Social Media On The Scales – The Impact On Your Heart

And welcome everyone who is joining us both live and via the recording. Today we have a very special webinar being brought to you by Al Maghrib Institute discussing social media, is it a path to heaven or hell, we know social media, if you're watching this, you're probably exposed to it in some capacity. And it's something that whether you're a user, whether you are a parent, whether you're someone who grew up with it, or it's new to you, it's something that from the Islamic perspective, we often don't necessarily know what some of those boundaries are, what some of the harms and ills could be and what the benefits are also. And so we look forward to diving into that today in this

very special webinar. And we're very excited to have you on board alongside us on this brief journey in sha Allah to Allah. So as you're coming in, we love to see where you're coming from whatever platform you happen to be on if you could share with us where you are tuning in from what part of the world or part of the country let us know why you chose to check this out and tune in and we're super excited to see you alongside us here once again, on this journey. My name is Abdullah min. Justin wood. I am a volunteer with Al Maghrib Institute based in Columbus Ohio, and super excited to be along for the ride here with you today. I see somebody come up to LA with a cattle coming in from

Florida, masha Allah, I'm in Ohio and Eastern eastern time zone as well. We have iOS we have our central time checked off I used to live in Nebraska so not too far from Iowa, masha Allah, please continue to share where you're coming in from again, we're very honored that you're taking time out of your day to join us with this very special session in sha Allah to Allah. May Allah spawn to Allah make things easy for all of all of you any struggles any successes, we pray that Allah has been to China benefits you today and everyday thereafter until we meet him I mean, yeah, but I mean, masha Allah first international salam Wa Alaikum salaam wa rahmatullah wa barakatu. To Sofia in the

UK, may Allah bless you, I assume that is the United Kingdom, not the University of Kentucky. Sometimes that causes some confusion for the American audience of a we're very happy to have you on board as well as a couple. Okay, and for joining us. I see. Our sister Jamila mentioned here for Chef Muhammad Shinobi. And yes, that is going to be our presenter and

topic. Chef, you know

we're very excited to he is our newest instructor. He is our newest instructor here with Al Maghrib Institute. And so we're super excited to have him here for this webinar. And also he's with us live for an upcoming course as well which we're going to be sharing more about throughout the course of the evening. When it comes to lava flow to Ketu through dose here in Columbus, Ohio, the wonderful city of Columbus where I'm at as well just looking for joining us mesh Moon welcome salam ala Florida to from Australia. Awesome, we have mashallah very good international presence. What time is it in Australia right now, if you can share that with us. We appreciate you joining us and taking

that time as well how under the law. Once again, we're very, very excited to have everyone coming in from around the world. These webinars tend to draw an international audience. And as many of you know, and motive has a presence all over the world. And one way we've been able to do that not just through our on site courses that many of you are familiar with our weekend courses are live online classes, but we have sessions or we have our live our recorded classes, which is what we're going to be discussing later today, which gives you on demand access whenever it's easy for you. Those courses also include live q&a sessions, bonus content with multiple instructors and you're going to

be learning more about some of those options here today as well. When it comes to them or after Labor cattle to Scotland to Perth 530 in the morning. Shout out to you. I don't know if I could do it but I love the motivation and the dedication to be here that early in the morning and hamdulillah thank you for joining us, a man Masha Allah Hi, Camilla Halochem Salama Florida, Khartoum, very great to have you Manchester. Welcome Minnesota. Welcome, so amazing to be in the spaces, something that is a relatively new phenomenon. I think we take it for granted now that we can be in the same circle of knowledge we can be in the same circle and being able to being able to have that

international presence and to benefit with students from around the world. It really is a blessing from Allah Spano to Allah in sha Allah. This is one of the good uses of social media that we'll get to reflect on in the next few minutes. Wales UK shout out to you but Hi Nadine. welcome Sarah, Florida Catherine to Toronto, the great city of Toronto, north of the border for us here in the US we have Malaysia we have a

