Social Media 002 – The Positives & Negatives – Advice To Content Creators

Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim inshallah this week we'll be speaking about social media, the positives, the negatives, and inshallah we'll be giving some advice when it comes to a Muslim using different platforms I'm joined again with Sheikh Ibrahim Masha Allah Maha and welcome hamdulillah hamdulillah it's lovely to be back and we ask Allah subhanahu wa taala to grant goodness, me, Jeff, when it comes to social media,

obviously, it's a vast topic. It's a hot topic. It's a topic that's discussed frequently. And quite often, even though we've discussed it in the past people carry on asking,

asking for this topic to be discussed. And personally, I think that it's due to a few reasons. One is maybe they've got children or the new parents, and they worried about the effects of social media. Another reason I think, is because a lot of people they suffer when it comes to addictions, when it comes to, you know, aimlessly, just scrolling, and it happens to, I could say, almost everybody, if not everybody. So maybe we could start off from there, maybe you could give us a little bit of a brief overview about social media. I know you, you've read a lot when it comes to the statistics and some of the studies that have been done when it comes to social media. Yeah, so

Subhanallah, this is something that I like talking about, because people are so addicted to social media today, yet, we don't classify it as a drug, you know, the what I find as a good cue to first diagnose yourself, you know, so literally, open your phone, and look, watch where your finger goes, the next time you open your phone, is it you know, the Quran app is it, you know, whatever other app, it's usually it's either Facebook, tick, tock, you know, Instagram, whatever app there is out there, that you're addicted to it, that's where you want to go. And usually, it's to see how many likes you've got, how many views you've got, or what people are doing. You, this is what I find that

where your finger goes, is a sign of whether you're addicted or not. And it happens so often, you know. And obviously, the only way I really realized this was I started watching myself to say, Hold on, what do you do when you pick up your phone? What's the first thing that you do? And so many times I go onto my phone to do something else. But you end up actually going onto these platforms, you know, you and you forget what you actually primarily went onto your phone for. So it tells you how addicted you are to social media. So I've tried to curb that. Slowly, but surely it is a process. But it takes time. I'm not saying I'm addicted to the point where I can't let it go. But I

think it's an easy access to dopamine. And we a lot of us know what dopamine is. There's discussions that are online, and people are talking about it. It's quite a hot topic. You know, interestingly, there's a few books when on the topic, there's one guy who wrote a book, it's called Hooked. It's a yellow book, as I remember, the yellow cover. And in it, it's mentioned that that book, you find it in all the different the top companies, the top social media companies, Facebook, etc. Then the author of that book eventually, as far as I remember, he wrote a book years later, because the first book is speaking about how to hook people onto this, these different apps or social media. And he he

was I think he was quite upset, or he wanted to speak about how a human can now detach themselves on social media. So he wrote the next book was unhooked. Oh, he spoke about actually trying to how a person can get off this. What I want to get to is that when it comes to social media, obviously, you've got so many different people, you've got millions and billions of dollars

being poured into an industry and they looking at how they can keep you they keep you glued, they keep you addicted, they when it comes to the different algorithms when it comes to the different methods like I remember reading on one of the platforms reading about it. And they mentioned how, you know when they took out that the scroll, they made it an infinite scroll. So you just carry on going down, carry on going down, you carry on going down into a bottomless pit, and all of a sudden you realize that you've lost an hour or two hours and you find as you mentioned, sometimes people Yes, a lot of people are after lights a lot of people are after comments. A lot of people just want

to pass time a lot of people just want to escape from you know the realities of life. And it happens. You know, I find myself you know, before I used to have, I feel I used to have a lot more discipline. I even had a different opinion when it came to social media of late. I've noticed myself that at times I can sit my favorite app is Twitter. So I sit, read the news, read this, read that and then you start following a topic and it's because it's live.

The thread goes on and this goes on netiquette.

was on. And then afterwards, I got to a point where I said, Okay, let me log out. I don't want to see anything. But then, at times, there's certain pieces of news that you need from the you want from the so then you get back there again. So I think that yes, it's a double edged sword in the sense that it can be used for a lot of good obviously right now where a person would listen to this is on social media. But there's also a lot of harms. Another important point of differentiation is are you a consumer when it comes to social media, or you just need to consume and taking and taking and taking? Or are you there to produce and actually give people that which is of benefit? Yes. You

know, one of the things that it's done for many people is that it's reduced the attention span. Because previously, you had to, you know, you open up an app, like YouTube, for example, and you had these long, long videos, you still do have them, but people tend to go for what what are known as shorts, what are known as reels. And, you know, they want to go through these short 15/22 clips, the minute it's not interesting, like not even the minute the second, it's not interesting, the first five seconds, guys have turned, you know, moved on to the next reel. So what it's done is it's brought our attention span right down to about 20 seconds. And then if you only really have to, will

you engage with a longer video and content that will actually benefit you and something that you will remember, another thing that is good to take note of is, okay, I've gone on to the app, I'm using it, I'm scrolling, I'm going through content. And

