Is It Disbelief to Say That Something Sinful Is Good?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

If someone watches a Haram movie or listens to a Haram song and then says it was a good movie or a nice song, would this be Kufr, as they said these sinful things were good and nice?

Answer

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

Describing something sinful (haram) as being good is not disbelief. [Tahawi, al-‘Aqida al-Tahawiyya]

It is, however, prohibited if that was indeed the person’s intention.

Check out the following link: What is Belief and What is Disbelief

Examples:

A person may say a movie or a song is good, intending elements of it that are not in themselves prohibited. For instance, the intention may have been “the lyrics are good” or “the acting was good.”

Lyrics are not in themselves sinful. There are many examples of prose and poetry that are of good content.

Acting in itself is not sinful either as long as it doesn’t entail other prohibited elements.

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom Seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences.

He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib.

In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.