Is Boxing Haram?

As I daily check my ask.fm page, I came across this question: “Is Boxing Haram?”  the first thing came to my mind is that Boxing is nothing but a lot of people watching two others beating each others for the purpose of satisfaction from the crowd and self-satisfaction from the boxers, a sad sport, two sad souls and freaks! Pure-hearted human don’t like watching two chickens fighting or two cats fighting, let alone to men fighting for no notable value.  As for answering the question, thanks to IslamQA, I will use their answer with some changes

The Muslim’s aim in playing sports should be to strengthen himself to do acts of worship and to support the religion of Allah, to defend His sacred limits and to protect the honor of the Muslims. If that is not the case, then at the very least he should aim to earn himself a living in this world, protect himself from enemies or use his physical strength to earn a living, so that it will be a means of him eating from what he earns with his own hands. This is with regard to permissible kinds of sports. But from what we see nowadays, most sports have gone beyond that and are no longer permissible. You might ask why it’s Haram?  Well the boxing does include the following:

It involves attacking the face, and the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) taught us to avoid the face and don't hit the face. This game is based on hitting the face of one's opponent with the strongest blow the boxer can muster.  It is a waste of time, Allah has bestowed many blessings upon the Muslim, and He will question him about them on the Day of Resurrection. But people think little of these blessings and waste many of them such as good health and free time. One of the things that Allah will question the Muslim about on the Day when he meets Him will be his youth and what he did with it, and his life and how he spent it. What will this man say who spent his youth and his life training to fight people and wrestle with them and box with them in order to gain a title or win a prize?

It is a harmful sport which can lead to irreparable damage, and Allah has forbidden us to harm our bodies, which He has commanded us to preserve and protect.  You know that there are many boxers have been permanently injured, especially with damage to the brain and nerves. It involves wasting money and wasting people’s time with something that is of no benefit. Instead of being wasted on this useless entertainment, that money could have been spent on charitable causes. How many millions are wasted that could have been spent on feeding the hungry, building a mosque, opening a school or other good works!?

These sports – including boxing – have become an excuse for tribalism and nationalism. Sport, as it exists nowadays, has divided people and made people love or hate one another on the basis of the victory or defeat of a team. It involves uncovering the “Awrah” even if you do not do that, your opponent will. The man's “Awrah” is from the navel to the knee, as was narrated from the Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) Similarly, it involves uncovering of the spectators’ ‘Awrahs, both men and women. This is something that you cannot ward off or even denounce them for it.”

You might say, but you know the Prophet Said “The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, although both are good” well I agree, physical strength is a blessing from Allah and a gift from Him which He bestows upon whomsoever He will and withholds from whomsoever He will. It is very good for the believer to engage in permissible sports so that he will be physically strong and will preserve his health, which will help him to do acts of worship and for the sake of Allah.

You might say, but you know I will fight Non-Muslims, I will break them and prove Muslims are stronger, remember that these fights are not held for the sake of religion, and they are not based on that. When people watch a fight, they do not think that this is a fight between Islam and Kufr. Moreover, when you fight, you will be fighting in the name of the country where you live, or which has given you its nationality; they will not allow you to fight in the name of Islam. For the sake of argument, let’s assume your opponent is Non-Muslim, he may from among the people with whom there is peace (Ahl Al-Silm), not those who are in a state of war with the Muslims (Ahl Al-Harb), so what right do you have to raise your hand against a man who is at peace with us?

If you said you want to strengthen your body, well you can do that by doing other sports that are not Haram. Don’t think by knocking people down you are considered strong, the strong in my opinion who can live in this life without committing sins! Remember, someone who left something for the sake of God, God will open doors of opportunity, God will give you better options