after an hour or half an hour, or however long when I've reached the end of my day, let me scroll backwards. And let me see how many reels I've been through? And what did I benefit from these views? What did I take away? Did I take away something of value? Will I actually implement this in my life? You know, a lot of times I see what they call life hacks, you know, and they say, you can do this and wash dishes like that and do that, you know, right? It's, it's something that you think, Okay, wow, I can implement that. And you never remember those days when you need them. You literally just never tried to implement them. And it doesn't come on like the video. Yes, yes. So. So really, and

truly, it's become the pandemic of our of our time where people are just addicted. And this this drip of dopamine that you're receiving constantly from this, and it's instant release of dopamine. So what it's doing essentially is telling you, it's training your mind to believe that I can get the dopamine here so easily, why should I go and work on something for an hour when you know, kick a ball outside in the yard or pick up, pick up a golf club and you know, part of it, or do something like that, to achieve that dopamine when I can just pick up my phone and do it, you know, so people become addicted to this. And we're fortunate enough to have seen a time where there wasn't social

media, it literally wasn't there. Or, you know, it was there in a very different form.

But this children that are born into today's you know, world with this social media, and that's all they know, they get a phone from the age of like maybe five years old, six years old, and they're onto these apps, and they're doing these things and going through these clips, maybe five, six years, but early, say seven, eight, so the only thing they really know is to hardwire their brains to watching 22nd clips. How do you get a guy like that to to change? You know, how do you get him to say, Okay, I've got a task to work on. If I do this, and I get to the end of it, I'll actually receive a war reward internally, where I'm proud of the fact that I've achieved this something

that's, that's good, you know, I've achieved something good. He literally doesn't want to do that at all. Thanks somebody who may have listened to where we've reached. Now, they may say that you only bashing social media, you're only speaking about the ills. And I think we could divide this topic into quite a few things. Right now what we've spoken about is more consumer based with somebody who's just sitting and consuming and wasting time and they've got more important things to do in life. Attempts people lose themselves at times people are people think that the fake world they is actually the real world and the real world is the fake world. I think to put it into perspective,

that's more what we touching on with this topic comes

a point where you find a lot of Muslim youngsters

as young as six and seven and eight will say we want to become YouTubers. We want to become this and that.

What would you say to those people and obviously speaking about some of the positives that may come out of this some of the negatives that this may bring about? Yes, I like that because there is it is a double edged sword like you said, definitely you can benefit from social media as well. You can become a content writer

Creator, perhaps you've become, you know, you get these travelling blogs, and people are going around and showing you different countries, and they're actually benefiting from the theory they're earning from that. If you are one of those people, and you are doing it in a halal manner, or you've set up a business online, and you're using social media to promote that business, I mean, now on certain platforms, you've got shops that are, you're able to set up, if you can do that, and benefit from it in that manner. That's a positive way of using social media. So definitely, they are two sides to it. Yeah, I think that

obviously, there's people who are at such a young age, they haven't even been through life, they don't know what's going to happen in so many years, if they're still living. And that's where you find that there's a group from amongst them, who they decided that you know, what, we're going to go all into YouTube, this is our life. And this is what they wanted to do, whether they had zero views or so many views. And then you find this group who they said, let me just look for the likes, I just want to become famous, I just want to become a want to make a lot of money. And you find a lot of the times people like that because they they chasing a fake trend, they're not living the truth,

they're not living for a purpose, you find that later on in their life, a lot of them, they come out now, either they regret, they feel like they've lost a childhood or their childhood, they feel like there's too much information about them out there. So I think it's, it's a difficult decision for somebody to make. And we've got to acknowledge that. When it comes to youngsters today as a whole. It's, it's cool to be a YouTuber, it's cool to be famous, it's cool to go out online. And as you mentioned,

there's different niches to get into different categories. There's those who want to go into fitness, for example, those who want to go into travel, for example, those who want to go into more the Islamic department, what would you what advice would you give, firstly, those going into more of a secular type of, let's say, non Islamic topics, for example, fitness, or cooking, or whatever it may be, what would you say, you know, what I think a person like that could do is to try and give the channel a hint of Islam, you know, add a bit of a flavor from Islam into that, because perhaps you're going into fitness, and you want to be modestly dressed, when you you know, you're on camera,

you don't want to be in clothing that's deemed an Islamic you know, so that can actually be a point of, you know, a strong point for you a point of power for you. You have men sometimes, you know, we have sports persons will keep beards and they perform their salah, and you know, that this comes out in the,

on the channels, and indeed, so try and add that Islamic aspect to it, and you can actually make it a means of your earning reward as well. So not only are you earning in the dunya, but you're earning reward as well. You know, a lot of times we have the elders who bash at a social media, and I think

