What Is the Ruling on Watching Cartoons?
Shafi'i Fiqh
Answered by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Question
What evidence from the Quran and the Sunna shows that watching permissible cartoons is not only for children and is permitted for people of any age?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
The question rests on a misunderstanding worth correcting: Sacred Law does not require evidence to establish that something is permissible.
Permissibility is the default. Evidence is required to establish prohibition.
Since no text of the Quran or Sunna prohibits watching wholesome animated content, and no text restricts it to any age group, it is permissible for anyone, provided the content itself is lawful, and Allah knows best.
Permissibility Is the Default, Prohibition Requires Proof
A foundational principle (a maxim in fact) of Sacred Law states that the default ruling of things is permissibility (al-asl fi al-ashya’ al-ibaha). [Suyuti, al-Ashbah wa al-Naza’ir]
Allah (Most High) says, “He is the One Who created everything in the earth for you.” [Quran, 2:29]
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “The lawful is what Allah has made lawful in His Book, the unlawful is what Allah has made unlawful in His Book, and what He has remained silent about is what He has pardoned for you.” [Tirmidhi; Ibn Maja]
So the burden of proof runs in one direction only. Whoever claims that watching cartoons is unlawful, or unlawful for adults specifically, must produce evidence for that claim. No one is required to produce evidence that it is permitted.
Rulings Attach to Content, Not to Age
Nothing in Sacred Law permits entertainment to one age group while forbidding it to another. The ruling is essentially based on the content: if it is free of nudity, immorality, and unlawful actions, watching it is permissible for a child and an adult alike.
Being permissible, however, is not the same as being praiseworthy or beneficial.
Time is a precious blessing which we cannot afford to squander, so lawful pastimes should not devour the hours owed to higher priorities. And Allah knows best.
Principle and Practical Guidance
Learn this principle well, for it protects one from two errors: declaring lawful things forbidden without proof, which is itself blameworthy, and feeling obliged to justify every ordinary act of life with a verse or hadith.
For the detailed rulings on animated content, see the answers below.
And Allah (Most High) knows best.
Irshaad Sedick
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
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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 (Allah have mercy on him), where he taught.
Shaykh Irshaad received Ijaza from many luminaries of the Islamic world, including Shaykh Taha Karaan, Shaykh Muhammad Awama, Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Hitu, 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 been the Director of the Discover Islam Centre, and for six years, he has been the Khatib of Masjid Ar-Rashideen, Mowbray, Cape Town.
Shaykh Irshaad has fifteen years of teaching experience at some of the leading Islamic institutes in Cape Town). He is currently building an Islamic podcast, education, 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 Prophetic living and fitness.
