Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Karim Yahya, SunniPath Academy Teacher
Is practicing Martial Arts a waste of time?
In The Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
Whether practicing Martial arts is a beneficial use of time or not depends on one’s intention and the types of training one is actually engaged in.
Competing with the use of weapons which are beneficial in war, with the aim of preparing to defend the Muslims from aggression, is sunna.
However, to compete with them with merely a permissible intention, such as personal enjoyment, is permissible; and competing with them with an impermissible intention, such as preparing to harm non-combatants, is forbidden.
Shaykh Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Allah have mercy on him, said in Tuhfah: “Racing and competitive marksmanship are both (i.e. each one of them with the aim of preparing for Jihad is) sunna . . . If they are done with a permissible intention, then they are permissible; or with a forbidden one, such as [preparing for] highway robbery, then they are un-lawful . . . Marksmanship competition is valid with arrows . . . spears . . . throwing stones and every instrument of benefit in war, such as proceeding to and fro with spears.”1
As for wrestling, to which many martial arts can be compared, the soundest position is that one may not compete at it for a prize because it is not very beneficial in war, but it is valid to compete at it with out a prize as Shaykh Ibn Hajar said in Tuhfah.2 So it is not sunna to compete at wrestling, but it is permissible. Then if one made a praiseworthy intention such as strengthening one’s body and health to worship Allah or preparing to better defend the Muslims, it would be praiseworthy.
One should, however, be careful to avoid any practices that are offensive in Islam or even impermissible, such as bowing to another person, mixing un-lawfully with the opposite sex, or being in the presence of statues.
And Allah knows best and He alone gives success (tawfiq).
1.Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Hawashi al-Sharwani Wa Ibn Qasim al-Abbadi ‘Ala Tuhfah al-Muhtaj Bisharh al-Minhaj (Beruit, Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-‘Arabi), 9:397-398.
2. ibid., 9:399.