Khutbah Guidelines for Humor and Joking in Islam ~ Shaykh Dr
By Yasir Qadhi | 2026-01-07T18:12:16.15113+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Guidelines for Humor and Joking in Islam
Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi
Opening
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ
O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him].
O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer.
أَمَّا بَعْدُ
Introduction: Islam's Comprehensive Guidance
My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, as we are all aware our Sharia, our religious law dictates each and every facet of our personal life and our social interactions and in today's khutbah I will examine one of the facets of that social life and cultural interactions that is somewhat of a more light nature and that is what does our Sharia say about joking and being humorous with one another.
Within our faith tradition believe it or not even this topic has been discussed in so much detail that wallahi as I sat down to write this khutbah I realized that even this one khutbah can be made into two or three khutbahs but of course we do not have the time for that so I will summarize what some of our scholars have said about the Islamic guidelines and requirements about what our own tradition says about being humorous with one another about cracking jokes and lightening up the mood.
The Prophetic Example of Humor
There are in fact specific treatises and books written by our scholars of Islam about this one topic and why would they not write books when it is narrated in dozens of ahadith that our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) regularly lightened the mood and was humorous and yes even cracked jokes.
Do you know that in Ash-Shamail At-Tirmidhi which is the most authentic and the most famous book that describes the characteristics of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) by Imam Tirmidhi - Tirmidhi has his famous Sunan, he also has a book called Shamail - Shamail the characteristics of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) - he has an entire chapter entitled "The Chapter of the Jokes of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)." This is in our most standard orthodox mainstream book about the characteristics of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
In Sahih Bukhari the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: "Write down my statements, write down the ahadith." And Abu Hurairah said: "Ya Rasulullah but sometimes you joke with us, sometimes (إِنَّكَ لَتُمَازِحْنَا) - you're joking with us, meaning you want me to write down your jokes as well?"
And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) held on to his tongue and he said: أكْتُبُ - "Write down everything that comes, فَوَالَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ مَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهُ إِلَّا حَقٌّ - I swear by the one that there is no God besides Him, nothing comes from here other than the truth." (Abu Dawud hadith 3646)
Meaning even the jokes of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) have moral benefit, have wisdom, and today we'll discuss some of them and you will see each and every one of them actually has some wisdom, some benefit to it, sometimes even theological benefit we learn from the jokes of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
But the point here Abu Hurairah (رضي الله عنه) wanted to ask: "O Messenger of Allah, you are joking with us so often, do you want me to write those jokes down as well?" What does that demonstrate? That it was the constant characteristic of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to be humorous, to be gentle.
Humor as Perfection of Character
And that is because being gentle, being humorous is a part of the perfection of akhlaq, it is a part of being the perfect associate and companion. We all know there are those people amongst us - they're always morose, they're always frowning, they're always serious - we don't like being around them.
Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was not like that. Our Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was the best of the people, was the Sayyid of the children of Adam and as a perfection, as Anas said: "I never saw anybody smile more than the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) he's always smiling."
As a perfection he would laugh, as his perfection he would even be humorous and crack jokes and all of this he did (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to legislate unto us that this too is a part and parcel of our religion of Islam.
Examples of Prophetic Humor
So many of the humor of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is narrated and typically most of the humor, and if not all of it, our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would use double meanings because he never said a lie - he never, Sayyidina Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said a lie. So what were the humor, what was the humor of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)? He'd use a phrase, he'd use a word - the meaning that comes to mind is not the meaning that is intended but both meanings are permissible by the language and there are so many instances of this.
The Story of Abu Umair
At times he would name somebody something as a point of being funny or as a point of being humorous or as a point of earning the heart of this person by using a gentle name, a sweet name, a name that would make the person love the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
Anas ibn Malik, the young child Anas ibn Malik was 7 years old when his mother said that I'm gonna give you Anas, all day long he'll be your servant. So he gifted - Anas was not a slave, he gifted - the mother gifted the time of Anas that throughout the day you'll be with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) come home at night to our house.
So Anas would spend 10 years with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and he tells us that at times he would he was a child, he's 7-8 years old - the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would tell him to do something and he would be going on his way and people would - children would be playing so he'd stop to play but he wouldn't listen, so he would do what every child does.
So the next time the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) gave him a command he said: يَا ذَا الْأُذُنَيْنِ - "Oh you of two ears, listen to what I'm about to say to you." He called Anas "oh you of two ears" meaning you didn't listen to me last time, make sure you listen to me this time.
