The Television Drug
Channel: Hamza Yusuf
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I mean, allowing the children to literally sit in front of the television. Now I want to read something. And I would recommend people read this book. It's called homeschooling for excellence, how to take charge of your child's education and why you absolutely must. Now, here's a non Muslim warning people in this country about the end, he's not a Christian. He's not coming from a religious point of he's coming from an academic point of view. He's not even coming from a moral point of view. He's just saying, If you want your children to be intelligent, you've got to get him out of these public schools. Now, he was a school teacher, his wife was the school teacher, they raised the
four children up to the year 18th. year they did their high school at home. And three of them at the time the book was written, were in Harvard, they were accepted into Harvard because of their scores and because of what they've done their their academic work at home, which I don't think that should be a goal of a Muslim to end up at Harvard. I mean, that's the heart of Kufa.
You see what I was used to be like, using my son's going to
take my son's going to Harvard?
Easy, and apparently Jean is like the Cornell and Princeton is like the Z tuna. And that's the way it is. You see, every every OS, every system, every Empire, every civilization has the socials of pride. And these are the sources of pride of the kuffar. So if you want your son to be the best cafe, he can be sent him to the best Catholic school that you can find. Because that's what will happen. And if it doesn't, it's by the grace of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Not when again, he they failed at what they set out to do. In other words, he didn't get educated, they're
right, they fail.
Now he I just want to read something that he says that I find very interesting. PAGE 15.
Paul, Cooperman is less weeping, but no less critical, as he observed that a child spends more time between the ages of five and 18 in front of the television set. 15,000 hours is the average American child, then in school 11,500 hours.
And the marks quote, consider what a child misses during the 15,000 hours he spends in front of the TV screen. He is not working in the garage or in the garden not doing homework or reading or collecting staff not cleaning his room, washing the separate dishes, cutting the lawn not playing baseball, going fishing, painting pictures. I mean, this is bear dream, we would have a whole other set of criteria not reading Quran. He's not learning about his Dean. He's not going to the masjid. He's not doing the things that he's supposed to be doing. Exactly What does television offer that is so valuable.
Now, in short, television is an enormous childhood energy drain. But once a parent recognizes this, what can be done? Question mark, what can be done now here, some are very few TV television out of the home. 98% of American households have television.
The ones that don't is 2% of the United State and that's a worldwide plan. They want to get it into every house fitna tone, text video
weapon for mother beautiful howdy Aloha and if it applies that but in the end of time, there will be us fitna is also means seduction. It means something that seduces you. And my father who doesn't have a television to me, because in 1958 when they first got one, he said that it was so seductive. That's the word he used. But he didn't want it because he likes to read he didn't want it in the house. And he said in houses that he goes, it's like a little mouse in the corner. How can you turn your eye off of it? You see, and that's what happens. So here's the problem. Now listen to this. So some people out of their home enough to distinguish between the occasionally worthwhile program and
more typical fare, but many parents are themselves regular viewers. So what do you do you don't want your child to watch television but you're watching television all the time.
Many parents are themselves regular viewers if not addicts
no additions an interesting thing. And people don't talk you out 12 step programs for everything 12 step programs for donut eaters 12 step program for addiction imaginable, but you cannot find a 12 step program in the United States for television anonymous, you see, and that's a major addiction. Why I
like groups of people sitting together well, I'm so glad I'm you know, let go and let God I got it out of my life. And you know, the first couple of weeks I was shaking every day and getting goose bumps and but I got over it and you know what I found out that it was actually really interesting. I didn't have to
Watch TV, I could actually talk to my family, my children, I also we were having conversations.
This to read a book called the plug in drove by Denise when. And she talks about people who their televisions broke down and they couldn't afford to get it fits. And she interviewed them. And they told how their life suddenly became wonderful. And they became human, and they actually had interaction. And then what would happen? When they got money, they get it fixed, and they'd see themselves go back to the old way of life. It's amazing. Human beings are incredible creatures. Really, the more you think about it, the more amazed you know. That's all you can say we're we are amazing creatures.
