Do I need a break from social media
Date:
Channel: Ali Hammuda
File Size: 52.78MB
AI Generated Summary ©
The conversation discusses the negative impact of social media on people's mental health and mental health, including the loss of social media usage and negative mental health consequences. The segment also touches on the benefits of social media, including reducing mental health and addiction, and the importance of avoiding harm. The speakers emphasize the need to measure one's behavior and find one's own success with social media. They also suggest removing negative information from social media and offering advice on how to measure one's behavior.AI Generated Transcript ©
Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah, who Allah Allah, he also have a human who Allah
welcomes your brothers and sisters to what we hope will be this I can look here a monthly lecture that we do in the city of Wales. We're very grateful to the south Wales Islamic centre, its committee, its Imam and all of those involved the volunteers Baraka Luffy comm for facilitating this giving the opportunity.
And this message it is at the heart of our community to central to us and who we are as codefuel Muslims, we ask Allah subhanaw taala to allow the light of Iman and baraka and hierarchy to emit from this masjid, to make this beginning of many projects, an extension of the projects that this Masjid already carries out Aloha Naomi.
So in the last 100 years,
so many things have changed, globally. So many things have developed
at an exponential rate, so many things have devolved as well, mainly from a whole look a moral perspective.
And perhaps nothing has evolved as fast as the means of communication.
If we go through a quick breakdown of what communication was like since antiquity, in the beginning, it was largely an oral transmission, people seeing something, hearing it, memorizing it, and then passing it on to others.
Then this would gradually develop, and people would start engraving things on stone, tablets. And then stone became bones. Bones became leather parchments that they would write on.
And then those leather parchments became scrolls of sophisticated paper. And communication was growing and becoming more effective and more detailed.
And then things began to evolve yet further. And now there was the invention of what they call the homing pigeons, giving a pigeon or training birds to take a message and to transfer it from country to country.
And then human messengers would also take messages, transferring it from person to person, country to country, continent to continent, on foot or on horseback.
They would also develop the technique or the technology of relay stations using fire to communicate messages. So one station would light up with fire, which would ignite another station, which would ignite another station, and a message is communicated from country to country or province to province.
The biggest shift in communication, however,
was around you can see in the early parts of the 1990s
when commercial Internet Service Providers emerged,
and internet had become a household product for everyone to use to communicate for the first time in human history.
At the speed of light.
So the post office had happened, the newspaper had happened magazines were printed. This was in Europe, now you have communication at the speed of light from Europe to China, within a fraction of a second.
Then we fast forward to around 2004
Where you had a gentleman, a Harvard University student at the time, by the name of
Mark
Zuckerberg, who developed the first social media platform known as Facebook.
And the intention of Facebook was just to be used by other fellow students at his university at Harvard in America.
And everyone in the University started using it just exploded in popularity, then, most of the universities in Boston started to use it. And within just two years in 2006, the whole globe
was familiar with this product called Facebook
with hundreds of millions of subscribers.
And then since then, you had the likes of LinkedIn and MySpace, and of course Twitter and Instagram. More recently tick tock and soon this very lecture whoever watches it on the video will become outdated. It will be out of date, it loses shelf life because we stopped that
tic tock there's gonna be a whole range of other social media platforms that we haven't listed things are still evolving.
What is interesting there brothers and sisters is that I want to be Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam predicted that there will be towards the end of time, a change in the way that people communicate.
He said in the Hadith, which I hammered the rates on the authority of Abu Sydenham. Kadri he said, When Levine fcbd healer Taku Musa to Hatter you can Lima al ensue.
A Siddha
or Hatter you can limit a Seba, all insert. I swear by the one who owns my life he said, The Day of Judgment is not going to happen.
Until a day comes when man will be speaking to wild creatures.
Well, you can Lima or radula
either to sell to he was she Roku naturally he will you Mira, who does he do who will be my
Hulu badda.
And the day will come when man will speak into the tip of his whip
and will speak to the shoelace of his sandal the lace of his sandal. And his thigh will tell him about what his family were getting up to since he left them. What does this mean? Is this in reference to mobile phone technology Allah knows best. The point is that he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prophesized that there's going to be what a change in changing communication.
Now without doubt, and it goes without saying social media has brought with it so much good from an Islamic perspective. The ability to advertise a talk like this, record it, publish it, share it, allowing people from the four corners of the globe to benefit from it.
The countless brothers and sisters who spend their evenings thinking about how to carefully craft that next Islamic reminder to help people find their way back to their religion. 1000s of people who found their way to Islam through social media, Quran there is recited Hadith that is promoted misinformation that is corrected Ilaha illa Allah so much hair
and when someone does a good because of something you post expect the same reward without any of their reward detracting. It has brought with it opportunities not just from an Islamic perspective, from a non Muslim secular perspective, a business perspective, career perspective.