Anas says that I had a younger brother, I had a younger brother who would have a pet of a bird. This bird in Arabic is called Nughair, it's a small little bird with red stripes on it and this bird fell sick so the child took it and took it as a pet, he took it as a pet and he would carry it with him all the time and this was a young boy of maybe 4 years old, 5 years old.
One day the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) saw him crying in the corner so he asked Anas: "What is the matter with your brother?" So he said: "His Nughair died, his little pet died, his little boy." And you know typically this little boy is not addressed in the audience, I mean the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) wouldn't say anything to him because you know he's a 4 or 5 year old boy.
So in front of everybody to make the boy feel so special, to make the boy feel as if he is being paid attention in front of everybody, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) addressed this little child and he invented for him a kunya, he made for him a kunya which is not something you do for a 5 year old - that's what you do for an adult - but to make the boy feel special and he said that famous phrase which was reported in Bukhari:
"Oh father of Umair, what happened to your little bird?" (Bukhari hadith 6129)
This little boy is not the father of anybody, his name is Umair. "Ya Aba Umair" - just be jokeful, get some humor - "Ya Aba Umair, what happened to your little bird?" So here it's not quite a joke per se but it's being somewhat humorous, it's like lightening the moment so that this child feels consoled, so that the child feels this is Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) addressing me in this big audience where Abu Bakr and
Umar are sitting and he's taking time out and smiling at me and saying "Ya Aba Umair, ma fa'ala an- Nughair? Oh Abu Umair, what happened to your little bird?" in order to calm the child down.
The Story of the Baby Camel
And it is also reported that in fact the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) actually said what we would call jokes and the famous hadith is in Sahih Bukhari as well and Abu Dawud that a man came and he said: "Oh Messenger of Allah, you called to go out on an expedition, I volunteer, I'm gonna join the expedition and I will go with this force but I don't have any camel so you will have to give me a camel to ride on."
Now in Arabic a baby camel is literally called (وَلَدُ النَّاقَةِ) - "baby camel. When you wanna say a baby camel there is no word "baby," you say (وَلَدٌ النَّاقَةِ)
So the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: "I don't have anything to give you other than (وَلَدٌ النَّاقَةِ) - the child of a camel." And the man said: "Oh Messenger of Allah, what will a baby camel do for me?" because what you understand from (وَلَدٌ النَّاقَةِ) is a baby.
And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: "Wasn't every child, wasn't every camel born by the previous camel? Isn't every child (وَلَدُ النَّاقَةِ)" So (وَلَدٌ النَّاقَةِ) linguistically it means that the offspring of a camel but it's understood to mean the baby of a camel.
So when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said I only have a baby camel (وَلَدُ النَّاقَةِ)" he understood a little camel and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) then joked with him said: "And what is a camel except the child of another camel? Isn't every child (وَلَدُ النَّاقَةِ)? Isn't every camel (وَلَدٌ النَّاقَةِ)?" )Abu Dawud hadith 4998(
The Story of the Old Lady and Paradise
And of course there's the very famous story that we've all heard of growing up and it is an authentic hadith, it's an authentic hadith that when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was sitting with the sahaba an old lady hobbles up and she said: "Ya Rasulullah, make dua that Allah causes me to enter Jannah, make dua that Allah causes me to enter Jannah."
And you know you see this sweet old lady, you see this lady, you know she has such a sweet heart what not, so the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) wanted to cheer her up. How did he cheer her up? By saying something that was true and yet humorous, it was true and yet it was a joke.
He says: "Oh mother, oh aunt, oh lady, haven't you heard? Old ladies will not enter Jannah! Haven't you heard? Didn't somebody teach you this? Old ladies shall not enter Jannah!"
So the hadith says - you know she started like raising her voice: "What? What's gonna happen now? How am I gonna enter Jannah?"
And so the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: "Didn't you read what Allah says in the Quran: We shall bring them back and recreate them, and we will bring them back to be young beautiful maidens.''"'
"Oh fulan, oh ummi fulan! Allah (عز وجل) will not cause you to enter Jannah as an old lady, you will come back to being at the prime of your youth, at the most youthful, the most beautiful, then Allah will cause you to enter Jannah."
