Is it haram to watch movies, TV, or anime?

A film with friends on a Friday night, a series with the family, an anime season followed episode by episode: screens are where many people now meet stories. Watching movies, television, and anime is halal. Islam loves stories, the Prophet ﷺ made room for entertainment in his own mosque, and the Quran asks only that we choose well.

What does the Quran say about stories?

The Quran opens its longest single story, the story of Joseph (peace be upon him), with these words:

نَحۡنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيۡكَ أَحۡسَنَ ٱلۡقَصَصِ

“We tell you the best of stories.”

Quran 12:3

It closes the same chapter by saying that in such stories there is a lesson for people of understanding (12:111). Stories form the heart, teach without lecturing, and let a person live other lives for an hour. Muslim cities have always had storytellers. The ḥakawātī recited epics in the coffeehouses of Damascus and Cairo, and in Mamluk Cairo the physician Ibn Dāniyāl (d. 1311) wrote plays for the shadow theatre (khayāl al-ẓill, خيال الظل), in which painted figures moved across a lit screen before an audience. In a real sense, the screen was there before the cinema.

Did the Prophet ﷺ watch entertainment?

He did, and he shared it with his wife. On a day of Eid, a group of Abyssinians performed with shields and spears in the courtyard of the Prophet’s mosque. He asked Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) whether she would like to watch, let her stand behind him with her cheek against his, and cheered the performers on (Sahih al-Bukhari 950). Aisha remembered:

«رَأَيْتُ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَسْتُرُنِي بِرِدَائِهِ، وَأَنَا أَنْظُرُ إِلَى الْحَبَشَةِ يَلْعَبُونَ فِي الْمَسْجِدِ، حَتَّى أَكُونَ أَنَا الَّذِي أَسْأَمُ»

“I saw the Prophet ﷺ screening me with his cloak while I watched the Abyssinians play in the mosque, until I was the one who grew tired of it.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 5236

She added that people should appreciate how much a young woman loves amusement. The Prophet ﷺ waited, patient and pleased, until she had seen her fill.

When the Companion Hanzala feared he had become a hypocrite because his heart was lighter at home than in the Prophet’s ﷺ gatherings, the Prophet ﷺ told him that if believers stayed in that state constantly, angels would shake their hands in the street, “but, Hanzala, there is an hour for this and an hour for that” (Sahih Muslim 2750a). Rest and enjoyment have their own hour in a believer’s day.

How should a Muslim choose what to watch?

The Quran praises a particular kind of listener:

ٱلَّذِينَ يَسۡتَمِعُونَ ٱلۡقَوۡلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحۡسَنَهُۥٓ

“Those who listen to what is said and follow the best of it.”

Quran 39:18

That verse is a good guide for a screen as well. A few questions help:

• What does it leave in me? Some stories leave courage, compassion, or wonder; others leave cruelty or contempt. Choose more of the first.
• What does it crowd out? A film is a fine way to spend an evening. Prayer, sleep, study, and time with family each keep their hour.
• Who is watching with me? Parents choose for young children, and families find shows they can share.

These are questions for each person’s own heart. Policing what other adults watch has no place in the Sunnah of the man who held his cloak up so that Aisha could watch in comfort.

Questions about the parts of a film are answered elsewhere: music in Is music haram in Islam?, drawing and images in Is it haram to draw faces or people?, and acting in Can Muslims be actors or act in movies?

Is anime haram?

Anime is a form of animation from Japan, and it carries the same ruling as any film: halal, with discernment. Its drawn characters are illustrations, and the hadiths against image-makers concerned idols made for worship. Many anime draw on Shinto spirits, Buddhist legends, or invented magic. Watching a story set in another culture’s mythology is an encounter with fiction, in the same way that Muslims have read the Persian epic of the Shahnameh, full of pre-Islamic kings and marvels, for a thousand years. Games that bring these worlds to life are discussed in Are video games haram?

Have Muslims made films themselves?

They have, and some have carried the faith to audiences of millions. Moustapha Akkad’s The Message (1976) told the story of the first Muslims while never showing the Prophet ﷺ on screen, in keeping with the wishes of the many Muslims who prefer not to see him depicted (Is it haram to depict the Prophet Muhammad?). Iranian cinema has produced films of great tenderness, such as Majid Majidi’s Children of Heaven (1997), a story of a brother and sister sharing a single pair of shoes, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

A closing word

The Prophet ﷺ gave his community permission to rest:

«وَلَكِنْ يَا حَنْظَلَةُ سَاعَةً وَسَاعَةً»

“But, Hanzala, an hour for this and an hour for that.”

Sahih Muslim 2750a

Enjoy your hour of stories with a grateful heart, choose the best of what you see, and return from the screen to your prayer and your people a little wiser and a little kinder.