it needs to, we need to have a bit of a balance in between where you have a positive aspect, and they are people who can actually earn and make a living out of it. So we need to have that talents where we accept them as well. But we have some rules or general guidelines. Because in addition to this, you have people who like you said they just post anything and everything they put themselves, you know, literally sometimes stripping naked will at the villa, you know, on on camera simply to get a view or to Why would you do that, you know, it's something that really and truly we know the hadith of Rasulullah Selim is lmts the hate for snacknation that when you have no higher, then do

whatever you want, you know, literally meaning that you will do whatever you want, because you have no higher, you literally have no shame. So as Muslims, I think we shouldn't lose our identity in the pursuit of a view in the pursuit of a like, or a che. And something that comes to to mind is that we're after all these views, but what about the view of Allah subhanaw taala? What about the sight of Allah subhanho wa Taala upon us did we think about that. So whenever we, you know, press that record button, or we go on to a live stream, we really need to take into account that Allah subhanho wa Taala is watching. So I will use this in a positive manner.

Another way to look at it and a lot of people have said this before is that if I were to die today, would I be happy with people seeing my content? Would I be okay with them going on to my pages? Because remember that that stays on most of the time people don't delete those accounts, they just leave them or family members can't delete those accounts. So

remember that that is what will stay it is part of what they call your legacy. So yeah, you know, interestingly you find that when it comes

To people who genuinely just just chase the dunya and they've got no truth to themselves no higher objective higher objective and speaking about more if love sincerity doing something ALLAH SubhanA wa jal, you find almost every single one of them. They tell you somebody's chasing money, they say, you know, when I reached my 1 million or 10 million, there was there was no substance to it. When I got my dream car, there was no substance to it. Okay, got it. What's next? When I got this letter they were wishing for what's next? Funnily enough, I was sitting with somebody last week. And he was telling me, you know, we were talking about his car. I said, you know, this car? Yeah, when I, when

I first was able to afford my car seat. Yeah, it was, it was a crazy, it was something new, it was novelty. So but the minute you drive that car finance is a car. So now I'm thinking of just selling my car by, you know, downgrading. So my, my message, or my point that I'm trying to get to, is that don't be short sighted, when it comes to this. Don't think that, okay, I'm just doing this to become famous, I'm just becoming a fitness YouTuber, for example. So I can get more likes, and I can get a lot more money because you may not reach the but you may reach the and then what then you find the people who've got the millions and billions and the mansions and they can't sleep at night, they

suffering from depression, they have eating disorders, all because they reach that thing. And then there was no substance to it, you know, speaking about that, we touched on the content creators, those who are more leaning towards more non Islamic type of topics. And you mentioned a good point where they can have a tinge of, you know, good Islamic etiquette, at times, you yourself just being a good Muslim, good, upright Muslim using Clean Language, unfortunately, today, it's become the norm, with the worst of languages used. I mean, it's become, again, cool itself for Allah to use the worst of language. And that's apparent when it comes to your social media platforms, I think a

person should try their best to still stick to their principles, it doesn't mean, if everybody else is doing this, to get a view, you also just have to do that you've got a lot to answer to. At the end of the day, yeah, you know, getting views doesn't mean that you have to do all of these things exactly as you're saying it. And the truth is that you have channels out there that don't do this, and they do have the views and they do achieve. And this is what I find is like a ridiculous argument when people say no, but if we don't do it, we won't get the views. Or if we don't do it, we won't make money. You know, you have businesses that sell alcohol, for example, and Islamically

you're not supposed to sell that as a Muslim, you know, that Islam doesn't allow you to do that. So there are businesses out there that do it without so why are you insisting that you have to, you don't have to, it's just something that you're allowing yourself to believe that you have to do. So. Sometimes you may actually go for a while without much response or much of a you know, viewership etcetera. But then Allah subhanho wa Taala opens simply because you've actually pushed and carried on and said, You know what, I'm going to do things the right way. So Allah subhanaw taala opens your doors, perhaps it may not happen for you, because it's not meant to happen. It's not a bit for you

for the better. So Allah subhanho wa Taala gives you something better, but I feel like today, everybody wants a response immediately, you know, I've put a video that needs to come I need to become famous today, you know, not tomorrow, or even yesterday, you know, literally, so everyone wants that immediately where we can have a bit of patience. And Allah subhanaw taala will open the right doors. The other thing is Islamic content. Yes. That's the second category. I wanted to get to what would you say to somebody who wants to become a dad wants to become a chef, you find that there's a lot of youngsters out there. What would you say to those people? Surely they should I

personally feel there should be a few more guidelines and a few more things that somebody's got to understand when it comes to this topic. I think have knowledge about what you're doing. First and foremost, you know, you really can't talk about a topic where you don't know what you're talking about. You know, I've seen so many clips and Subhanallah It amazes me how people who really know nothing about something, actually talking about it, huh? How do you even talk about something that you don't know anything about? They have no experience about? Yes, yes. Literally, they have no knowledge, no experience nothing and the guys come up and he's talking about the deen of Allah

subhanho wa taala. And you know, you can do this and you can can't do that. And this is halal. And that's how I'm in big, big issues that you know, mountains of knowledge discussed before. And sometimes where there's a scope or an allowance for a difference of opinion. They just say no, there's nothing at all. They cut it out altogether. Sometimes.