Now imagine if the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) didn't say this humorously, he just went straight to the point "you will enter Jannah" - it's not as good, it's not as uplifting. Even she, the happiness she would feel after the joke is much more than if the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) simply said that you shall enter Jannah. Rather than saying you're gonna enter Jannah, he actually was humorous with her and she said "oh ladies don't enter Jannah" and then gave her the good news: "you shall enter Jannah as a beautiful young lady as you were, that's how you're going to enter Jannah."
More Examples of Prophetic Humor
The Story with the Husband's Eyes
It is narrated that a woman came to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and he said: "Who is your husband?" She said: "So and so." And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) wanted to basically what we would call play a joke but we say that he wanted to be humorous with the husband so he said: "Oh I know your husband, he is the one who has a whiteness in his eye."
Now the Arabic "whiteness in his eye" means a disease that causes the eye to go yellowish and the Arabs say (بَيَاضٌ فِي الْعَيْنِ) - this is something to do with a sickness. And the lady became shocked: "No no that's not my husband, that's not the one, my husband is fine!"
And the Prophet said: "No no I'm positive, he is the one that has the sickness (بَيَاضِ فِي الْعَيْنِ)." She understood sickness but it's not sickness.
So she went back home because she thinks if the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says this he must be sick and she began looking at her husband carefully, staring into his eyes. And the husband says: "What's the matter with you? Why are you looking at me like this?"
So she said: "The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that you have a sickness (بَيَاضِ فِي الْعَيْنِ) - you have a sickness in your eye." And the husband understood because obviously he understands what's going on, they have that relationship together.
And he said: "Ya ummi fulana, don't you see there's more whiteness in my eye than darkness?" - meaning in his eyes there's a whiteness, the whiteness of the eye - that's what the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is talking about.
Once again there is the feeling - imagine how special the husband would feel, imagine that unique bond that the husband will feel that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is making me laugh in this manner. This is the purpose of Islamic humor, this is why we are supposed to be gentle, we're supposed to be easy going, we're supposed to bring happiness unto others.
The Companions' Humor in Return
And the companions as well in fact would return back the humor to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) when it was appropriate to do so in the most appropriate manner. When they understood that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is joking with them, at times they would be humorous back - ultimate respect even in the humor.
Hadith narrated that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) visited Suhayb Ar-Rumi, the Roman - he was the Roman convert to Islam, Suhayb Ar-Rumi - and Suhayb was very sick and he was not coming to the masjid so we expected him to be on his bed completely moaning and groaning.
When they came in they found that he's sitting upright and he's eating dates but his sickness was there, one of his eyes was swollen. So the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) joked with him and said: "You are sick, your eyes are swollen and yet here you are eating dates" - meaning we have heard you're so sick but now you're enjoying life right? So he's being humorous and you could see by the expression that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is being humorous and he said: "Your eye is swollen up and you're still eating dates."
So he said: "O Messenger of Allah, I'm using my other eye to eat! I'm looking at the other eye, I'm using this eye as I pick the dates up to eat."
Now this is again, imagine being Suhayb, just imagine the feeling, the relationship with the Prophet (صلی الله عليه وسلم) right? That he's cracking a joke with me and he's then responding back: "O Messenger of Allah, it's the other eye, I'm using this one, this one swollen, I can still see with this one, that's what I'm eating with."
Physical Play and Interaction
And so again the point being, all of this demonstrates that it is a part and parcel of our religion to bring this happiness unto others. In fact it's not just words, our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) even went beyond just words humor. At times involves playing around with other people, at times involves literally using your hands or doing things and we have one of the interesting narrations here as well that our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would play and basically be jovial with the little children.
Now we know this of course from many Ahadith that he was the kindest to children. The one of the companions who died the very last of the companions or one of the last, so he died around 100 Hijrah imagine 100 Hijrah right - he says and he of course saw the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) as a little child, he says: "I still remember when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) came to our house and to our
neighborhood that he played with me and he threw some water from the glass that he had into my face, that he sprinkled some water onto my face."
Now this is like you know you're teasing little children, you're just playing with them. So the child now becomes a sahabi, he's now 90 years old - actually, actually he was 100 or something when he passed away - says: "I still remember the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) coming and playing with me and throwing water from the mug onto my face."
So again this is like teasing the child, running around with the child. So the fact the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is even being what we would call basically playful with the children and this is again well reported.
