can u please tell me if we are allowed in islam to collect wrestling and football cards as all my freinds do it and i feel left out in school

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

First of all, we welcome you to our site and we ask Allaah to enable you to do whatever He likes and is pleased with. Also, we thank you for being keen on knowing the legal ruling for what you want to do; this is indeed evidence of your righteousness and fear of Allaah.

You should know, dear brother, that you should not waste your time in collecting pictures of wrestlers and footballers because such pictures include revealing the ‘Awrah (parts of the body that must be covered in Islam), as you know, and the Prophet said: ''Do not expose your thigh and do not look at anybody's thigh whether that person is alive or dead."

Looking at people’s ‘Awrah is forbidden; the fact that your friends collect those pictures is not a sound reason for you to do so. Furthermore, you should not take your friends as your example in evil; rather, you should follow the example of pious and righteous people. Therefore, you should look for righteous friends to keep company with, and who would help you in doing good.

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 88250, 87616 and 84742.

Allaah Knows best.