is when they shouldn't be in allowance for a difference of opinion, or it shouldn't be tolerated. Islamically that, okay? Here you can have a difference. For example, someone can come and say that this is obviously an extreme example, but nobody can come and say that Allah has to, you know, you can't come and say something like that. But people are discussing issues similar to this in a, and just deciding that, okay, this is the issue. And this is what's going to happen, you know, and everything else, and everybody else is wrong. I'm right. But what knowledge do you have what we have you studied, which institutions did you go to, then you have individuals who haven't studied at all

haven't been interested in two institutions haven't studied under a shake, or don't have any knowledge at all our youngsters coming up, have no knowledge at all. And they're taken as Oh, Lama. It's nice. And it's good to have people who are young, and we encourage them and it's okay at that level, but then they need to know that from here, I should go study I should learn from a chef, I should have some sort of knowledge, you know, path that I follow before I actually go out there. Now, having said that, you have influences as well, who speak about religion Alhamdulillah could speak within keep to your lane. What you know, what you have knowledge of and you show off, it's

okay. You want to encourage people to perform salah, you want to encourage them to fast you want to share some guidance from that you took from a scholar, no problem. There's nothing wrong with that. Good. It's actually encouraged, but stick to your lane, don't come out and start saying okay, halal haram, this is giving fatwa, you know, that is now not to say that's dangerous, I think as you mentioned, and to add to those points. Firstly, when it comes to the Islamic part of it, yes, even the people who are not really share so

you've got that sincerity with ALLAH SubhanA hotel, but more so when it comes to a day when it comes to a chef. What are you out there for? You've got to always renew your intention. You've got to always ask yourself, because we all know that hadith. in Sahih, Muslim, were the messengers Allahu alayhi wa sallam is speaking about

the first the first people to be thrown and dragged into the fire to be flung into the fire. And one of them he speaks about who he mentions, is a person who was known in the world as an alum, and Hari, etc. And he's asked, Why did you do that? And then he he eventually told he says that I did it. First, he denies, then he agrees that you know what I did it so people could say I was an alum and Akari, etc. And then he'll be told about that, that that was actually your intention, it wasn't for Allah, then he'll be flung into the fire. So it's extremely important to understand and realize what's your intention? What's your purpose for going out there? You may be saying 100% the right

thing. Everybody may benefit are you yourself benefiting from that i Your words going to be benefit or benefit everybody else but be held against you? Yeah, so that's, that's point number one. Point number two, as you mentioned that stick to your lane speak with knowledge. Yes, the messages Allahu alayhi. Salam said below one Hello, I convey the message of whatever the message is Hello, Selim has given. Even if it's one verse, we're talking about things that everybody knows things which are encouraging a person to do good, and generally discouraging them from doing anything that's evil or bad. But when it comes to a major fatawa, example, divorce and things like that, a person who's 16

and 17 cannot be speaking about those topics, a person who's 2713 Regardless of age, if you haven't studied if that's not your field,

don't don't go into something that you will be held liable, you'd firstly destroy somebody else's life by giving them completely wrong advice. And number two, you will be held responsible by Allah subhanho wa taala. Three, point number three, when it comes to this group of we speaking about people who are more into Dawa, etc. Extremely important and in fact, it's before Point number two is to learn good etiquette and good character and conduct.

It's extremely important to learn with a scholar who has good character and good conduct. Don't come now after you've made five and 10 and 100 videos and then you start refuting the whole world and you start throwing everybody off the deep end, you start speaking about everybody else who's the only Muslim left on earth, you and your followers and then they fight amongst themselves. So you need to learn other before seeking knowledge, how to talk with somebody who you differ with how to actually have a conversation, hear their point of view, and give you a point of view, you know, and that brings me to an interesting

story An interesting thing that happened to me. It's not to do with social media, but it's to do with the fact we somebody doesn't understand another person's perspective. In the medina university,

there was a time where one of the lessons would finish just before the whole, but those who know the faculty of Sharia is next to the main Masjid. So I would go there for local when the time was shipped. You go there you perform your door. One day, a guy came up to me, a guy who's always in the first line, a guy who

has who does activities in the masjid. And he told me, he looked at me, you told me Salaam Alaikum. How are you? I said, I'm fine. He said, Are you a doctor? I said, No. They said, Are you in a Magister masters wasn't in masters. I was still in college. I didn't know. Anyway, he tells me that. You know, I want to ask you one question. I said asked, I said, Why don't you like the sun? Said, I thought I thought I heard wrong. So I said, What do you mean? He said, Why don't you like the Sunnah? I said, What are you talking about? explained to me, said You know, when we come to the masjid here, all of us when we performing Salah we all put our feet together, we make them touch