Then Kasher we have Algeria, Bradford, UK, so many places, mashallah around the world. Thank you for sending your salaams May Allah spawn to Allah bless all of you, and bless the time that you're spending with us here today. We're going to be starting here in about two minutes giving folks such as some time to join us when it comes to them to Chicago as well to a beer alley in Chicago welcome salaam Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh and to North Carolina as well my shot Allah, thank you all so much for your service. It's amazing to have you onboard. So many people joining us from around the globe for this amazing webinar in Charlotte is going to be a very fruitful webinar for you and for your

families in Sharla. If you are in a situation where your families with you now, in your home in the room, bring them along with you make sure they sit down and listen. I'm confident that they will find the session beneficial in sha Allah. Many of you know our instructor for today. Our presenter for today is going to be Sheikh Mohammed Shinobi. And as many of you know, He's authored multiple books. My favorite book that I read of his is the final prophet proofs for the prophethood of Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam, an amazing amazing work that discusses the Prophet

rational evidences

if I to that, so it's an amazing book. And he's translated and authored multiple beneficial works as well. Hamdulillah. He's a graduate of Brooklyn College and Mischka University and also studied at the University of Medina. And once again, he is our newest and Maghrib instructor. And he's going to be presenting the online course which is called flawless the guided path to a purified heart, and Sharla you're more about that opportunity in sha Allah and also a special offer for those of you joining us in the webinar as well. So that you can benefit from that course. So we talking about the here, very briefly in sha Allah to Allah, thank you for sharing about the website, Inshallah, we'll

work on making sure that the technical piece is all good to go. But it is now 534 We'll give it another few moments for folks to come in. And in sha Allah to Allah, we will be passing it on to our beloved Sheikh Mohammed machinery to begin this amazing topic. Again, social media, one of those things that all of us, we use it, we benefit, sometimes we struggle, we pray that this session offers some good perspective and some clarity that allows us to use it in the best way in the most beneficial way in sha Allah to Allah. And with that, we will with that inshallah we'll go ahead and pass it on. We'll have Sheikh Mohammed coming on momentarily to get things started. And she said

Imani Komodo libre cattle are they gonna sit down after labor? Catherine How are you big guy hamdulillah Everything's beautiful here in Columbus. How are you? I started law hanging in there not

alone I could have I could have. Thank you so much for joining us today and for taking time out to present this webinar. We look forward to benefiting from you the publisher please go ahead just select a low here may be beneficial for us and do like sound Aiko everybody mashallah was really cool seeing all the names and regions, logging in Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah ala alihi wa sahbihi Jermaine. We begin the name of Allah whole Praise and Glory be to Allah and makes finest peace and blessings be upon the best of his creation and the sila was revelation Muhammad and his family in his companions and all those who adhere to his guidance. We

ask Allah to make us among the best of those who adhere to his guidance. I love them. I mean, we ask Allah to grant our souls our spirits, their piety, their taqwa, and to purify them for you, oh Allah are the best to do. So you are the guardian of our souls and its master.

So the impact of social media on the heart. This is a tough subject, and not because it's that complicated, but because everyone already knows

that I'm about to play haram Felice. You know, like, it's almost like this subject.

triggers some like automatic knee jerk visceral reaction, this auto defensiveness

and you're just like, why? Who said I'm gonna say something negative on social media. But we all know for being deep down, inside honest, that we can say in theory that social media is a double edged blade can be used for good. But the honest truth is most of us aren't getting more good than evil out of it. And deep down inside, we know that, that we're not even using social media as much as social media is using us. We can all relate to that. There's no data needed to be cited as though it's there and so much of it is there. But just personally, we can all agree

And concur that there is a dullness and a fatigue and an erosion of the mind of the emotions of the heart that happens, the more we use these devices, and that the illness happens spiritually as well. Social media has an aggressive

tendency potential to erode our faith or even uproot it altogether. May Allah forbid, but you know, to really muster up the courage to call a spade a spade. We're not saying obviously get off of social media forever. We're talking about you know, recognizing it for what it is. Yes,

it is like a flame. You can use it to burn and destroy, you can use it to cook and to mold. But how much right should we be using before it gets out of control, which it does get out of control? For most people like a wildfire? I think what can get us to own up to

impartially honestly, evaluating the utility of social media or how it's affecting us would be to stop at first, what does a flawless heart look like? Or what is the spiritual heart to begin with, and its value forget what it looks like its value, you know, because you know, the physical heart if your heart is in trouble, right? Meaning your physical, cardiac muscle, heart,