LinkedIn to know the other fellow professionals out there to know your tribesmen to know your family to communicate with people in Philistine or Yemen or Pakistan, Somalia, it helps you discover who your cousins or your auntie's are, your grades are
those who want to further their career, climb up the ladder, the corporate ladder, it helps you do that, by Allah subhanaw. Taala has permission,
so on and so forth. That's on one side of the spectrum. But on the other side of the spectrum, it has also brought with it a heap full of harms on the adults and on the children as well, social media, although this is not the focus of this particular talk. But what are some of these harms to list just a few.
A person's nightlife is quite ruined. If you become obsessively addicted with social media, you can't sleep a proper full night anymore. These blue light emissions that you are absorbing all of the time it affects your sleep rhythms. And then if you add to that, that obsessive Twitch to quickly
remove the fly mode from your phone to check your latest notification. And then you get that next hit of dopamine and adrenaline and now you're awake and you can't sleep and it becomes even shorter overnight. So you're knackered in the night you can't sleep and by day you're knackered because you haven't slept and then your whole life becomes a misery.
That's one thing a second thing. Think about your ability to be alone with Allah alone with yourself. Young boys, young girls can't do that anymore.
Because Because social media has, for the most part removed that ability from us. Because every opportunity that you're not speaking to someone or working or doing something, it's an opportunity to put your hand in your pocket and to see what's going on on the other side of the world. So you have no time for yourself. So with the passage of 510 15 years, you lose the ability of finding contentment with just being alone.
To sit in Halawa privacy with Elijah and Angela, I know a lot of us can do that, especially the younger generation.
Because you're looking inwardly or you're looking outwardly all of the time outward, the outward the outward
When you're sat alone, you're looking outwardly into what the world is doing. You are unable to sit and to think inwardly for a moment about your Lord subhanho wa taala. And this is an issue. One of the greatest ways of boosting Eman is learning how to sit alone without a phone without a friend without their parent for a moment in your day or night.
And for many of us, we can't do that anymore.
Because we feel that there's value in us that's missing. So we try to find that value elsewhere. That's number two. Number three.
There's heaps of evidence now to prove beyond fact that some of the loneliest, saddest, most depressed and anxious people on planet Earth are those who use their phones or social media specifically, most. It's interesting, you think that the more friends you have online,
the less lonely you feel. That's not the situation that's not the science at all. Actually.
It's like the more chocolate you have in an aisle in the supermarket supermarket does not help you curb your desire for chocolate any more than an aisle that has fewer chocolates.
Lonely. Why? Because you are constantly comparing your life. You're miserable, or boring life that doesn't have vacations, doesn't have business doesn't have the latest Jordans, you're comparing your life to the highlight reel of your neighbor to the highlight reel of someone in Australia.
And they've removed all of the blemishes and the flaws of their day. So they feel lonely. Social media use if you're isolated, they feel inadequate.
That's number three. Number four, look at how social media has for many people made them completely socially incompetent, especially maybe the younger generation Gen Z.
They can't hold a long and deep and meaningful conversation with you looking at you eye to eye that's gone. Because over the passage of yours when you're obsessively using social media, what happens your mind now is hardwired and short circuited to only be able to deal with short comments. ello ELLs thumbs up likes hashtag shares. When you lose the ability to become an interpersonal human being. You can't do it anymore.
So social media teaches you that if there is a problem in your relationships, don't worry, you can just get out of it. Just click the Blog button, end of story.
Does that represent reality? Reality is far more sophisticated than that. Far more messy, far more entangled, far more intertwined. You've got to be intelligent, you got to be socially smart, you got to look at people, you got to talk with them, you got to know how to deal with difficult circumstances show social media says to you that this is an image that you gave over, you impress over, you share your comment you like that's it, it doesn't teach you to look at a woman, for example, as a mother.
Or as a neighbor, it doesn't train you Listen, give you those tools, it strips you over them. So you left socially incompetent. Maybe you feel that I have felt that. And I've experienced as some of you have the generation or the era before social media, and after social media, I can tell you, I'm not the same person.
That Alhamdulillah I'm taking a break at this moment in time. It's been about a year and a half. I'm fasting, trying to give myself a break. And I have seen the effects of the detox. I don't know how long it's gonna last. But it's been phenomenal.
So that's another thing.
The element of what
the element of what brothers what were we just talking about?
How it makes people socially incompetent. add to the list another point. This is your number five and that is look at how social media with time and with obsession with addiction. It can infantilize your mind. It can make your brain like the brain of an infant.
Child.
What do children love the most?
Flashing lights and buzzing sounds? What does social media train you train you to love the most? Flashing lights buzzing sounds, they just call them more sophisticated terms like notifications.
And then look at the tantrum that the child kicks up when he or she they had their desires not met there. And then instant gratification, why not? It's now the child kicks up a fuss, they can't they're not patient. They're not resilient. They're just weak stuff now.
And the users of social media whatever they become like a child living off the next dopamine hit like an adult, living and waiting for the next notification to feel that you're validated by society. Otherwise you don't feel that buzz that hit.