like this, but you're the only one who doesn't do that. And then he added, and the hadith is in Buhari. I told him rather. Did you read sahih al Bukhari Did you read the shadow of Buhari? Did you read what all other scholars had to say, when it came to this point? And then what I told him at that point, I told him, why don't you go and read and look into the masala and next time you tell me what you found? I saw him about a month later. In one of the restaurants I went quickly to him a Somali come how will you shave? Did you look at that masala? He said No, I never. I said yeah, I looked at it. And this one said this, this one said this, this one says this. And you going with a

fringe opinion not even 1% of the OMA says I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm saying that the other 99.9% of the OMA don't even believe that you have to put the feet together in Salah, how can you now say that this person doesn't like the pseudonym. So same when it comes to social media. In fact, it's even worse, you haven't lived with somebody, you don't know their circumstance, you don't know under what circumstance they may have said something, they may have genuinely made a mistake. And they would correct a mistake. And you all of a sudden go not understanding any of this. And you know, you just throw them off the dean, you do more harm to them than you would do to any of the

enemies, any of your own enemies or the enemies of Islam. I think it's an extremely important point to remember and carry on drilling in that it's not about becoming somebody famous, being able to stand on the pulpit and just, you know, command everybody, it's, it's a responsibility that you'll be asked about, yes, you know, what you mentioned first about being sincere and being

straightforward, you know, Allah subhanho wa taala, we should bear him in mind at all times. And we know this. And something that is of interest that I found is that if you do it,

in public,

and you you know, you speak out to people and you speak to people and you're someone who's got the platform, then try and have a private life with Allah subhanho wa taala. If you can do that, then now you're making this deep, literally, of what you do in public with Allah subhanho wa Taala alone. So now the two are matching now you know, you kind of getting them gathering them together. Whereas if you just have a public life where people see you and that's it and you only out only performing public, then you really have to start questioning yourself and saying, Why do I find it so difficult to do? My, you know, to have a life with Allah subhanho wa Taala out of the public, is it because my

intentions are not sincere. And another thing is to remember that the people don't see your heart but Allah subhanho wa Taala does. So when you stand up, you know, something that my father always tells me that, you know, the first person that this message is for is yourself. You've got to tell yourself that this is for me. And when you do that, then you naturally naturally becomes a lot more sincere, we hope that it becomes more sincere and for Allah subhanaw taala. So if you try and keep that relationship going despite being in the public eye, you know that Allah subhanho wa Taala is watching Allah subhanho wa Taala knows, then that's something that really benefits a person. You

know, we find people on the other extreme, and there's a lot that I've seen a lot of people who are talented, especially when it comes to do they have knowledge, etc. And you tell them you know what, why don't you teach online? Why don't you start a channel and they say that

either. I'm not good enough. I'm scared of RIA

etc, what would you say to that group of people? And I like that you brought that up, because there are a lot of people that I've actually seen who have talent. And then I tell them and they say the same thing. You know, I, you know, I'm scared of showing the people who are doing it for being a show, or I feel like, I'm not worthy of the platform. Well, you know, the news is that nobody feels that they're worthy of the platform, everybody feels that I'm a sinner, how can I be going in front of people, but if Allah subhanaw taala, is accorded you, that understanding and that opportunity to go and speak to the people and benefit them, then remember that in that lies your salvation as well.

So if you bear that in mind, it becomes easier for you to do it, and you're encouraged to do it. And I remember there was a chef that was speaking about this some years back, and it was said to him that, oh, he was saying that, you know, you shouldn't be

difficult when it comes to youngsters, let them go out there and speak when it comes to the intention, yes, reaffirm that, it's important for you to have a good intention. But leave it at that let them come out there and blossom and grow. And then as they grow, you become more intense in reminding them that look, this is for Allah subhanahu ATOD.

And I think that that's where sometimes, when we overstressed this part, then it becomes impossible to live as well, where you just don't want to come out in public, you don't want to say something yet, everybody, everybody has their shortcomings. But you try and seek forgiveness from Allah subhanho wa taala, try and constantly turn back to him when you when you make a mistake. And then when you've got opportunities like these, and you've got talent that Allah subhanaw taala has given you then go ahead and stand up and speak. You know, there's another topic I want to touch on a lot of people in our field, they may be doing it, but they don't really touch on the topic. And that's,

you know, when it comes to let's say, you posting a video, or you writing something, obviously, there's a way to write it, there's a way, let's say a person's intention and all that inshallah is in order. Okay, I want to get to the point where there's those who say, I'll just put up my message. And however it is, whoever watches, whoever listens, they listen and whoever doesn't, they won't, that's one group. And the second group will say, okay, Inshallah, my intention is okay, but I want to look at the different things that will actually enhance and help my message. And that may include looking at the titles of the videos, looking at the thumbnails of the videos, looking at how the

