Is My Income Permissible if My Minecraft Minigame Contains an Optional Music Feature?

Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick

Question

Is My Income Permissible if My Minecraft Minigame Contains an Optional Music Feature?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

Thank you for your question. May Allah guide you to that which is pleasing to Him.

Your income is lawful, assuming all other necessary conditions for a lawful transaction are fulfilled. The non-intrinsic music component does not render the product unlawful or invalidate the transaction. But music is forbidden according to the Shafi‘i School with restrictions, not absolutely. If it is made by forbidden instruments, then it is forbidden. As for the sounds of birds, for example, it is permissible, as is the music of the human voice itself (a beautiful voice), unless it causes temptation.

For further guidance, please refer to SeekersGuidance’s resources on the Shafi‘i rulings concerning music. This may offer clarity on the principles surrounding music in your case.

While your transaction is lawful, striving to err on the side of caution is praiseworthy, as refraining from doubtful matters is a path of piety. Your computer skills may be very useful for propagating Allah’s Din, rather than in game development. One brings people to Allah, and the other (potentially) distracts people from Allah. Nevertheless, in your case, the non-essential nature of the music feature does not affect the transaction’s validity, and your income is lawful.

And Allah knows best.

[Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Mohammad Abu Bakr Badhib

Shaykh Irshaad Sedick was raised in South Africa in a traditional Muslim family. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum al-Arabiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Strand, Western Cape, under the guidance of the late world-renowned scholar Shaykh Taha Karaan.

Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Mawlana Yusuf Karaan, and Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki, among others.

He is the author of the text “The Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Hujjah or not?” He has served as the Director of the Discover Islam Centre and Al Jeem Foundation. For the last five years till present, he has served as the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.

Shaykh Irshaad has thirteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic online learning and media platform called ‘Isnad Academy’ and has completed his Master’s degree in the study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg. He has a keen interest in healthy living and fitness.