Looking for instant gratification we become childlike with scattered attention or an ad
able to focus you pick up a book, you read half a page, and then you have that yearning to see what's going on on the on your soldiers, but your phone hasn't even gone off. It's a phantom notification, they call it, you feel that your phone has gone off, but it hasn't gone off. It's an imagination. Because the wired the brain has been rewired. So that a human being becomes childlike.
Living off in instant gratification, tantrums, when you don't get the way you want.
distracted, anxious all over the place and unable to carry out a meaningful task.
So this is putting social media in the balance.
Therefore brothers and sisters anything take as a rule
that causes so much change in society.
Anything that is adopted by most of humanity requires attention from us, and to minimally dedicate to it a talk like this or a series as we have done before in other masajid
so I want to share with you
a home test kit. You're gonna go home this evening, inshallah brothers and sisters with a home test kit you can take with you to your house,
and you have seven parts that make up this home test kit. You test yourself.
If you find that you fail this criteria of seven points I'm going to share with you then realize that you're testing positive for social media addiction, and therefore there is a huge reshuffling that you've got to make in your life.
Seven milestones seven litmus tests I want you to think about and you will then decide whether social media is the best thing for you or not. People will come with different answers at the end of this. Take note of it.
Number one,
the elements of gender interactions, boys and girls, talking communicating befriending one another on social media. This is the first point we'd like to speak about.
Can boys and friends boys and girls just be friends?
Allah subhanaw taala he said what do y'all know about the comb the bobbin fitna at us be rude. We have made you a fitna for one another. Allah said will you be patient?
Undoubtedly, communication did exist between the men and the women from the companions of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, no one can challenge that they did speak. But what type of speak what type of speech?
It was a speech that was
shadowed with umbrellas, of decency, and Adam, and mannerisms, respect, and take note of this one necessity.
That was their communication with one another. Other mannerisms, respect, decency, and necessity. That's how they spoke.
And there was this famous study that happened at the University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Eau Claire, where they took 44 college aged students, some of them were single, others were in a relationship, and they and they paired them together. And they studied them over a period of about a year.
And these people were friends before, up to two years to 11 years of a friendship boys and girls, they put them together. And then they assessed, they gave them an interview afterwards. And they found that
men almost always had an attraction towards the girl. But the girl didn't always have an attraction towards the boy.
They found when they were interviewing them that the men consistently overestimated the relationship thinking that something was going on, there is interest. And the women consistently underestimated the relationship saying there was nothing going on. We're just friends.
And now Subhanallah with the whole me to movement, it is showing Islam as being morally superior yet again. It was so wise when it said to be careful, be careful how you speak to the opposite gender and how you interact them with social media. This opportunity has just mushroomed, it's just exploded.
Back in the days you wanted to talk with the girl you like it was just I guess, a piece of paper you write their messaging that you make into paper aeroplane and you launch it and you hope you'll get into the window for her room and onto the lap of her father that is and he's some of the stories that our elders shared with us. Prior to them practicing are hilarious. Now you don't need no paper aeroplane. You don't need a ladder to climb into someone's room. You just need an 11 digit number. Right? Or you need a social media profile name. You're into the bedroom. Oh that person. You telling me that's not a test.
It's a serious problem brothers and sisters.
So this is the first one I want you to think about and put yourself under the litmus test if you're failing this one maybe you need to walk away
and look Subhanallah salah, what we did now is proof
look at the arrangement of Salah. Look at the formation of Salah.
How was Salah at the time of the Prophet Muhammad Salah Salem were women and men they prayed in the same room. But how
will look salah the purest of all actions, carried out by the companions the purest of all people in Masjid another one of the purest of all places on earth. But look at the separation. Because Islam is realistic is pragmatic, it don't throw you under the bus like that.
Imam is a man, never a woman. There's bowing, there's frustration. There's compromising positions, there's also an element of leadership.
There is an imam.
And then you have men who pray at the front. Where do women pray?
Women they pray at the back by what are the greatest roles for men in terms of reward, the the front rows, what are the most rewarding rows for our sisters, the rows that are furthest away from the men the back rows.
Then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would say to the Companions, when they finish their Salah you don't turn around to your sisters, they get up and leave first.
And there was a door for them called Babel and he sat at the door of the women and they would leave by themselves uninterrupted in a dignified manner, not having to push and shove with men. He would say you stay there, don't turn around until they leave. This is in Salah full hijab face is covered
and then the men would get up and they would leave. So you're telling me that this is the arrangement in salah but all of a sudden on social media what's going on sis DM me and that's not going to affect you This is okay.
This is if that was the case our religion would be bipolar, it'd be schizophrenic, that it tells you that you do your Salah like this but then outside of sada when there is no holiness involved, everything is a free for all. This is number one, what was number one years young year? Gender interactions, test yourself on that be honest. Number two.
Allah subhanho Dallas veil,
the veil of Elijah legendado what does that mean?
See, every one of us has a demon in his closet. Every one of us, let's be honest, has a sin that he or she is battling.