videos could reach a higher audience looking at how

how all the roles certain tactics may actually help, what would you say to both these groups of people? What's your opinion on it here SubhanAllah. And understand both to be honest with you, because there are some people who are just naturally of the type that want to do everything to perfection. And this is something that's encouraged in the sooner we know, in the Lakota, believe Santa Allah cliche, Allah decreed perfection upon everything, so you try and be perfect in whatever you do. So definitely, you should try and perfect that. But I also understand the group who just, you know, this is not the sole thing that they do. So they just go and they make the effort. What I

would say is definitely, the first group is better, because they do their best. And they live to Allah subhanho wa taala. And then the second group is also unafraid and also doing goodness, because they've got other things to attend to. So they, you know, they post them this Mila, it's okay, whatever we get, we get Alhamdulillah whatever we don't, it's okay. So definitely, I think you can have a balance between the two as well, where you do your best to the best of your ability, and then leave it to Allah subhanho wa taala. You know, speaking about this topic, obviously, there's a lot of different angles and different pockets we tried to touch on. What would you say for? Or what

would you say to somebody who

they've grown up, they have children, the children are still very young, and it happens. And at times you find these people unfortunately, who ended up using their children for them to gain fame or to gain wealth, that child is often age way. They don't really understand anything. Yes, it's different. There's some people who don't share any pictures about their family or video some who share a few. But then there's some who

I'm not accusing anybody, but people mentioned it later on people who've done it. They say we, they made this child grow up in the spotlight when the child had no choice at all. And they, they were exposed to a certain lifestyle that the child themselves actually regret or they wish they hadn't. What advice would you have for people who use children or people who are helpless etc. I think children should be a red light. Literally, we should leave them to be let them grow up in the

natural environments, and it's very selfish for a parent to use the child to gain fame. And then, you know, or monetary gain or whatever it is. And then later on that child perhaps didn't want that of the life to be out there, or it's negatively impacted them, because now the only thing they really know to do is to how to behave on camera or they've become,

they've grown in affinity to doing that, and they don't like that part of themselves. So, like you said, you know, part of being a good towards your children is letting them have the choice at the right age, doing it when they're young, and making the choice for them, is not actually the right thing to do, because it's something that can have serious negative consequences for that child later on. So I think it would be honestly, as much as we do enjoy some of the videos that come out there because the children and the innocent and nobody doesn't enjoy that type of innocence, you know, seeing or most people do enjoy that type of innocence. But having said that, it's just in the

moment, that's what will happen in 10 years time when that child is much older now, will they be okay with you having done that, and that's something that a parent should think of as well, because it can spoil their relationship with the child as well. That child may have a serious problem with you having done that, and have some serious issues that developed as a result. So that we're speaking about that is to go back to the previous point you had mentioned 10 years later. And I wanted to go to the point where, you know, at times these people who, especially those who speak about everybody else, what happens 10 years later, that person died when you died. And that is that

the only piece of knowledge you you left behind that I spoke about this person who lived from 1993 to 2030. And finished that there is that the piece of knowledge who contributed to the rest of the Ummah, who are coming after you. And that's why when you stick to more, they say evergreen content, when you stick to Islamic Islamic content, we could say in this time is evergreen, it's always clickable. Inshallah your message will always be heard will always be understood. And then getting back to the point we were speaking about when it comes to children. Yes, there's some people who use their children completely, you might you may find the odd few, like, I know of people two or three

way the child actually needs help. And the only way they can do it, sometimes the child may be sickly, they have to they ask they appeal. And sometimes the child may not be sickly. But you'll find people who've had five children at once six children at once. They can maintain the costs, they can't buy things for the child, it's for all the five or six children. And you find the only way because it's something so rare. They open a travel blog, a blog, or a family blog and family thing. So as you mentioned that, I think Well, I'm sure that your what you're mentioning is generally it's a red line, stay away from it, don't use your child, everybody's agreeing don't use the child. But

at times, they may be certain exceptions to the rule. Yes, absolutely. Like if you have times where you share certain things, it's okay. But when you make your child the focus of your channel, that's what we mean like as the growing up, then that may become a problem for you know, we've we've touched on people who generally want to become influencers or want to become social media personalities, we get to another category or another group of people who have actually started making videos, they've started writing online. What would you say to those who are in the beginning stages, those who have like, three subscribers, nobody reads the blog, nobody watches the videos,

but they feel they've got a good message. Maybe they want to give up? What's your message to them, keep going, keep going, you know, that's it, keep trying. And obviously, there's a point at which you should give up. And I think you should know that as well. So anything that you do in life, you've got to know that I've got to keep trying, keep going at it. But I'm going to reach a point where I know now that I should call this quits because it's not actually bearing me fruit. But initially with social media, especially now with social media and doing something on there, because it's developed for for so long now. And it's been here for so long now. It's becoming increasingly

harder to get an audience, you know, and especially when it's content that's just good, you know, and straightforward. It's not something that's eye catching, or you know, something that's completely absurd, that we know generally actually does garner attention because it does anyways in general life. If you had to walk out in the street and do that people would need to be interested in what you're doing. So because social media has been here for so long, it's become harder, so don't give up so quickly. Push, give it a bit of time and perhaps change a few things, too.

