Going to the Dead Sea for entertainment

13-9-2003 | IslamWeb

Question:

What is the Islamic point of view of going to the Dead Sea for fun, i.e. to swim and to have a vacation?

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Answer:

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.

Before answering your question, we bring to your knowledge that every person will be called to account and will be asked about his time, body and money.  Therefore, we advise you to spend them in what benefits instead of spending them in tourism and playing.  However, we do not mean that traveling and visiting good places in vacations is forbidden as long as this is done within the boundaries of the Sharee'ah, and as long as it does not lead to committing what is forbidden or neglecting an obligation.

However, a Muslim should always keep in mind the many Muslim brothers who are in need of a mouthful of food. So, he should allocate a portion of his money for them.  Also, he should remember that many Muslims do not know their religion and many non-Muslims are in need of Islam. So, he should allot a portion of his time to convey the true religion to such people.

As for the Dead Sea, some historians and interpreters of the Quran and some People of Book reported that this is the place where Allaah ordered the earth to swallow the nation of the Prophet Lot . If it is correct then we should not visit such places because the Prophet while passing the place of Thamud said: "Do not enter the house of those who were punished, unless you are weeping, lest you should suffer the same punishment as was inflicted upon them." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

So, visiting or going on vacation to such places contradicts the rulings mentioned in the above Hadeeth.  All the above details should be regarded if it is proved that the Dead Sea is the place where Allaah inflicted torment on the nation of the Prophet Lot.  But there is no verse in the Quran or Hadeeth supporting this opinion, even though we prefer to avoid going to that place because it might be the one where Allaah's punishment came down upon the people of the Prophet Lot .

Allaah Knows best.