A very difficult battle against whether it's pertaining to dress or music or women or men or whatever it may be. We all have that individual battle every one of us. One thing is committing the sin and then weeping about it and seeing a Starfield Allah and then doing it again because you're human. But you say you're stuck for Allah and you don't forget you don't for you don't give up this person is near the Mercy of Allah. That's one thing. Another thing, however, is doing the sin, and then showing the world this is my sin, is what I'm getting up to.
As if to say, not only am I committing the sin to Allah, I don't even care.
That then transforms the sin and hyperbolized it, it ungrounded aggrandizing it causes it to grow to a new level of severity and crime in the eyes of Allah generally, not because of the sin necessarily, but because of the the mentality that approach the callousness involved. This is my sin. And so what let me show the world what I'm doing to this is called an Arabic word, you know,
what is the word for it?
And muda Hara Exactly.
There is a Hadith
which Bukhari and Muslim the right on the authority of Abu Huraira the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Go low on that email Alpha il Mujahideen.
Every member of my nation will have safety on the Day of Judgment, except the people of muda Hara, those who publicly disclosed their sins. And then he explains it. He's not.
He said, we're in nominal muda harati and Yama, la Raju, Ruby Layli Angela, work at Bertoia Storrow Hora boo hoo for us to be hawa who have fallen into data cada our cada our converter, yes total horrible who I used to be here we actually visited Allah here and
every member of my nation will have safety on the Day of Judgment except the people who show off their sins. And then he said, what this means is the following a man who commits a sin at night, and Allah covers him, Allah does not expose him.
And then he gets up the next day. He says to the world, I committed last night this in this this than the other. This is what I got up to last night. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said
That night Allah had covered him but he then tears apart the veil of Allah Jalla Jalla Allah
so now with the advent of social media, it's easier than ever before to show the world your mistakes, your yearnings, your, your your, your your sins. No keep that between you and Allah, that sin is not to be celebrated. that sin is to be wept about when you think about it, you cry, you heartbreaks, why am I like this? I shouldn't be this person. When Allah who is my Lord, and he's lent me my limbs, it's all unknown. I'm going to have to return it. I'm going to be six feet under, I have a resurrection ahead of me. My life is getting shorter, I see gray hair, why am I still coming? That's the type of tool that's the type of discourse that should be when a person commits a
sin, let alone showing it to the world. Yeah, rasool Allah, him and Nyjah a man said, O Messenger of Allah.
Tell me about safety. How do we reach safety.
He said to him, I'm psychologically Sonic, control what you say. Number two, when he is academic, and your home should be enough for you. Not in and out in and out like your home is some sort of bed and breakfast never to be seen, your home should be sufficient for you unless you need to go out. Number three, and cry with Gala. cry when you commit a sin.
cry over your sins, not show the world your sins.
And who knows who knows? Who is will be encouraged to do what when they see your post on your share or your hashtag or the image that you posted on your status or where you were last and where you were where you are at in the last 24 hours. Who knows who will be encouraged to do what one can't bear to think about the prospects of meeting Allah with his own scenes, let alone carrying the sins of others because of your encouragement because of your post. This is Mojo Hara. This is showing Allah I don't care. It's a new level of criminality, I can carry in system. I speak for myself and I tell you this, I have my own addictions. I have my own problems. I have my own demons and the
skeletons in the closet I'm trying to overcome. So please, the same way it would be unfair for me to draw you into my world. It wouldn't be unfair for you to draw me into your world.
Why share with each other our mistakes and our vulnerabilities Why help each other grow towards Allah subhanho data? Does it make you happy and your brother that you're a carefully curated photo was then used by our sister or seen by a sister and now her heart breaks because she can't have you? And she's thinking about you. And so that doesn't make you happy that you managed to pull someone away from Allah doesn't have you, please you do your sister to do the same. Whether it's your profile picture on your social media, app, image, whatever it may be. And now this person Institute instead of thinking about his Lord, He's prostrating and thinking about you, how is that success?
Or is that not a sign of worthlessness of a person in the eyes of Allah that he's used in for this type of behavior?
So this is what number one number two there yourself Dear Brothers and Sisters in Islam?
AJ eg Thani boo ha Hee ra a Latina Allahu anha woman alumna be che in been half a year to eat Allah he will Yes, that'd be seated in LA Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said
the Hadith which are hiking the rate on the authority rebel Omar, he said, stay away from these impure sins that Allah has forbidden.
However, he said, anybody who commits one of them, let him repent to Allah subhanho wa Taala let him veil himself with the veil of Allah. They didn't do what? veil himself. Don't tell the share. Don't tell the Imam don't tell the PSR don't tell anyone have them. Tell Allah say I'm sorry.
And most importantly, don't tell the people through a post that you share,
would ya?
This is number two.
Number three, the third part of your home test kit before you decide whether social media is for you or not the element of displaying your happiness to people, your joys, the things that you've got up to
hold on, I mean, the next time you're out with your friends at stake out or whatever it may be, you're enjoying yourself with your brother, your sister, your spouse, and then you feel that impulse to put your hand in your pocket and to snap what you're doing. Hold on a minute. pause for a minute say to yourself, Why am I feeling that?
