It has been a while since I wanted to write on the issue of wearing football jerseys and any logos that have cross on them. This hot issue has also been discussed by Ustaz Zaharuddin fairly recently. I am not going into details of the things mentioned by him, but I would like to talk about football itself. I am a big fan of football and I am really interested in expressing my opinion on this.Recently the issue of wearing jerseys that have "cross" on them is being questioned especially after Spain lifted the World Cup. Liverpool had Carlsberg as their sponsor for a really long time and now they have opted for Standard Chartered as their sponsor instead. The article that was written in Malaysian papers said that it is not right for a Muslim to wear jerseys that have "red devil, cross and liquors" as their logo and sponsors. So recently I have seen people proudly saying that the jersey they are wearing have none of those. One of those is the Liverpool jerseys. It is a bit obvious that we muslims do not really appreciate or understand the importance of Islamic Banking. I was also one of those muslim who didn't realised the importance of Islamic Banking but I was made aware of it since I took the Masters in Islamic Banking. How I would appreciate to see the Liverpool jersey with Standard Chartered Saadiq instead.
It is a pity that muslims are not really aware of the importance of Islamic Banking. Those who are aware of Islamic Banking are annoyed at the certain Islamic Banking practices that mirrors the conventional banking. In my opinion muslims do need more exposure in Islamic banking in order for Islamic banking to work and to not be a photostat copy of the conventional banking which are using the term "Islamic". As mentioned by Ustaz Zaharuddin, a person who consumes riba/usury/interest is like one who is waging a war against Allah and His Messengers and the sins are like commiting fornication 36 times. The sin of commiting 1 fornication is bad enough, consuming riba is 36 times worst. I have also written in my previous entry about the unfairness in taking or consuming riba here.
Those who wear jerseys that have insurance as their sponsor are not any different with those who wears conventional banking. Conventional banking is bad because it deals with riba. Insurance is worse because it is deals with riba, gharar(uncertainty) and game of chance(sort of gambling). Let us take car insurance for example, a person pays for insurance because he would like to be covered IF he gets an accident. I emphasise IF because, the person knows that he/she is bound to have an accident but not sure when. The insurance company looks through the persons records (accident prone and any traffic violation) to calculate the cost of insuring the person. If the company finds that it is a big liability to insure the person, the company would definitely NOT insure them. Therefore, the company who insures a person knows that the person have a low chance of having an accident. The company is setting its price on it. When the company sets a price on it, it implies that the company is betting with that person that he/she is not(/less chances) going to have an accident. But the person knows that he/she is bound to have and accident and therefore both are going against odds and therefore they are involved in "gambling"...Allah knows best. This thing is a bit tricky for me to express but I hope I have made it simple to understand. I hope to explain more about insurance probably in the future, Insha'Allah.
Getting back to the issue of the jerseys and football, it is also important to mention somethings that is always involved in football which is betting. We muslims should not support such activities. We should not believe in the justice of earning with luck. The game of chance (gambling) only make one party wins. It is either the bookey or the gambler, both cannot win at the same time. Muslim should not believe in this kind of justice, we believe in helping each other and should crave for a win win situation.
Why does a person buy a jersey? to show support of that particular team? to give financial support to the team? I am not trying to annoy the Liverpool and Manchester supporters, but the reason I would like to mention about them is because there are a lot of news on them. Thier debts are now hundreds of millions and their debt will continue to grow because of their involvement in riba/interests. In the past, even Chelsea were having debts up to £300 million if I am not mistaken before Roman bought the club. By giving them your money to buy jerseys it may help them to recover bits of their debts, but when they need financial support, they will go for the conventional method which is suppoting riba/interests.
In Malaysia usually during an EPL match, it is normal to hear people cursing at each other or even cursing the TV because of the opposition. What is the real intention of that? Why the need to be too emotional? In my opinion it is not a big deal to be a fan, but do not go up to the extreme. Love the game, not necessarily the team. It is good to see people are getting more aware about all these jersey/logo stuff but in my opinion, there are more important priority should be taken care of. There are no other priority that should be taken care which is worshipping Allah. It does not get us anywhere if we neglect the most important thing we as a muslim should do. If not Allah who deserves the worshipping, who else deserves more? Torres? Rooney? Gianfranco Zola? Na'uzubillahiminzalik.
Have a think.
Allah definitely knows best.
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