or any part of your body any vital part of your body, when it is ill, you are willing to take drastic measures, you're willing to change your whole diet, and restrict yourself from your favorite foods, or your favorite hobbies. You're willing to travel to the farthest corners of the earth for treatment. But I want to tell you why. What's the big deal about your body? So what if your body malfunctions,

all that's going to really end or cost you is your life. And yes, I obviously I'm being a little bit facetious here. But I'm kind of serious if we compare our worldly life, which the health of our bodies dependent on, compared to our afterlife, or other worldly life, the hereafter, which our heart and spirit are dependent on,

it becomes very clear that we should be even more ready to take radical measures if necessary, if not just the readiness to take radical measures if necessary, because we recognize that every single one of these currencies that sustain our life, or the quality of our life, our health, our family, our wealth, all these things are going to vanish in a second. And we're not allowed to know when that second is. And Allah says Allah to Munna for other chemical akana como la Mara, you have now finally come back to us all alone, all alone. The same way we created you the first time around, Allah created us as individuals, then put us into social dimensions, societies, families,

communities, social media, just another part of that it's a different arrangement of that notion that is not really an original part of us. It's something we need for our life here. We need to socialize, but you can't live for it. It helps you live by it on some level. So Allah says, now you've come back to us all alone the same way it was the first time around, what's our rock tomb, how well Nakamura are the holy come and you have left back there. That's the moment when every currency is going to go but the heart what the spiritual heart and you've left back there all that we entrusted into you temporarily, all the resources we allocated you temporarily those currencies.

And that is why the Scholars when they speak about like spiritual health and spiritual refinement and the heart, they say excess, too much, not it but too much of it. excess consumption of food and drink, and rest, and socializing. We're going to apply that social media in a second. These are the poisons of the spiritual heart. These things are actually necessary. They're halal and necessary. You need food you need drink, and you dress you need to socialize, right? But even the halal in excess could be detrimental to your purpose in life, and your purity of spirit and heart, right? The Halal in excess. So now take that one step forward and say what about an excess in the Haram?

Excess in Halal could be dangerous. So what about an excess of the haram? That is what helps you identify really put your finger on it? The the killer potential of social media, the spiritual suicide that could be awaiting each and every one of us on social media. The social media formula is not just access of halal, you're seeing food and drink and enticing and tantalizing and connecting with people and socialize. But what if that

If you reduce your purpose in life to that, what if it compromises your journey to Allah?

This is what we're talking about. And I want to try to like list for you

in what could be easier, like seven items that social media over consumption. And don't give yourself a quick pass that Oh, I don't over consume over consumption will hurt you. And sadly, seven ways to think about for a checklist for self diagnosis. Number one, and we kind of already spoke on this, it will spiritually hijack you. Because on social media you are, it is a self serving mechanism. You're seeking out yourself what you like. And part of that as well who likes you. And even when you like something, you hit the like button, you're saying, I am like you're looking for validation, you're looking for self service, you're looking for all of that. So it diminishes your

ability to seek out Allah because you spend too much time seeking out self gratification. And that's, by the way, the reason why people like it's an addiction, right gratification, I want a bigger hit of it. It's just like, it's the trajectory of every overdose, overdose. That's why social media also see that people get some attention. They gradually become brazen, and they do more and more grandstanding more and more outrageous more and more eye catching. Indecent, scandalous, because the temptation of not just monetizing it, but just the currency of attention itself.

And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us this will this was hijack your spirituality. He said, No to hungry wolves, let loose on a flock of sheep imagine to like famished wolves, what kind of damage they will do to a flock of sheep. He says no to hungry wolves let loose on a flock of sheep will do more damage to that flock than a person becoming keen becoming clingy to their

reputation, their regard self regard, too much self regard, and they're clinging to money, those two things will do damage to a person's Deen more than two hungry wolves will do damage to any flock of sheep. And this is something we're all subjected to like who doesn't want attention, like who doesn't want to recognize themselves? Who doesn't have an ego, but our egos need to go on diets. Otherwise, you're gonna start serving your ego instead of serving Allah, which means you the purpose for which you were created, was missed. I mean, it's the first pillar of Islam. It's not a small issue. This spiritual hijacking sincerity to seek out Allah is the very first pillar of the dean is

what Allah means. The objective of my existence is Allah and His pleasure. If you don't seek it, you get blindfolded spiritually, and part of the punishment of that is you you become oblivious to the fact that there's anything else out there, but serving yourself.