Why am I feeling the need to show people what I'm doing? Why am I feeling that? What made me feel there?
Why is it that I need people to validate my happiness?
Why do I need people to reassure me that I'm having a good time? It's as if I can't have fun unless people tell me that you're having fun.
Now keep the phone there in your pocket and realize that when you are constantly showing the world, your joys, your successes, the barbecues, the vacation,
Since the Barbados What are you doing? You're bringing the eyes of people upon yourself. You are bringing their eyes upon you and your family and your money, your health.
And then you wonder why you have anxieties while you're depressed while you're while your your life is melting away before your before your very eyes. You brought this upon yourself we did. And that is why the NABI sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said
the Hadith Bucha Tabara Nina writes on the authority of Marathi Punjabi, he said
it stallion, Allah Koba, ha eg COVID kinsman
for inequality in Amity Massoud.
He said, make sure that you hold on to privacy when you're fulfilling your endeavors. Because everybody who has a blessing is envied.
Did you get the Hadith phenomenal words? Hold on to privacy secrecy when you're fulfilling an endeavor don't go telling everyone about it. Why? Because every blessing man has an NVR.
So keep people away from you keep the eyes of people away from your family away from your property away from your life.
And if you need to share something, only share it with the people you love. Mum, Dad, siblings, you know they only want the best for you.
By the way, there's another element here of showing the world what you go up to what you got up to and the food and the latest steak that you just had. Hold on a minute. Does everyone have the opportunity to eat meat twice, three times four times a week?
Does everyone have the opportunity to spend 30 quid on a steak?
You just got married and you're showing everyone your beautiful spouse okay fair play to you blurred out her face Jazak Allah here
What about your brother next door who can't get married? What about the fella next door who wanted to marry the girl that you're married to?
You graduated Mashallah. Your dad got your IBM? Does everyone need to see that? Maybe my car is a banger. I'm struggling with the basic Skoda. Is everyone a well wisher for you? And then you wonder why am I feeling so anxious? So sad? It must be must be black magic.
Like just go to your feed? You'll mostly you will find the answer there without becoming obsessed with the idea of magic and the rest of it.
So this is number one. Number three, the element of displaying your joys. Are you a culprit to that? Are you a victim of that you just can't help showing the world everything you're doing. And what is interesting is that
the unhappiest people science says the unhappiness of all people are those who portray themselves to be the happiest of people. And if it was just about you being happy, maybe we can achieve that. No, we want to be happier than other people.
And social media is designed to show you that people people are happier than they actually are. So how can you ever win?
As they say that jealousy is about all the fun you thought they have. Jealousy is about the all the fun that you thought they had.
So cover your affairs, brothers and sisters.
The fourth point is the element of the gaze. This is number one. Number four, the gays
the eyes?
Do we need to elaborate? What has happened because of this since the introduction of social media and the unfettered access to the opposite gender? Come on, I can carry 95 million photos and videos uploaded on Instagram on a daily basis.
And 350 million photos on Facebook uploaded on a daily basis. That's a lot of content. You know the average 13 year old today
sees more content in one day than maybe my granddad has seen in his whole life
because of the feed
right?
So if you're unable to restrain the gays, we know who we are, then think whether social media is the best thing for you.
And that is why Bukhari and Muslim the rate on your authority website in the country that the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
er como juluca tutorial cart. Beware of sitting in public roads, you know public roads, you know your city roads, you know your edible roads where people just sat there with their pipes or whatever they may be doing just staring at people walking.
He said, Don't sit in public pathways. Don't do it. They said the Companions ya rasool Allah He Melina Amin majali Sina Boudinot, the Hadith Rufina we've got nowhere else to sit.
This is where we talk. In other words, their houses were not like our houses will get you a kitchen kitchen and the bedroom dining room and tea room and
it was just a small space. So they were genuine. They said we're outside
We're going to sit and talk and get you. He said to them look for in a way to introduce Valtteri Kochalka. Who if you insist on seeing in the public roads, public spaces,
your cost is your lounges
for alto police or Hakuhodo make sure you give the road it's right. They said what is the right of the road he said five things. Without Lhasa lowering the gaze. That came number one, number one lowering the case. If you're gonna sit there, you've got to carry out the conditions. Number one lowering the gaze.
Number two, careful other to not harm anyone. Number three, or do salam to return the greeting of Saddam Hussein was listed on Malika Alikum Salam number four. I'm Robin maruf. enjoying what is good. Number five, we're now hearing God forbid what is evil, you're Allah.
It's, it's quite expensive. It's quite a task. It's quite a responsibility. You want to sit in a place like that fine, by all means. But these are the five conditions.
And it begins with the lowering of the gaze. Why do I quote this hadith, because this is not just about the physical highways, the physical roads, that's also the roads of information.