Family Life Examples
It is narrated that - and this Hadith is in Bukhari by the way - that Abu Bakr As-Siddiq came to visit his daughter Aisha and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was there. And from outside he hears Aisha raising her voice at some irritation - I mean husbands and wives, husbands and wives, doesn't matter who they are right? Wives are wives and husbands are husbands right? So Aisha is raising her voice and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is quiet.
Abu Bakr becomes enraged, he says: "Allow me in." So they let him in and he begins rebuking Aisha: "How dare you raise your voice above the voice of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم),how dare you say..." and he kept on going and going and he got in front of Aisha and his hand began going up and down such that Aisha felt he might even strike me - this is the father feeling anger that how dare you do this in (صلى الله عليه وسلم) front of the Prophet
When it became very tense the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) put his body in between and he put his hands to protect Aisha so that Abu Bakr then eventually left. Then he said to Aisha - they've just been having not an argument but you get the point, back and forth - he says to Aisha: "Don't you see how I defended you from that man?"
Now this is humorous, we all get it, we all get it, every husband here sees - he's playing with Aisha "don't you see how I defended you from that man?" - her own father - meaning how could you be yelling at me and I'm the one defending you from Abu Bakr!
The Food Fight Between Wives
And so many other incidents that take place. We have the story of Aisha again - Aisha (رضي الله عنها) was with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and Saudah - and of course Saudah was the eldest of the wives of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and Aisha is of course the youngest - and Saudah visited and Aisha had cooked some food, actually was a very what would be considered to be an expensive dish because there was meat in it.
So when you have meat at that time it's a very big thing and it's called Khazeer, it's a meat dish with bread type of stuff in it. So Saudah says: "I don't want to eat." Aisha felt she's not eating because I cooked it, that she's not eating because she doesn't trust my cooking or she doesn't think my cooking is good.
So she said : (وَاللهِ لَتَأْكُلِينَ) - "Wallahi you're going to eat it!" And she said: (وَاللهِ لا أَكُلُ) - "Wallahi I'm not going to eat it!" And the Prophet is sitting in the middle.
Aisha said: "You're going to eat it or I'm going to put it into your mouth!" She's getting angry now, she feels insulted that you've come to my house, I'm cooking food for you and you know between the co- wives maybe this is even more so than otherwise, so she feels something tension like why aren't you eating?
So Saudah says: "I'm not going to eat." So Aisha literally takes some food and puts it on her mouth, puts it on her mouth, and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is not interfering when this happens.
Saudah loses her temper and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) - he's sitting with his legs cross legged right - when he sees that Saudah is going to respond he lifts one knee up and he says: "Go ahead, your turn now!"
So Saudah literally takes the food and puts it on Aisha's face in anger and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is laughing at what is going on. Now the point again is that he is allowing this humor, this is a part of life, it happens, this is the reality that this type of relationship - again our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is the ultimate role model.
The Beautiful Story of Zahir
And of course my all time favorite story and everybody loves this story when they hear it - it is such a sweet and beautiful story and it demonstrates the perfection of the akhlaq of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) - is regarding that sahabi who was actually not from Medina, he was a Bedouin, he didn't live in Medina, he was a Bedouin, he was from the Arab but he was of the righteous Arab and his name was Zahir, his name was Zahir.
And he would come to Medina and always gift the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) something and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would gift him back. They had a very good friendship together but Zahir was mocked by the other people, the other people made fun of him, he was short and they said he was ugly looking and they said he was this and that, but the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) didn't care about this, he liked him a lot, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) had a good relationship with him.
One day the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is walking in the souq and he sees Zahir and he hasn't seen him for a long time and Zahir has not yet come to the masjid, he has to sell some merchandise then he is going to come to the masjid. So the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is pleasantly surprised that he is seeing Zahir.
So he walks from behind Zahir not informing him that he has seen him and he is in the souq, everybody is buying and selling, saying "who is going to buy, who is going to purchase?" In those days everybody would have to scream "I have this, I have that, purchase this!"
So the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) held on to him from the back - I mean this is unbelievable when you think about it, he is Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and this is Zahir. You know we tried our best, the scholars, myself, we tried our best to look up about Zahir, we only know 3 or 4 things about him. He is not one of the big famous sahaba, he is not like Abu Bakr and Umar, he doesn't have a long history of qital and jihad. We don't know much about him but for some reason there is something in his akhlaq, something in him the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) really loves Zahir.
