafsir, Quranic Sciences, Hadith Methodology and Commentary, Prophetic Biography, Prophetic Perfections and Traits, Rhetoric, Arabic Literature, and Tajwid. His teachers include Shaykh Ali Hani, Dr. Hamza al-Bakri, Dr Salah Abu al-Hajj, Dr Mansur Abu Zina, Shaykh Ahmad Hasanat, Shaykh Ahmad Jammal, and others.