The highway information roads, social media, they are roads. Each app is made up of roads. Your feed is a road that requires you to lower your gaze and to not to harm and to give Salem and to enjoin good and forbid evil. It begins with the lowering of the gaze. It's a huge responsibility, this device here this miraculous organ that Allahu Allah, Allah, Allah has blessed you and I with
one of the greatest pathways to your heart. It is like a gutter that is pouring into your heart or what you feel inside of that gutter. And this is the pathway here as the poet who said, Cool how early female, I mean, another woman of Mo Narrabeen, most Dasari Cherie.
He said, all calamities they began with the glands, and all fires, they begin with a spike.
In the summer, or the bus arrival for other kulula you can kinda know Missoula, Allah said, Indeed you're hearing and you're seeing and your heart, there is going to be a question about all of them on the Day of Judgment, Allah said.
So there's no point somebody posting a picture of himself herself, and then they go, no perks, please.
Or you shouldn't be looking, who told you to look,
the one who told you to lower the gaze is the same one who told you to dress up appropriately and careful how you present yourself, it came from the same source, don't cut and paste.
Meaning there who don't mean I'm sorry, him or your father, tell the believing men to lower the gaze, and to protect their private parts that will be pure for them. Allah He knows what you are doing.
And then he said, What could lead me now to you who don't know me enough sorry, until the believing women to lower their gaze and to protect their parts and to not show their adornments except what is apparent from it. And then the idea gives a description of the hijab. So the same idea that tells men to lower their gaze and fear Allah is the same set of verses that tell our counterparts to fear Allah with respect to dress presentation. That's balance.
That's justice,
the lowering of the gaze, most of it is not real brothers, their sisters you are aware of that is the whole fake it till you make it approach. You know that.
And that's why even remotely when he was giving us advice about how to help us lower the gaze, he says beautiful words you said
when you had a real heart illuminate Latinos sorry he
the intelligent one should lower the gaze from the Haram why? Listen to this, he said for inner hyena, Tara Lee Rahl Macedonia, highly, highly highly men who are highly
he says because you will see something that you cannot attain in a way that does not represent its reality. Did you get this? Think about it, it will help you on AI to lower the gains. It's a beautiful statement. Fear Allah when it comes to the lowering of the gaze. Why? Because you will see something
a that you can't attain most of it is outreach.
And the second problem it does not represent its reality. I love it my Hawaii it's no real.
And that's why most things that you look at you think whoa, should you get a little bit closer you say?
Is that not the case? That's most things alive.
It's an illusion. The whole dunya is metallic erode the enjoyment of illusion?
No, those cheekbones are not that high. And their face is not that slim nose, the nose and the contouring is all fake is to filter
All right, then there's no doe eyes involved either, right? Because you got to be careful nowadays. Yeah, brothers and sisters, let's be honest here. I mean, just one Instagram filter now. It's just, it's just better than a whole facial coverage or foundation and setting powder on a bronzer, and contouring, and all of that. Just one filter is all what you need.
So the gays or the gays
We ask Allah to help us with this one.
So test yourself against that and be honest.
So this is number one.
Number four.
The fifth one brothers and sisters is this.
Beware of encouraging sin. And that can happen so
subtly, when using social media, beware of encouraging sin. What is your obligation? By the way? We all know the answer. When you see a sign in front of you, what are the obligations to change it with your
with your hand, if you are an authority? If you can't change it with your hand, what do we do we change it with our, with our speech, if you can't change it with your speech, what you change it with your heart, and that is the weakest of iman time. These are the options.
This is the order of obligation. Interesting. Interestingly, there are some people who disregard this completely and they go for a fourth option. Instead of changing it with their hands, or with their mouths or just staying quiet about it but feeling pain, they encourage you the same.
They promote the behavior.
And that's exactly what you have done what I have done when we see that image and we click like
why are you doing that sin by association.
Or when you share
when you drop a comment
that does not help that brother that sits or come out of their darkness their sin, that sin by association and that is why Ameerul Momineen Omar Abdulaziz
he once or his people arrested a group that were caught drinking alcohol in the city.
This is haram in Islam and the punishment, the capital punishment or it was about to carry out upon them which is lashing so there was one man who who said I wasn't drinking alcohol with him, I was fasting.
He said okay, insha Allah will begin with you. The punishment will begin what are you doing sat with them.
You're fasting, what do you advise them? Why don't you move away? That is what we call sin by association.
So just him being there without saying anything. Luma Radi Allahu Anhu understood the Rahima hula that he used to deserve the same punishment for not speaking out against it. And then he quoted the ayah from
Surah Nisa where Allah subhanaw taala said walk ins Jalali config Kitabi. And either semi Atilla hey look for OB ha Are you still has it will be hatherleigh Taco do now have a hold of your Hadith
that Allah has already revealed to you in the book that if you hear people mocking the signs of Allah or disbelieving in Allah, then don't sit with them until they talk about something else in a comedian Matthew whom otherwise you will be just like them.
