Question:

We are a group of youth who pray, fast, and do what we are can of acts of worship, All praise is due to Allaah. However, when we are relaxing afterwards there is a lot of joking between us. So what is the ruling in that? May Allaah reward you.

Answer:

First, we ask Allaah, The Exalted, to make these brothers firm upon what they do of acts of worship and that He makes that worship upon a form that He is pleased with according to the guidance of the Prophet, ﷺ, without extremism and short-coming.

We say: that you stay firm in the acts of worship you do. As for joking afterwards, then there is no good in too much joking. It is said: joking in terms of speech is like salt in food. Food is not good without salt nor when there is a lot of salt.

Next, some people transgress in joking. So he may mention some profane words against the right of his brothers which is not befitting. Sometimes that leads to what is worse than, such as the mockery of some acts of worship from the Religion. This is very, very dangerous. It leads to disbelief and Allaah’s refugee is sought. So it is upon them to joke moderately without exaggeration and short-coming.

[Nuur ‘ala Darb. No. 617]

Translated by Faisal ibn ‘Abdul-Qaadir ibn Hassan