Reference: al-Muntaqaa min Fataawa Fadheelatush-Shaykh Saalih Ibn Fowzaan – Volume 3, Page 346, Fatwa No. 516
Question: What is the ruling regarding watching soap operas [and serials] which are transmitted on television?
Response: It is upon the Muslim to safeguard his time [involving himself] in that which will benefit him in his life and the Hereafter because he is responsible for his time which he spends: How did he spend it? Allaah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala) says:
{Did We not give you lives long enough, so that whosoever would receive admonition, – could receive it?}, [Soorah al-Faatir, Aayah 37].
And in a hadeeth, a man will be asked about his life and in what he spent it, (at-Tirmidhee). Watching soap operas [and serials] is a waste of time so it is not befitting for the Muslim to busy himself with it. If the soap operas involve anything that is forbidden then watching them is haraam; such as overt and beautiful women, music and singing, and soap operas and serials which convey bad thoughts far from religion and good manners. Also, like soap operas [and serials] which include shameless [actions and speech] which badly affects good manners. So [the like of] these types of soap operas [and serials] are not permissible to watch.