And so he held on to Zahir from behind and he holds on to him like this and then in the middle of the souq he says: (مَنْ يَشْتَرِي هَذَا الْعَبْدَ مِنِّي) - "Who is gonna purchase this abd from me?"
You all get the double meaning "abd" here - who is gonna purchase this abd? Now of course in the souq the "abd" here would mean a slave but when he is saying it it means the worshipper of Allah and Zahir is a worshipper of Allah right? "Who is gonna purchase this abd from me?" This is what we would call a humorous prank and it is our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) doing it: (مَنْ يَشْتَرِي هَذَا الْعَبْدَ مِنّي)
And Zahir becomes angry: "Who is this playing this prank? Who is this?" because I mean who wouldn't be irritated? Then he sees who it is, what happens? The narrator says Zahir just melted and became limp so that he could feel his back could feel the skin of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and that he could get the barakah from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) as much as possible. Immediately he limped so that he could feel the blessed body of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
And then he said: "Ya Rasulullah, you wanna sell me but I'm gonna come for a cheap price, what are you gonna get for me right? I'm gonna be..." And the reason he is making fun of himself because the people say bad things about him. You know how sometimes cruel people are and they would make fun of him for his expression or his facial features or whatever, they would say that he is not a handsome man, he is what not.
And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: "Rather you are very expensive in the eyes of Allah! (إِنَّكَ عِنْدَ الله لغال) - You are very expensive in the eyes of Allah!" (Ahmad hadith 12669(
Now this incident, if it doesn't humanize the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) what will? If it doesn't show us his perfection of akhlaq then what will?
Scholarly Tradition of Humor
And that is why when our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) established this as a reality then it is not surprising that we find the sahaba, the tabi'oon, the great imams - every single imam, Imam Ahmad, Imam Shafi',
Imam Malik and what not - we find from them as well this type of humor. Even in their fiqh we find it here and there when they give fatawa and again much can be said, time does not allow us to do so.
We find the same type of humorousness and gentleness in the greatest scholars of Islam and in fact many are the quotations from our scholars that it is a part of being a gentleman, it is a part of being a good Muslim that there is an element of humor, an element of joking and what not.
And that is why even some of the most classical authentic books of even political science of being a ruler and leader - Al-Mawardi is a great scholar of medieval Islam and he has books about how to be a leader and how to - he has sections in it: "The etiquettes of joking."
Ibn Hazm, Ibn Hibban the great scholar of hadith, Ibn Al-Jawzi - all of these scholars, they actually wrote treatises. In our times we would call them joke books, they didn't have the genre back then but they said "the stories of foolish people" or they said that "incidents of humor." So they're having entire treatises - these are printed, I have most of them at home by the way, they are printed, they are available.
Great scholars Ibn Hazm, Ibn Al-Jawzi, Ibn Hibban - these are of the most authentic serious scholars of Islam but we see another side of theirs.
Conditions and Guidelines for Islamic Humor
And therefore brothers and sisters there is absolutely nothing wrong with being humorous, with being gentle, with being jokeful, but there are conditions. What are those conditions? Very quickly:
1. No Blatant Lying
Number one: there cannot be blatant lying. We are not allowed to lie or to deceive and by lying what we mean here is to say something that is an intentional lie. You invent a fabrication about Ahmed, about Mustafa, about Zainab and you just say something that is completely untrue and the person doesn't even realize that "oh" and then you say "oh I was just kidding with you" - no it doesn't work that way.
And by the way as for the jokes that we say - the standard jokes "there was a man" or "there was a rabbi, a priest" - that type of stuff, it's not quite lying because you know that it is a fable so that's not covered in the hadith. But what we mean is you intentionally lie about somebody and the other person doesn't realize and then you say "oh I was just joking" - this is not allowed in our religion.
2. No Haram Content
As well obviously goes without saying that no joke can have anything that is haram inside of it - of backbiting, of slander, of lewdness, of vulgarity - this is not of the akhlaq of our religion. So we cannot have anything and it goes without saying that nothing that is humorous can have something intrinsically haram in it.
3. No Causing Fear or Terror
As well if the joke involves a prank or something of this nature then it is not allowed to bring about terror upon a person, you cannot terrify a person. Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said in hadiths in Abu Dawud: "It is not allowed for a believer to bring fear into the heart of another believer." (Abu Dawud hadith 5004) So even as a joke or as a prank you cannot do something that will terrify the person, that is not something that is a part of our religion.