Make certain things and Allah subhanaw taala will open the door. Yes. And I think I agree with that point that, you know, that's a person, a person knows they want to try it out, it's not working for them, but put your put your effort into it, learn about the different platforms you want to get into learn about the different tactics, etc, that you want to use. And for those who have a good solid message when it comes to example, to to our recitation, etc.

Yes, my personal opinion is that a person should persevere and carry on. Even if you're only getting a few people, those few people you could be changing their lives, unless there may be something even better, you can do that maybe away from social media. The next category above that is those who've been in it for a while. And they've posted for a while they've made a lot of videos, they may have

a following to a certain extent, and a good number following etc. You find those people at times they go through dips, they go through different changes, there's different types of comments, and hate that may affect the person a person feels burnt out completely a person feels that they have to produce and give something to the audience. What's your advice to people on this level? Once you've actually established yourself, and you're going at something and it's doing well for you, you know, we all get affected by the words of haters, or the words of people that you know, are being spiteful. But in reality, we should actually just remember why we were doing it in the first place.

I'm doing this for the sake of Allah subhanho wa taala. I've come here and put myself out there despite perhaps sometimes not even wanting to do something like this. If not being in your nature. I'm doing this for the sake of Allah subhanho wa taala. So what they say doesn't matter. You know, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was told, Well, I could not live under K lb, or Luca de Maya Kowloon. And we know that your chest is constrained by that which they say, for some behind the Arabic for some behind the rhombic, our Comnenus surgeon. So glorify with the praises of your Lord, and be from those who prostrate. So this is something that you can actually use what would rub back

to Kellyanne and worship your Lord until death comes to you. So

we can actually use this as a tool to get rid of some of that ham or that,

you know, worry that we have that, oh, these people are saying such and such about me. So let it go. Remember, renew your intention. Remember why you're doing it, it's for the sake of Allah subhanho wa taala. So carry on, let them you know, ignore them. And many times, the best way to do something to respond to someone is to just ignore them, because they are useless. For example, recently, I posted something and someone said, you know, don't act like you don't want to be such and such a person. And you just make making believe and you acting like you this and soon you will be exposed, and they said things like that. And I just said, you know, I was about to respond. And someone said to me,

why are you responding? This is someone that, you know, insignificant, don't, don't turn to them, just ignore them. So sometimes it's best to just do that. And yes, we are hurt at times it does stir up emotions. And that's the whole point is to get you involved, so that they can actually come into the into the light and be seen, you know, they can actually be seen by others. Many times it's people who can't garner attention by themselves. So what they do is they attack others to get some sort of attention. We see it all the time, you know, big political figures, big influential figures being attacked simply so that the small little whoever, you know, pipsqueak comes out into the, into

the limelight. So truly, really, and truly those people are just after the limelight. You remind yourself why you're doing it, and forget about them. That's obviously with that. But then there is the aspect of dwindling, etc. When you when you yourself become

you know you get tired or you burn out or something like that. You know, speaking about the verse you had mentioned and speaking about how a person should have a bida in secret between him and Allah. I think a person you could derive it from this verse because as you mentioned that the messengers Allahu alayhi wa sallam was said that what the people were saying, obviously means he was calling the people he was in public, he was giving his message in public and they were attacking him and Allah is saying facade behind the rock become a communist surgery and Allah is telling you to do an act of worship, which is between him and Allah. So from that verse, I feel like we can derive we

a person, especially those who go out into the public sphere, to give out good messages. Make sure you've your Ibadah and your acts of worship between you and Allah are in order, and if not, they are more

More than what you're doing in public. You know, one point we didn't touch on is when somebody feels burnout and they feel the pressure to let's say, you've been posting for so long you've been posting for

years. And then all of a sudden, you just feel like you're not I'm burnt out, I want to race. And there's those who, who carry on pushing, who carry on pushing with, we hear a lot of influences. And these people go through mental issues, things that break the family completely, what would you say? Is it okay for somebody to just say, you know, I'm disappearing for three months, I'm disappearing for six months, I don't want to, I don't want to do this anymore. Maybe I'll think about it later on.

Obviously, I think each case needs to be judged by the individual they know their circumstance best. Because sometimes me saying that No, you shouldn't do that would mean that that person would have a complete and total mental breakdown. Sometimes that means that the person may suffer a divorce, sometimes, you know, go through a divorce, or something may happen, there may be consequences to those actions. So each person needs to judge their own circumstance. But generally, by and large, you don't want to be off social media for a long time. Especially being in the public eye. Because once that happens, we know that your audience actually gets less the algorithm works such that they

want you to engage with this app regularly. So now that you're not posting, it becomes a problem, perhaps what you can do to keep your audience in touch or in touch with your audiences to make enough content for that time, and then put out stuff, you know, on automation, you know, it just goes out automatically. And we know scholars who have been actually actually been jailed, you know, at times, and the content just goes out there simply because they know that I'm going to go to jail, I might as well make as much as I can. And stuff will just keep being released. So sometimes that's actually good. A personal question I myself struggle with is how do you stay consistent? When it

