Are Crosswords, Sudoku Puzzles, Etc. Permissible?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

Are crosswords, Sudoku puzzles, etc. permissible? Such puzzles may be on the computer, where the program or website may have background music and may involve conjecture and guessing on the part of the user. They may also be initially produced using random generation techniques. Can such puzzles be bought, acquired, and played?

Answer

In the name of Allah, Most Merciful.

I pray this finds you in the best of health and spirits.

Puzzles and crosswords of permissible content are permitted to make and play. The incidental presence of background music should be avoided (just turn off the sound), but it doesn’t legally make the game itself impermissible (haram) to purchase or play.

And Allah alone gives success.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.