When Allah of course, is the greatest thing out there if that term or phrase is permissible, and I've been playing Rahim, Allah, he speaks about that there is, you know, an insatiable appetite inside of you that nothing will ever fulfill but Allah, there is a brokenness inside you that nothing will ever mend with connecting with Allah, there is an anxiousness inside you that nothing will ever settle, and calm but connecting with Allah having a deep meaningful relationship with him. And you know, the Prophet alayhi salatu salam said that as well, like very straightforward, he said, the example of those that are mindful of Allah and those who are not is like the example of the

living and the dead, spiritually alive, spiritually dead, you know, or even better than the words of the Prophet SAW Selim, the only thing better than the words of the Prophet SAW Salem, are the words of Allah Himself, who said, Certainly it is only in the remembrance of Allah, that the hearts find the rest, that the hearts find peace, I'm sorry, it's a boy better translation. And, you know, I wanted to Abdullah himself, he said, think about this, he says, the crew NASCI that was a Corolla he did. That thinking about people is a disease. Remember, we said that erosion fatigue and dullness and that's what it happens when you think about people too much, including yourself, you're a person

being self centered, or being people centric. It's a disease, it's an illness, it'll never, you know, deliver you to a healthy place. And we're Victrola here. And the vicar of Allah is a remedy to all of that. And so you can't have both. If you give into one you will become blind to the others. That's the first thing it'll spiritually hijack your hearts ability to seek out Allah. Number two, and this is the result of number one, you'll start hating yourself. Self hate. So number one is spiritual hijacking. Number two, the byproduct of this this our fruit that's harvested is self hate, because you were created to devote yourself to

to a perfect being the only perfect being Allah azza wa jal, and you know, you're not so perfect, you know, deep down inside, forget the highlight reels we put out and we see about we know that we are not so perfect. And we know that they are not so perfect, and that we're all just lying to ourselves and each other. So the self worship we do online sometimes or the celebrity worship we do online, sometimes. We know that this is not it. Not our we're dysfunctional, and we hate ourselves for it. These theatrics, this self serving performance might have that you do about yourself might trick the world for a little bit. But it will trick you for an even shorter period. Like this is

like a little bit of quick thrill, a quick euphoria, the dopamine hit, they call it right. And then you just deep down inside, you can never be at peace with yourself. You know, I was reading years ago about a Muslim sister who worked as a model. And of course, you know, she just became a slippery slope for her. And she, May Allah help her and continue to increase her guidance on her guidance. But she, she says that I couldn't remember any more what it felt like before modeling. Like I just, I don't even know what peace looks like anymore. So that's why you don't pursue it, they become this ugly cycle. Then she says, I remember returning home one night, you know, because that's what these

industries do. They, they

they chew you up and spit you out. They objectify you in the most disgusting way. And she says that I took like, I didn't know the system existed outside of this article, by the way. She says I returned home one night, and I sobbed and I sobbed. And I sobbed in my hotel room. You know, she says I took 45 flights in one month, you know, but it wasn't the fatigue of the travel. She said they made her do you know, the visual directors and all this stuff? They made her do certain things that she knew deep down inside, were not her. And were not her values. And she just stopped it. What am I doing? How could I let myself stoop that low. And she decided very abruptly I'm out.

And so that's what self serving looks like. It is

a cause for spiritual trauma that causes you to have this indescribable thirst. And if you don't heed, you know, the call the thirst properly, you're going to start hallucinating from the thirst and imagining you're seeing these mirages of where like an oasis might be, and one after another will just continue to disappoint you, and you're just going to hate yourself for it. That's number two, self hate. Number three, is that of course, social media is

the perfect mechanism for intellectual activity, intellectual hijacking, as well, you know,

listening to Shubho had to misunderstandings or doubts or allegations about Islam.