But many parents are themselves adults and find it difficult to impose restrictions on their children in the light of their own habits. In other words, if you're addicted, how can you tell your tempo? Do your homework, you don't see you reading a book? Why aren't you reading Khan? You're watching comedy, what you're just instilling in him, he thought, that's all that's all you're doing.
One solution is to undergo a gradual withdrawal.
Cold Turkey, right, you have cold turkey, where they lock the attic up in a hotel room and he bangs on the door, you take the television out, smash it, and they'll flip out and go through all these. And then the other one is gradual withdrawal, which is is easier on the system. By sharply limiting viewing to programs carefully selected in advance, parents and children's can join the transformed television from a habit into just one of the many activities in which they can individually or collectively participate. Take that for what it is. But it's an interesting point that he's making about that now.
So there's the two things that we're responsible for raising the body of our children and raising their souls, nurturing their intellect, their emotions, and their now if
you know this, but here we are in this whole thing of teenagers and all this realm, it's all an illusion. And recognizing that if you've allowed them to watch television, they have absorbed the whole culture, they have absorbed rebellion against the parents, you see if you align them to what seemed like Bart Simpson, or all these terrible situation, comedies, which are really tragedies, those should be called situation tragedies, because they're not comedy. I mean, they had in a newspaper near the San Jose Mercury a few days ago, without a picture of the principal of the elementary school being smashed with pies in the face by children in the school, because they it was
for a fundraising thing. And any child that could raise $1,000 got this throw a pie in the face of this principle. That's anarchy. I really what kind of values? Are you teaching children? Why couldn't it be a positive reward? Why couldn't it be something that elevated the child and it's something that had to, to denigrate, and, you know, it was something that was was was a wretched thing to do. I mean, small Muslims would never even in a million years, think about taking the principal of a school
and taking a child and smashing a pie in their foot. First of all, you're wasting food, which is how long? You know, I mean, it's just the whole thing. But this is from watching Bart Simpson and these things, that's where they're getting these ideas from? Really, that's where they get it from. So you know, but what do you do now, given the fact that you have these teenagers? I mean,
here's Isaac, here's, here's what we need to do. First of all, we need to get this place. We need to put some money in this place, seriously. And we need to literally transform this place so that it is a community center that has activities for our youth to be doing things and positive halau environments. You know, if you don't provide halaal environments, they provided millions of haraam environments for them to go and flirt with the boys at the mall. Or the boys flirt with the girls at the mall. It's all out there for them, you see, and if we don't provide alternatives for that, and don't be surprised, and one of the things television does is it creates boredom in children.
Children become bored with just normal activities of life because television is very fast. The average frame on TV is 3.5 seconds. And so you're not something like MTV, don't watch it now. I shouldn't say don't watch it.
But
like MTV, and you're dealing with flashes that these are subliminal messages. I mean
why did you move mentioned that Harvard is the University of Kufa because they certainly not teaching it
Islam there. And, you know, they're also teaching a worldview. I mean, I have you, I actually went down
and met some of the people in the Islamic Studies Department and I truly don't if you want to keep your child a Muslim, I wouldn't send them to study Islamic studies there at Harvard. Because I, the I think that these universities are not our universities, they have a different methodology. They have Yeah, there are certain sciences that they have. But even though sciences, there's a worldview that goes with it, whether you like it or not,
they don't have religion. They're not going to teach you in biology, that there's a God. They're not going to teach you in astronomy, that there's a God, they're not going to teach you that there are constraints on the human being that we have limitations to what we can do in creation. I mean, you use of his finishing his PhD at Stanford, I have in science, what do you feel? I mean?
Yeah, that's, that's, I think that's the experience of people that go through that has nothing to do with a lot and what we call the something that has nothing to do with a lie called Kufa. And people, maybe you want to send your son to Harvard.
That's, that's your