Question:

What is the ruling of playing video games which have magic/spells as a part of its gameplay?

Answer:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.

Allah Ta’ala emphatically mentions the primary purpose of our life on earth. It is none but to worship Allah.

Worshiping Allah is materialized in multiple different ways. We normally perceive that worship has to be something where you carry out specific movements, actions and guidelines to commemorate ibaadah. But this is not entirely true.

In Islam we worship Allah through our belief, our life-style, our habits, our interactions and dealings as well as designated form of worships with specific guidelines. The crux of worship is that we fulfill our purpose of life in obedience of Allah, and desist from disobedience.

Allah Ta’ala has set about boundaries for us, beyond which we may not trespass. Indulging in futility which will destroy or deviate us from our primary purpose is detested and frowned upon, as it leads to disobedience of Allah.

Among these prohibitions is flagrantly wasting our time, which by any accounts is precious. Similarly, all elements which either counter or seems to challenge the countenance of Allah, His Might and True Qudra over all are also detested, worthy of abandonment. Magic, spells, belief in some ulterior power that challenges the creator of creators, is one such element. Allah Ta’ala has shunned the use of it, and rendered taking amusement from it despicable.

Your inquiry is about video games. However when we look at these games we understand them from an angle of which aspects of it are in conformity of our religion, and which are not. 

Regardless that the amusement through magic, spells, wizards and warlocks may not be real in these games, they do tend to establish their own surreality in the mindset of the gamer. Even if in the minds of fantasizing gamer, his beliefs are prone to be challenged. 

The field of Game-Study (Ludology) keeps this idea in mind that when a person enters into a game; whether it be a board game like Dungeons and Dragons or a sophisticated real-time high definition world of computer graphics animation, the game undertake a new persona and role-plays as though one has taken upon himself a completely new and non-ordinary life. This life is to be governed by the laws of the inner dynamics of the game-play. The consequences of one action, no matter how bizarre, morbid or detestable in the real-life have completely alternate outcomes in the inner-game dynamic. 

An article titled “Do you believe in magic? Computer games in everyday life” that appears in European Journal of Cultural Studies tackles the Huizinga’s concept of “magic circle” and discusses multiple ways a “game” could interact with a gamer’s mindset. While the article is not centered around the psychological effect, if any, upon the gamer from the inner dynamics of the gameplay, it does offer sufficient information to assess the boundaries these ongoing RPG, LARP or MMORPGs tend to blur. [i]

A person may not start believing in the game-magic etc but the inherent quality of these games providing an unreal escape from reality tend to become addictive in nature. The outcome is prolonged time spent in gaming and becoming disillusioned from reality and its obligations. 

This is Johan Huizinga mentioning about magic games well before they became more immersive through computer gaming: 

“Summing up the formal characteristics of play we might call it a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious,’ but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner.” [ii]

This is widely true of today’s role-playing games of many genres, whether we admit or not. The consuming nature of these games distances the gamer from their real life. Even if engaging in magic or acting out as a wizard itself was not problematic from Shar’i point of view, wasting time whereby one’s real objectives of life are jeopardized is certainly worthy of concern.

With the advent of computer games another new dilemma is the screen-time spent throughout the days. The doctors of the field are already warning the excessive increase in the screen-time from infants all the way to adults. While no formal study comes to mind in regards to effects of adults spending 10+ hours in front of the screen, there have been sufficient health warnings about it in young ones. Current guidelines mention that kids upto 5 year of age must not be given more than 1 hour of screen time or any device. This includes TV, Cellphone, Gameboy or any such device. 

The purpose of this extensive response to a simple question is to inculcate a vigilance into our habits of life-style. While the question itself is very clear that magic/spells-based games are not permissible in Islam, perhaps we should be approaching the entire gaming mechanism from mental/physical health point of view as well. It is an equal obligation for us to take care of our health and that or our children as well, both mental,physical and emotional.

And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Mufti Faisal bin Abdul Hameed al-Mahmudi

[i]
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249630915_Do_you_believe_in_magic_Computer_games_in_everyday_life
[accessed 24 Sept. 2019]

[ii]
Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Beacon Press, 1955.