That's, that's a big problem problem, because social media is built for leveling the playing field between the masses and the experts, and what they call nowadays, pseudo intellectualism, or they call the democratization of knowledge, where your opinion is just as valuable as my expertise. And so you, you start wondering, oh my God, there's so many different people that are saying this, and this, it has this many views and so unconsciously, you begin to give it value based on numbers not based on substance. That's one form of intellectual hijack. And other form, of course, is watching highlight reels of everyone's life. And then we become depressed in our own that why is everyone's

life like this, when before you sort of handed your head over, you know that this is not actually their life the same way, it's not yours. This this timeline of sorts.

And also watching highlight reels of people that don't have your faith. I know people that have

gotten confused on Islam being the truth, because they spent so much time glued to those who don't believe Islam is true, and seem to be so outwardly prosperous, so materialistically well off. And so the desire to want to be like that led to a doubt that would justify for them a possible path to that. And it's very unfortunate. I know people who have left Islam for this reason, and it was just their echo chamber. Once again, it was just their echo chamber. And that's number four. Not very different from number three, but maybe I want to splice it for the sake of you checking a little deeper into the crevices, Is this me or not, which is just a distorted sense of reality in general.

I mean, if you want to watch social dilemma, I hear great things about it. I didn't watch it myself, but I know the the technological ethicists that, that put this production together years before they put it together. I was listening to tidbits of their

A whistleblowing. But the idea is technologists have it's not a conspiracy, by design funneled for you through what we know is the algorithm.

Find your way, what you already believe your own ideas, right, or what you already like. And they confirm your biases. And they tell you, we are listening to you so that we can serve you better. You just don't read the user license agreement, you just hit accept when you download, right? So it'll confirm your biases and cater to your, your fancies. And then in that way, the echo chambers, echo chambers have always existed, you hang out with people that are like minded, right? But with social media, that the bolts on the echo chamber have been tightened like never before. And that's extremely dangerous, because distorting your sense of reality means you'll create an alternative

reality. And you'll be so sure it's reality and you're not and it's not an Allah has said, shall we not inform you of the biggest losers with regards to their deeds, those who wasted their efforts in this life, while all the while thinking that they're performing the best of deeds, like one of the most dangerous things in the world is to lock out of your, your your purview, and you're within earshot, thoughtful disagreements, someone to poke holes in so that I can improve so that there's a blind spot, I can catch it before the crash. You know, that sister, the Muslim model, she actually says, you know, it was no coincidence that she came to her senses.

Like,

during the lockdown of COVID, because she says in the lockdown of COVID, she stuck at home right, no more flights. So her mother who was always an objector to her modeling career, she had to hear more of her mother's voice than she had heard in a long time. She was snapped out of the echo chamber.

And I hope she never gets sucked back into it. These things are not easy. They're not easy to give up.

And I ask Allah, wherever she is, whoever she is that that he empowers her with the heroics needed to take that stand. Number five, is that social media will impact your heart in the sense that it will

make you even more intolerant of opposing views than ever before. Right.

And this is the end. This is the end of your deen. This is the end of your heart. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said

that balay come their alma mater, Kublai Khan. There has creeped up, notice the word creeped. There. This doesn't happen overnight. There has creeped up on you the disease of the nations before you Al has a dual Baqubah. N v. And of course social media that's for different points but social comparison, right? And vie hatred of other people's blessings, while bah bah and hatred, resentment, right, and hatred. And he said, Well, bah bah bah Oh, he'll Holika and this hatred of others is the shaver like a shaver. I gotta do like this, I can't do like this.

The shaver

and he said,

let a whole lotta helical shower or like entirely codeine. And I don't, I don't mean the shaver of hair, rather the shaper of the religion, what will peel away your religious commitment, your religiosity, your spiritual health, your piety against your will, is when hatred consumes your heart. And you know, this thing is built, built to sell you.

Country controversy Built to Sell you drama, but not just that built to make you dramatic built to make you intolerant. Because you know, if you're only hearing your views, distorted sense of reality, only hearing your views echo chamber, then you're going to start assuming that I have the whole truth, which means I am the truth. And so whoever is against the truth is against me. And so we have to crush them.

