- This article examines some of the newly previewed features of GTA 6 and considers whether engaging with them is truly wise for us as Muslims.
Let me start by saying something that may surprise absolutely nobody: GTA 6 looks ridiculous.
Ridiculously impressive. Graphically that is. Denying this would be nothing short of absurd.
For years now, “We got [X] before GTA 6” became the new online unit of time — a running joke born from Rockstar’s seemingly endless wait for its next blockbuster. And after over a decade of anticipation, the first gameplay footage arrived.
The extended gameplay showcased 26 minutes of footage, blending gameplay sequences with story moments and a closer glimpse at the world of its next chapter.
The footage was met with an almost unanimous outpouring of praise.
Kai Cenat (who was live-streaming the event) howled, ripped his shirt, pounded his desk and screamed at the camera repeatedly, “Take my money! Take my money! Take my f*cking money!”
Rockstar’s objective continues to be to make escapism feel irresistible — allowing players to indulge in experiences they could never pursue in real life.
The game features over 600,000 animations for its NPCs and Leonida county is three times larger than the Red Dead Redemption 2 map. The sandbox looks enormous, with staggering environmental detail and a world that feels more reactive than ever. The depth of its systems, instant character switching and sheer player agency could make for some incredible emergent gameplay — and one of the most immersive open-world experiences to date.
Rockstar appears to also satirise modern influencer culture. During the previewed footage, we saw a live-streaming character bearing an obvious resemblance to N3on.
Lucia is Nagging Jason
When Lucia asks Jason to pick a dress she should wear, he suggests the one with ‘sequins’. Many fans have stated that the script is unrealistic as most men wouldn’t know what a sequence dress is.
Lucia then gets into a car with Jason and promptly begins lecturing him on the importance of communication in a relationship. Hilariously, this particular exchange has attracted plenty of attention from GTA’S predominately male fan base. Lucia is, after all, supposed to be the dream girl in a haram world but apparently nobody warned them she might also come with a TED Talk.
But that’s the least of our concerns
GTA 6 was built upon a whopping $1.5 billion and was developed over 13 years by thousands of people, with enormous expertise across the most diverse fields — sadly, with one stark exception: that of morality.
The features include:
- The lewd enabling of players to control how a woman’s body parts move.
- The normalisation and glorification of a criminal lifestyle.
- Drugs
- Nude body parts
- Consistent effing and jeffing
- The strip club
- Vulgar dialogue
Take your socks and shoes off, there’s more!
Allegations of Cheating!
Lucia, the optional, in-built virtual girlfriend. Players can get her to text them, flirt with her, and even pursue a relationship with her. Sounds like an episode of Black Mirror, right? This particular feature has sent TikTok into a meltdown, with girls across the platform threatening to dump their boyfriends if they dare purchase the game.
Is Playing GTA 6 the same as visiting sin city?
It’s not entirely the same as visiting Vegas, we know. But as Muslims, if you would avoid visiting the Vegas strip despite its world famous 360-degree screen and even a John Wick experience, why would you think it’s okay to visit a strip club virtually, in 4K with ray tracing?
The haram elements in the game aren’t accidental bugs buried in the code; they’re deliberately designed features and a fundamental part of the game’s identity.
But, I hear the clogs in your mind moving:
“I’ll just skip the strip club, and any nudity.”
This is probably the strongest counterargument there is.
But here’s the thing: you can’t. We’re not talking about a ten-second cutscene that you can simply skip. We’re talking about the sandbox itself exposing you to a whole array of filth.
“I’ll say bismillah before loading the game”
Are you okay?
“I’ll pause the heist for salah”
“I’ll lower my gaze when anything haram happens”
What’s wrong with you?
“I’ll give dawah to the Hammer Lady and the NPC’s in my heart”
I’m worried about you now.
“I’ll mute the music.”
“I’ll just play the missions.”
And then there’s this justification…
“But it’s only a game!”
Of course it is. Nobody is arguing that playing GTA 6 instantaneously turns someone into a real-life harami. If it did, we’d have a serious problem with everyone who has ever played Call of Duty, Hitman or Assassin’s Creed.
The argument is subtler.
Allah, our Creator and Sustainer, doesn’t only ask us to avoid the final act of sin. He also teaches us to be conscious of the roads that lead towards it, because what we repeatedly expose our senses to leaves an impression upon the soul.
Allah says:
“Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and guard their chastity.”
(Qur’an 24:30)
And Allah azza wa jal also says:
“Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart—all of those will be questioned.”
(Qur’an 17:36)
“I’m Muslim. I know right from wrong. A video game can’t influence me,” I hear you say.
Maybe.
But Islam doesn’t teach us to deliberately test the limits of our hearts.
And, as Nietzsche famously wrote: “If you look long into the abyss, the abyss will look back at you.”
There is, after all, a meaningful distinction between encountering something unintentionally and knowingly choosing to purchase a £70 game after previewing its content, only to spend dozens of hours voluntarily immersed in that environment. This does not mean that every form of fictional entertainment is inherently harmful. Rather, it invites us to ask a more important question: does the fact that something is fictional make it morally insignificant?
As Muslims, our responsibility is not limited to what we do; what we repeatedly expose ourselves to undoubtedly shapes our hearts and minds.
Needless to say, there is also considerable scholarly precedent asserting that games containing nudity, sexual imagery, vulgarity, or the promotion of clearly prohibited behaviour ought to be approached with strict caution.
Rob Nelson, director at Rockstar North, revealed that the game takes 80 hours to complete. Consequently, in three months time, the game will launch and sedate the masses.
Don’t get me wrong: the suggestion here isn’t to send your controller clattering to the floor. There are, in fact, several benefits of gaming. It has been shown to improve our reaction times significantly. In addition, a 2018 meta-analysis examined the effects of playing action video games and found that doing so substantially improved attention and spatial cognition.
Furthermore, as muslims, we should rest, fill our cups, enjoy life and have fun but we must be mindful of what we are consuming, and our ultimate purpose. Consequently, to game for hours upon hours is nonsensical.
After all, we are already at war with our phones, the enemy of all things good. We must use our time wisely. We mustn’t forget to be playful with our loved ones: especially our parents and grandparents, laugh with them, enjoy the dignity of silence every once in a while, make the most of our time here on earth and leave a legacy behind. We must try our best to minimise the apocalypse that’s happening around us because although the girls on TikTok are objecting to the suggestion of a virtual Latina girlfriend named Lucia Caminos, there are corners of our society who have worryingly garbed the prospect with an air of respectability. The human wreckage is tangible.
GTA 6 promotes a lifestyle of hedonism. Similarly, the citizens of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World are relentlessly saturated with entertainment, from music to cinema, to boundless sexual immorality, whilst the happiness-inducing drug ‘soma’ offers an artificial escape from any semblance of discomfort. In this dystopian society, pleasure becomes a form of psychological anaesthesia: misery is eradicated, but so too are purpose, faith, familial bonds, and the capacity for independent thought. Huxley therefore presents a chilling paradox — a society that has conquered suffering has, in doing so, sacrificed everything that makes human existence meaningful. Whilst GTA 6 is of course, a work of entertainment as opposed to Huxley’s dystopian nightmare made reality in its entirety, his warning nevertheless remains relevant here: when entertainment becomes sufficiently immersive and all-consuming with no moral compass, we should perhaps pause to ask not simply whether it is entertaining, but what it may be quietly displacing, how it maybe shaping our new normal, and how it maybe assisting Shaytan in corrupting the hearts and minds of the Muslims.