comes to this? How do you get yourself to post everyday or to write everyday? Personally, I can disappear for two or three or five or six months or the whole year? How do you maintain that consistency? Honestly, speaking, I started out with just posts on Facebook. And also like, I became a bit more known for these posts by just posting, you know, a quick message every day. And that's what I've tried to carry through, throughout. So whatever happens, regardless of what it is, you won't find like more than two days where I won't post I'll try and make sure that I post them to keep it small is the is the trick, I think. So perhaps you're coming back from the masjid or you

come in and you just make a quick, you know, quick message and send it out there, put it out there. Something that's substandard at times is actually better than posting nothing at all, when it comes to social media, because you want to keep your followers engaged when we say followers, you know, obviously, their followers, but not to say that they're followers of our lifestyle is defined as follows as defined as follows. So, so it's good to keep your followers engaged and to you know, keep them you know, keep something going out there. So just basically being consistent with something small, even if it's small, don't like maybe sometimes I used to find what was a hindrance was okay,

maybe you're not dressed in the manner that people are used to seeing you dressed in. So should I actually take my car out and put my scarf on and you know, put my elbow. So now what I do is I just got a cap on, I've got a t shirt on, it's okay. You know, sometimes it's okay for people to humanize you as well and say he's also a human being, he also has a life. So it's okay to put out a video like that. Yeah, so we've actually taken quite a lot of time. But there's still one more point I want to touch on. And that's the point of hire on social media. You know, it's unfortunate and sorry, to put it bluntly, you find a sister post a picture, she could be in full makeup. And you

find all the guys in the comments down there with all sorts of things, whatever goes on in the DMS, who knows, you find at times with guys put up a picture or video or whatever, and you'll find the women all after this person. And I think it's got to a stage where we've become desensitized to it, or a large chunk of people have become desensitized to it. I mean, you get you can get strange and weird comments at the time comments that a person even if they the worst of the worst, if they're to see you in real life, they wouldn't say such things. What do you have to say when it comes to this point? You know, many times people justify that by saying law higher if it didn't, there's no

there's no higher Indeed and in reality, that statement is completely wrong. Hire is a huge part of Islam and a huge part of your image and belief in Allah subhanho wa Taala we find

That Earthman Radi Allahu Anhu was known to be a bashful person. And this was recommended or commended by Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So, higher is one of the main principles in Islam and when you find people not only posting stuff, it hurts to actually see, you know, not only posting a picture or a video, but sometimes just in the comments, stuff that they say you can see that this person has no shame at all whatsoever. Look at what they're saying. That's not the behavior of a movement of a believer in Allah subhanho wa Taala you should constantly be questioning yourself and remember that a person can actually be thrown into the fire with regards to what they

say just something small they say. And the hadith of it was one of the if I'm not mistaken, that he said well Yakubu NASA, Allah will do him Canary, Allahu Allah Hassan II do Alsina team, what they tongues harvest, you know, they literally say something, and they don't care that you will be her bail. He doesn't think that oh, this is something serious. But it is with Allah subhanahu wa Tada. So realize with, you know, fear Allah subhanho wa Taala with your tongue and fear Allah subhanho wa taala. When it comes to your face and your body, you know that as a Muslim, and as a Mina, you're not supposed to be doing that you're not supposed to show certain parts of your body. You're not

supposed to do certain things on camera, you're not supposed to be commenting on set, how many times you find people who are fully covered? Yes, you still find that and at times people don't realize you may be flirting with somebody's wife, somebody's sister, somebody's husband, somebody's anybody. And why would that person actually like for that to come to their own family? I think that obviously, the answer would be no. Also, you find how many houses have been broken due to this. And a lot of the times you find that it may not start off as haram people start off.

Chef, I got a question, Chef, I'm suffering from this problem. They will make like the whole world has, you know, sitting on top of them. And that's another piece of advice is that, especially those who are younger youngsters, myself included.

You don't have to respond to everybody. There's certain people who are only looking for attention and certain people only looking to get you to take step one so they can get you to step 10. So I think it's it's extremely important to be careful about that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Especially being in that position. You find people messaging you all the time. It's important to remember Allah subhanho wa Taala and remember that he knows what's going on. So do it if you're going to do it, if you're going to help them help him for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala there should be absolutely no other reason to that.

Yes, I mean, we'll see come I think we've spoken about a lot and

comes to my mind one more thing at times a person may make a mistake on social media mistake publicly. I think it's it's only befitting it's only fair it's only right for the person no matter how many followers you have to admit to that mistake to own that mistake. do apologize if you need to apologize is nothing wrong in that in fact, you'll find the person's rank increases when they humble themselves for Allah Spanner which can only correct

those viewers we ask Allah subhanho to Allah to grant us goodness and Baraka makers from those who use social media in a way that pleases Him. I mean, Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.