And another way it does this, it breeds this intolerance. And this hostility, and you can sense it in the rhetoric, right, is that the stakes are even higher. You know, when you believe something about to yourself, you can be more easily persuaded than someone who believes something. And then they already said something in a post in a video in a comment section

promoting it. So the stakes are even higher now because I already defended it. And I already got into a fight about it. And people have shown their approval of it, right like and share and all that makes it even harder and harder and harder to walk it back. So I'm gonna go to war with anyone who tried

I used to get me to walk it back. That's just the way it works. So that's number five, becoming intolerant of opposition of disagreement, thoughtful disagreement, sincere, objective disagreement, you become

and that is the essence of pride and no person enters paradise if there's a speck of pride in their heart, they said, What is pride? Yeah, Rasulullah we like to have nice clothes, my shoes. He said, No, no, no, Allah is beautiful and loves beauty. Pride is the rejection of truth. You're not the truth. And you will never have the whole truth. That's only Allah. Right? And so you have to be ever ready to pivot to the truth. If you're a devotee to Allah subhana wa Tala. To my much consumption of social media will not let you do that. Number six, because I'm running out of time here. Number six is

a subset now becoming numb to a hyper sexualized world.

You know, if I will just say something very brief on this, we all know it, we live in an image saturated world, and monkey see monkey do. And it's the attention economy. And so the more indecent, the more immoral, the more

obscene, the more attention it's gonna get. And

the slippery slope of shaitan is extra slippery on social media, don't follow the footsteps or shaitan right. And you'll always find someone also worse than you. So you'll feel not too bad about you stepping a few steps away from where you currently were, that you know about, you know, sexual impropriety in particular, you need to know that Allah made it very clear that the lights in your heart gets put out without chastity, without higher without healthy shame, like capture why the seller of the early Muslims said about the heart, whomever does not lower their buzzer their eyesight, Allah who will not unleash their basura their insight. In other words, whoever lowers

their eyesight lowers their gaze from the Haram chastity, Allah who will unleash their insight, their spiritual perceptions, to see things as they really are a true inspired sense of reality now,

because we don't just get reality from sort of the eyes. That's like the weakest form, but we need it, of course, keep your eyes open, right? But what about the metaphysical? What about like the laby? What about that? What about Iran? Not just dunya? What about Allah, not just humans? What about the angels? And this is all insight. Now this is all the ability of your heart to retain with conviction, the the realities, the unseen realities? Where did they get that connection from between eyesight and insight between chastity and spiritual perception? They said, look, 24th chapter of the Quran is called sudut, a newer chapter of light, the chapter of light because you know, it has that

famous passage where Allah speaks about the example of his light, the light of guidance in the hearts of the believer, go back to it, and then talking about the layers of darkness that different categories of disbelievers find themselves in. So likewise, the categories of believers have different shares of Allah's light, some have a flickering light, some have a radiant lamp,

the flickering light can go off at any minute, even in our last breaths, may Allah forbid, whereas the strong light, where do you get the strong light from? Look at the whole Surah how central chastity is to the surah of light, it speaks about the impermissibility of fornication right in the beginning, then it goes on to speak about the impermissibility of accusing someone of fornication, normalizing the discussion of who had relations with who, who cheated with who the news articles, all of that right, all of this, this of this slander, then it speaks about the importance of getting married, which is a stronghold against losing your chastity, then it speaks about the idea of hijab,

right? The woman in particular being such a powerful gatekeeper to society's chastity, then it speaks about a man getting, lowering his gaze to guard his private parts and a woman lowering her gaze and guarding her private parts. That's the eye that includes hijab, all of this there's so much there. And even the encouragement of visitation of seeking permission like knocking before you enter that sense was a note so that you don't your eyes don't land on something, and not supposed to land on in the private sectors of the house in the wee hours of the night. And all of that applies to the light of Allah. Because if you give into this animalistic, inborn not haram urge you will become an

animal which is unacceptable, right? regulating it. And if every image your eye falls on as a stain, then what do you do with like the the tsunamis of images, the tsunamis of images?

Is that splashed against our heart every single day? Like I'm not forgive me like I'm not on Tik Tok, and I was on it for about 30 seconds and I deleted the app.