4. The Purpose Must Be Positive
And as well of the conditions that our scholars mentioned: that look at all of the incidents I said to you of the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم,every one of them the end result was the person felt closer to Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم,the person felt better camaraderie, the person felt genuine ukhuwwah, the person was cheered up.
So if the joke offends, if the joke makes the person feel bad, if you have denigrated the person then no, this isn't funny and it is not something the Sharia allows. Jokes and humor should cheer people up, bring happiness to them, not make them feel bad.
So once you've insulted somebody don't say "oh it was only a joke." If the person feels insulted you are at fault, not the other person. And if - and at times it is possible that you say something and you intend it as a positive joke but the person - you overestimated, you made a mistake and the person is offended - in this situation Islamically it's your fault, you have to apologize and don't say "oh take a joke brother" - no, you're the one who went beyond the bounds and said something that was a grey area and the other person was offended so it is your responsibility to clear up that misunderstanding.
5. Appropriate Time and Place
And of the etiquettes as well of being humorous and joking is that it is done in the appropriate manner at the right time and place. To go to extremes, to go too much is something that obviously goes against the etiquettes of Islam.
Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "I warn you against excessive laughing, laughing too much." And he didn't say "I warn you against laughing" - our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم laughed - "excessive laughing all the time, joking, laughing all the time" because we have something serious to do, that's the worship of Allah.
Jokes as the scholars say - and this is an Arabic tradition and an Arabic phrase and an English phrase "jokes are like salt to one's food." This is an Arabic and an English - "jokes are like salt to one's food." You add it to the right amount - perfect - and this is the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Humor has its place, when you go beyond the bounds then you lose the respect of the people and your status is demeaned and you will end up offending people.
So the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "I warn you against excessive laughing for excessive laughing makes the heart hard."
6. Nothing Against Allah and His Messenger
And the final condition and the final condition is that - and the most important really is that - the joke not involve anything that is denigrating to Allah and His Messenger, to the religion of Islam. It is not just haram, it is kufr to joke about Allah and His Messenger. It's not just a sin, it is kufr because a heart that understands who is Allah and who is Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم can never then be sarcastic against them.
We in our tradition, in our religion, there is no such thing as cracking humor against Allah, making fun of the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم - this is not Islam. This can only come from a heart that doesn't understand what it means to be sacred, what it means to have sanctity.
We do not joke about our mother, we do not joke about the kindness or the akhlaq or the purity of our mother. Wallahi, Allah and His Messenger deserve infinitely more respect and love than our parents do. There are things we do not joke about and of them are that which is of the sha'air of the main points of this religion.
Conclusion
Why This Topic Matters
Dear brothers and sisters, somebody might ask: "Why give an entire khutbah about this topic?" And the response:
First and foremost because it is relevant, because we all need to know the Islamic rulings about this topic.
Secondly because when we hear these stories about Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم then our iman in him, our love for him, our respect in him, our desire to be with him increases and this is one of the reasons why our classical ulama as well wrote about this topic.
And thirdly and lastly, our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم on the day of Eid when there was merriment going on, when some of the sahaba had some halal entertainment going on, some of the stricter of the sahaba - Umar ibn Khattab - became like angry, like "why is this happening? How can you do this in front of the "? صلى الله عليه وسلم Prophet
And what did the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم say? "Oh Umar, let them, let them do what they're doing. Let the people know that there is (فُسْحَةُ - fusha) - in our religion, there is entertainment, there is laxity in our religion. Our religion isn't just all the time, all the time serious and you have a stern face and it's strict. No, you need some humor, some entertainment, some that is halal."
So this hadith: "Let the people know that there is some leeway in our religion that our religion isn't just everything haram, everything this and that." Human nature, you need a little bit of entertainment but keep it a little bit, don't make entertainment the ultimate goal which unfortunately is the reality of many people around us - that entertainment is their main goal in life. No, entertainment is like again salt and a part of that is joking and humor.
So let the people know, especially at times like this, let the people understand our religion is not all about strictness and haram and everything forbidden. No, there is leeway and it is halal to enjoy life but it must be done within the limits of Islam and that is one of the main purposes of having an entire khutbah about this topic.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us all to follow in the beautiful footsteps, in the genuine humor, in the simple and the beautiful jokes of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and enjoy his company and his humor in the akhira.
Second Khutbah
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا