Does Islam Allow Boxing or MMA? -Mufti Abu Layth

Is boxing allowed as a means of living? Yes, I feel boxing. Somebody had asked me before, "Look, is are these sports like uh um MMA um or boxing or any of these things allowed in Islam because you punch or you hit the other person in the face and the Hadith says, "You're not allowed to hit in the face."

So, I said, "Yeah, but that's talking about Look, you're not allowed to hit generally. And where people had systems of corporal punishment, they allowed it like in certain parts of the world in the past they would discipline like let's say students by caning them. Now, discipline in certain cultures was seen like to be okay like corporal punishment.

In those cases, you would not hit the face. Uh as people I mean, they do but generally in those places they avoid hitting the face. Now, I'm not saying I agree. I don't agree with corporal punishment but that's what the context was speaking about. It's not speaking about in general and it's not speaking about sports because in sports you willfully, knowingly get into that sport knowing that look, this is what's happening and it's a sport.

It's not something you know, so that's permissible. And the Sahaba and the prophet and the people after the prophet and all of them used to do things like they would practice um they would do things like spar for for for wars and battles. They would practice. They would do sword fighting. They would do wrestling amongst themselves. They would do training.

Now, how do you train without hitting each other? And if you're going to say, "Well, okay, we're going to train, but don't hit me on my don't strike. The obviously that when they train they would have like wooden swords and stuff like this. But and I'm sure when they got better at it they had actual swords, but they you wouldn't say things like oh you're allowed to to spar, but you can't hit me above by my neck upwards.

But then when you go to battle, that's where everybody is striking, but you weren't trained TO BLOCK THAT. UH THAT reminds me of that you know you got that funny meme where the guy's like he's like, "Okay, I will show you how to dismantle a knife." And he's like, "Stab me." He's like, "No, with the other hand." And then he's like and he's like and the other guy is just going one one one.

Right, what are you