But we're not even talking about sort of like impersonating actors or dangerous dances or like nothing like this. Simply just seeing just seeing can shut it all down. So may Allah protect us and not allow us to ever become numb to this Allahumma Amin, the seventh and last one

is

bad news is incentivized on social media, which increases your sense of insecurity. It erodes your faith and that sense because we find security

in the news that comes from Allah. And so we will find insecurity in the news that comes from short sighted faithless human beings, right. And so it is built that way. Statistically speaking, it's incentivizes bad news, violence and you know,

senseless acts pranks also and just taking advantage of people and vulnerability. And, you know, just the pessimism it breeds and the negative lens that it crystallizes, you know, what the number one reason is want to talk about the heart. The number one reason is statistically, in the Western world, at least, for why people say, we don't believe in God, or we're not sure what they're believing God, it's actually the problem of evil.

It's the problem of evil. And so

Cabot, thermo do with Allah, like, I don't know what else to say. Allah says the people of Fembot disbelieved because of what their transgression. So the transgression causes the heart to become compromised with Vice with sin. And that is what causes a person to disbelieve. Right? When you don't follow the protocol, you have no one to blame but yourself for the consequence. And you know, just to not leave you hanging about the problem of evil thing, there's a paper ticket and you can read about it. But why do people complain of evil so much? There's a lot of reasons right? Like, we are as human beings, we are impatient. And we are hasty. And our deen works to sort of help us

through that right? And we have built in greed, but also in our era because we live in so much comfort and luxury and affluence. We are extra spoiled, right? And then social media, showing us only negative or more negative than otherwise puts all of this impatience and hastiness and greed and spoiled pneus on turbo, right, it puts it on steroids. But at the core of it, how can you see the problem of evil means there's no God, the problem of evil actually is such a problem, even before social media, because we expect things to be good, not evil. Well, if there's no God, you should not expect good. It's just a whole bunch of random, you know, explosions of you know,

chemicals and gases and gaseous exchanges. And it's a it's a fluke, it's a happy accident. It's a cosmic, you know, phenomenon can only be explained in terms of the periodic table, and the laws of physics, right? So why are you even asking for good? If you don't believe in God, you expect there to be good? Why do you expect there to be good? Because God is really so good to us. And after the 99.9999% of good in our life, we're still wanting that fraction of a fraction of 1%. And so we're fixated on this as it has and last year, Rahim Allah said in that in Santa hola hola. Hello. Hello? No internet Arabic Allah Knuth. The human beings ever denier of his Lord He said about that idea

that verse. Yeah. Oh, dude, Masai, well, I do now. He falls into the tendency meaning without spiritual health without fades, you fall into the tendency of counting the calamities and not counting the favors. And so if you are careless with this apparatus with this phenomenon, social media isn't going anywhere I get it. I'm on it to if you found out about this seven webinars because you're on it, but it can suck you into all seven of these black holes and more. The seventh of which is that you just count the wrong the bad news, the

the frustrations and they become May Allah forbid away that you look at your Lord.

And it costs you your Fira and your dunya before that, may Allah subhanaw taala protect us and you so use it for played for spreading played by subjecting yourself in moderation to it. And then give yourself lots of detoxes, lots of pauses to disconnect from it to wash your hands and your mouth and your nose and your face and their arms. Make will do and hopefully from it devotionally speaking and don't ever, ever let your guard down to something that could be this cataclysmic to your journey of life and

to this short test that we call life cycle Oklahoma headed back to my brother, sal Allahu cela water kind of Vienna Muhammad are early he was so happy Jemaine

dislikeable. Oh, hi, Ron, thank you so much. I took notes. I think I got all seven of them down. I'll say my summary for the conclusion in sha Allah. But we do have some questions. You have one if you have some time to answer some questions. Let's do it. All right, let's do it. So the first question that we received, what advice do you give someone who finds it hard to lower their gaze online without forcing them to cut off access completely to the online world?

Screen time

limits and give your spouse the password. I know people that have had social media addictions and even sort of like,

inappropriate website addictions that they cannot download an app without the passcode from their spouses, and it's good healthy partnership together, you know, accountability and safeguards and until your you know, your sense of accountability before a lot strengthens your accountability in front of each other is a huge blessing. If you get nothing out of the Brotherhood of faith, the sisterhood of faith, except that your shyness.