The same same. If you're in that gathering, you don't move. What then have somebody who encourages through a like or a share or an encouragement. So you see a brother who posts an image or he posts let's say a status.
And there is clear backstabbing here.
He's venting his frustration of another shade of additional knowledge. It's clear backstabbing, you drop a comment you're like you show him who's boss bro. You go for it. Show what you made out. You're right with you on that.
Expect the same sin from Allah if you sinful
or a sister of ours who posts an image of herself that really compromises her religion. And then a sister instead of saying to her sister may Allah Subhana Allah bless you may Allah strengthen you keep this for your husband keep this view on my heart and remember what you will look like when the when the maggots start eating into your eyes and eating in your intestines a week after your death when your body swells up and remember remember you give her these hearts often as her sister advises her now you click the light button you've just encouraged her to continue if this person is sinful expect the same share for yourself.
Yes, so beware of encouraging the senior brothers and sisters.
So I want to mention a sixth one and that is the element of being too faced.
To face to measure yourself against that some people they have a particular demeanor or persona in public she Masha Allah data's Hanukkah Sana Akbar you know everything is going well.
But then you look on the social media you think whoa, okay, is this person schizophrenic? Does he have a split?
personalities are of bipolar disorder of some sort. It's a completely different person. It's an all out pimp.
How can it be? It's the same brother in the masjid. But look how he's presenting himself on social media.
This is what I listen to this the people I mixed with. Here's images of me when I was doing last weekend. This is my business. It's all haram that's being two faced.
And the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said about the people who are two faced and by the way, the same applies to our counterparts, our sisters, our mothers, our daughters,
who are in public, she may be wearing the finest hijab May Allah strengthen the meters or test the hijab, especially today, but on social media, that presentation as if everyone's a Muharram everyone is matter. Nothing. How come? Is this not a form of being two faced, and the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, the hadith of Bukhari and Muslim Abu Hurayrah. He said that the messenger SallAllahu sallam said, do you do
mean a Shabbat dinners yada yada yada Murthy and Allah He delivered you Haney a letter yet you have all that up? What do you mean? Well, I will tell you to Sharon, as you and Ally Yama, he said you will find that the worst of all people on the Day of Judgment
with Allah will be those who had two faces. They will give a face to these people and they will give a different face to these people. And he said in the hadith of Buddha would
mankind Allahu wa Jahan if he dunya, Canada, holy Sanjana. menarini, your monkey.
Whoever has two phases in the life of this world will have two tongues of fire in his mouth on the Day of Judgment. Because you spoke to these people with this type of tongue and you spoke to these people different type of tongue that will be exposed to the day of judgment. So measure yourself against that one as well. Dear Brothers and Sisters, that's number six. And I conclude with the seventh, which is time,
time.
What time saying in your life now that you are a social media user? How much of your day in your evening is it taking from you?
I want you to realize that some of us when we have something nicked from our lives, we hop onto social media guys, have you seen my phone, someone's name my phone, it's a Nokia. It's a Samsung while Nokia is old. It's an apple. Or you say my car's been nicked. It's a BMW this registration number plates a black BMW, but now it's gone.
So you go to social media to complain of thieves not realizing that social media has been thieving from you for the last 10 years of the life stealing the most precious thing that you have and the irreplaceable one that's called time.
We have been the subject of daylight robbery. Think about it. That's most of us. I said. That's why a man like Dr. Calvin Newport who was an associate professor at Georgetown University. He said that social media platforms have hired entertainment engineers who borrow their entertainment techniques from the LA casino gambling houses to make social media as addictive as possible. There's a whole psychotherapy, there's a whole psychology behind the design of social media that notification that sound, the color contrast, that red number that appears over that blue icon makes you feel that you want to check it. In fact, if I showed you my phone now and you saw a notification on my socials,
you would want to check it for me.
It's like Jonah, sorry. To check your notifications. It's mine. It's not yours. That's what happens. Because it's highly addictive. It's highly entertaining. It's a slot machine that's been put onto your phone and you've installed onto your heart.
Right so time what does that do to time it usurps you it saps you of your time.
If we're not careful, that is you having to add them in and a young they either have a young woman they have al Hassan allostery he said, oh son of Adam, you are made up of days skin bone nerves. No, he said you are made up of days. So what a day from your life passes by part of you has disappeared. Part of you has disappeared.
And even though I had been at handily,
who has authored the biggest book in history, in terms of volume numbers called Kitabi Funan. He said in Eli Lilly and obejas Normally, I have made it haram for me to waste a single moment from my life.
Time your brothers and sisters, what are you spending your time with? Please see a concluding message before we wrap up this message in this lecture and that is
it's about how you see yourself.
What light do you see yourself in Yanni? When you look into the mirror? What person do you see?
Do you see a helpless person miskeen with no ambitions, no vision, no future.
