Ruling on opening a recreational facility and the ruling on the money earned thereby

Firstly: 

The ruling on money earned
from a recreational facility depends on the ruling on the games and
activities themselves. If the games and activities are permissible, then the
income and earning is permissible, but if they are haraam then the income
and earning is haraam. 

Permissible games are those
that help to strengthen the body and energize the mind, increase
understanding and knowledge, and are free of haraam things. There follow
some examples of the haraam things involved in recreational facilities: 

1.If they include sports which
include uncovering the ‘arwah, such as swimming and so on.

2.If they include anything that
involves hitting the face, such as boxing

3.If there is music playing in
the facility

4.If the games and activities
involve mixing between men and women

5.If any gambling is involved

6.If the games and activities
take place at the time of Jumu’ah prayer, or they cause people to miss any
other prayer

7.If the facility contains
electronic games with contain crosses or veneration of kaafir religions or
sanctification of the symbols of a religion other than Islam, or it
encourages violence or scenes of love, sex or nakedness, and other things
that most electronic games contain.

8.If the games contain figures
such as foosball and the like.

9.If the games involve dice, like
backgammon

Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah
al-Jibreen (may Allaah preserve him) was asked: 

What is the ruling on games
and recreational facilities that young people go to? 

He replied: 

These games are regarded as
idleness and falsehood in which there is no benefit, rather they are a waste
of time with no benefit. That includes playing card games. It is idle
leisure and a great loss. But if the games involve training, competing and
wrestling which give the youth more energy and strength, and trains them in
combat skills, and increases their physical strength, then that is
permissible. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
approved of the Abyssinians’ playing with their spears in the mosque,
because that was training for them in carrying weapons and the like. He also
permitted races with horses and camels, and learning archery and swimming,
and he wrestled with some of his companions, and permitted wrestling,
because it is training that gives energy and physical strength. End quote. 

Fatwa no.
1088 on the
Shaykh’s website. 

Secondly: 

With regard to the money
earned from those games: if it is earned from permissible games then it is
permissible earnings. 

If it is earned from haraam
games, then you have to: 

1.Repent sincerely from these
deeds and these earnings.

2.Get rid of the games that
contain haraam things, and if you can make use of them by getting rid of the
haraam content, that is good, such as taking out the music or buying tapes
of permissible games, or removing the heads of idols in games that are
haraam for that reason.

3.Get rid of the earnings from
those games by donating them to charitable causes. What you have spent of
them in the past on yourself or on your household, you do not have to give
anything to make up for it.

We advise you to limit it
to games that are permissible according to sharee’ah, and to be an example
for others who own such facilities, and to offer to your customers and
visitors things that will benefit them of games, and offer advice by
providing flyers, booklets and tapes, and playing audio and visual material
about beneficial topics. 

We have answered on the
basis of what may be meant by “games” in your question, because we do not
know what you mean by that, or what kind of facility it is. So we answered
on the basis that it is a facility for physical games (a gym) or a facility
for electronic games. 

See the answer to question
no. 22305 (Games between halaal and haraam). In questions no
28989 and
39744
we have discussed the evils of electronic games. 

We singled out the
Playstation for mention, and in the second question we have given the ruling
on buying and selling it. 

In the answer to question
no. 46203 you will find the ruling on one who asked about his income from
working in a video game shop. 

And Allaah knows best.