So colors you've got to occupy yourself with going through endless scrolls and endless feeds and seeing the latest trick of dance and trying to copy how you see yourself. It's about how you see yourself, or do you look into the mirror and you say, dignified, Muslim, dignified Muslim. Ah, I have a project ahead of me. I have a paradise I have to justify my tears for. I have a short life ahead of me. I have a lord I need to honor him, please. I have a community I need to build. I have a religion I have to glorify, I have a message I have to convey. I have a body I want to keep you healthy. I have mum and dad I want to honor if you see that person, then you wouldn't allow yourself
to spend hours of your day endlessly scrolling because you know your time is gold. And you know your worth is more than that.
You want to know your worth. Look at where Allah has stationed you What are you doing? Men Aradia and Jada. mahkamah. Who and Allah He found younger female karma Hawa.
Whoever wants to know of his station with Allah. Just look at where Allah has stationed you.
What do you find your day?
Like? How do you know if an employee has a particular status at work? You look at where his employer has stationed him. If he stationed him with the trash, you know that this is his position. If he stationed him as a treasure, right? You don't have this as his position. So where has Allah station you? If you're spending your days is going through other people's waste, and so age, could it be a sign of your station in the eyes of Allah is not that high? So he's kept you busy with these petty stuff?
Or is it that you say no, it's time to give it a break. It's time to think big now to plan visionary style. This is a sign of where your station is in the eyes of Allah, gender, Jada and her brothers and sisters. I personally believe it's no longer sufficient to say,
I'm going to have social media because it's harmless.
So I'll have social media, because it's not affecting me, I think that argument is out of date.
Today with what we know, and the effects we are seeing on us and our children.
The only opportunity the only choice we have is to sit down with ourselves to check in and to look at the positives that you are gaining from your social media and then you weigh it up against the heaps of evidence that are speaking to date against or about the harmful effects of social media, then you make the decision.
And you will find if you are honest with yourself, dear brother do sister that for the overwhelming majority of us social media is purely an only and solely and exclusively a source of entertainment, nothing more nothing else, and a form of escapism to run away from the challenges and the struggles of real life work and real life grind.
So you want to know if social media is halal or haram. No one's gonna give you a ruling like that.
But you could give yourself a ruling on an individual level. Because why is alcohol and gambling haram?
Yes, Aluna Quran in Hungary will make it Allah said they asked you about alcohol and gambling.
Coffee Hema, if mon cabbie you're on one and a half year old enough to say to people there is good in gambling, or say to people, there is great sin in gambling and alcohol and benefit for people. So Allah is saying, look at how balanced their religion is. There is some good in alcohol.
It can give you some perhaps temporary stress free life temporary moments. There's some benefit in it. People make money out of it, for example, haram money but it's money.
Gambling, again, people some make some money out of it. There is some benefits for people in it. But there are great sins and Allah says what if Mohammed
Akamaru minify Hema, but the sins involved in them both outweigh their good. Thus they are so you look at your social media in the same light.
Is the evil outweighing the good? I've given you six or seven elements to think about
is the sin outweighing the good? At the end of the evening? Do you feel empowered enrich Do you feel spiritually refined because of social media? I say to you oh good for you bro more power to you.
If you feel that no, you feel you feel that inner sense of Rachmat last dark, you know the feeling you just wasted an hour on nothing. Let alone sin.
Then careful it could be haram for you as an individual. You give the ruling based upon how you feel at the end of the day when you use it and did the year.
So brothers and sisters, please this is an appeal appeal. Even if you've decided to stay on socials. For one reason or another. I say to you
Remove those electronic hallucinations from your life.
Check in with your Lord.
And remove the applications that you don't use, uninstall as many of them as you can keep the bare minimum if you have to stay.
And then the notifications disabled them.
disable them, move the application to a page that's not on your homepage so that it's not always telling you you've got a new message, and then disable the applet the notification so that you can hear it.
And then you assess yourself whether you have an addiction or not. If you get nervous when your phone is out of sight, you're not yet.
If the very first thing you feel to do when you wake up in the morning, and you still got one eye closed, and you're tapping around trying to find your phone, before you say us, bah, bah humbug, cooling that before you say your morning, bro, you're an addict. If it's the last thing you look at before going to sleep.
If you panic when you feel a buzzing your pocket, and you really want to interrupt the conversation, you don't seem rude. You want to see who message you
when when you realize this.
So brothers and sisters, life is short, your life is precious, and only put your time and effort in that which will give you the greatest returns in the hereafter and about the FOMO the fear of missing out, don't worry, you're not going to miss out. You can walk away from social media, if that's what you decided to do. And you've concluded that it's harming you, you could walk away and guess what you live a little bit happier to
and you still be relevant. And you still know what you know what's going on in the news. And you still be relevant in the economy. And people still want to hire you as a professional, you're not going to miss out. You just might be a little bit happier. And a little bit closer to the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa Taala
these are
some bits of reflection I wanted to share with you about social media. Maybe I've come across as a little bit biased. It wasn't the intention. The intention is simply to share with you seven components that you can measure yourself against then you'll decide honestly, what your future is with these platforms.
Are some alone and have you know Mohamed Zachman