You're not wanting to feel inferior or expose yourself in front of your brothers and sisters, if that's what stops you from wrongdoing. For now. That's a blessing as Mujahid, I believe, Majah had said that students are best for their love and romance. If you get nothing out of your brother, except your shyness from him your shame from him that stops you from sending. That's a great thing.

Zakum Ohioan excellent. The next question. I also have, let me just add something very quickly, just busy yourself, busy yourself with things because

something's gotta give, right. And so if you have that much time on your hands, then I'm sure you can be adding great value to the world. You don't have to change the world. But you can change somebody's world, teach somebody some Quran, you can, you know, secure a meal, today's meal, or they go well or build awareness and there's so much good work to be done. The world is not primarily evil, we just said that what there's a lot more evil now than before. And it will continue being that way until the Day of Judgment, which means a lot more opportunity that we find in these obstacles on the ground for individuals for societies for humanity at large.

hamdulillah next question, I feel I've become complacent with my hijab because of Instagram influencers. What can I do to perfect it?

You just got to, you've identified the hardest part, you've already done the hardest part sister. Shut it down.

Stop seeing them. Stop.

I have zero friends on social media. By the way, I've been on social media 2014 I had to create a Facebook profile to open a page apparently, I have zero friends on my profile.

And so and that was the first advice. I'll melt lipstick Amara Shukria consulted him was last year one of the last few last before i i took the plunge of social media. And he said to me a few advices one of them is say your piece and walk out. So if you can add some positive value to a gathering virtual or you know, physical, add some value, and then get out of there. You just you need to know that every person that has survived or

set for themselves, a legacy of goodness, has been a bit different. So glad tidings to the strangers. Just you know.

The weirdos will have the last laugh. Right? And someone's got to sort of set the trend.

I actually speaking of setting the trends, I actually have been talking to people for a long time. And I don't want this to be long winded. But I wish there was a way that we could showcase people that have reversed the trends, especially our sisters regarding hijab, I was selling them without showcasing our sisters in hijab, because like it goes against the very point that we're celebrating.

So May Allah help us figure out smart ways to do it, but at least among yourselves, at least in your circles,

like everyone is celebrating, you know, everything wrong, you know. So let us also celebrate those who are going against the tide and doing things right.

Part of that could be sort of a hijab party in your local Masjid. Maybe I I'm not very creative. I'm creatively handicapped, but you guys can think of better ideas than me. So celebrates the good and embrace being the stranger and shut the inlets that you know, you know, will cause you to regress don't sit at the table where wine is being circulated and saying no. I've made

Elba I'm you know, I'm gonna stay sober. It's not gonna happen.

hamdulillah and also thank you to everyone who's dropping their reflections and gems that they're hearing in the comments. Everyone can benefit. May Allah bless you all. Next question, I always get sucked into social media debates and Gender Wars. How do I stop?

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Now Bala full moon, brotherhood and Kennerly in general,

that no people have gone astray after having at one point in time, then upon guidance, except that argumentation was cast among them.

So argumentation is the precursor of misguidance. And this is a lecture on its own, or lectures, but just believe the Prophet SAW said that if you're arguing, you're not helping yourself, nor are you helping others. You're driving yourself away, and you're driving others away.

Simply put, you're feeding your ego. Because Don't tell me you're in it to change minds and hearts. No, you're not. Because who has ever been convinced on social media of anything?

There's like a fraction of value somewhere, don't get me wrong. But like,

who has ever said, You know what, you're right. I'm wrong. You're smart. I'm dumb. You had I stepped down from my opinion, and I've accepted yours, like, welcome to planet earth, people that has never happened, check the comments section until the day you die, you're not going to see much of this at all. And so you're not actually trying to convince them because there's no convincing happening here. You know, your number one asset to persuading others is integrity. And integrity happens through social relationships, not pseudo or para social relationships, which exist in the online world, right? And so stop arguing with them. Learn, we don't even need to know you know, that the

refutation and the deconstruction of every last, you know, theory out there, it's entitled Islam, you need to know what Islam is. Because even if you you disprove that for being wrong, it still doesn't mean you're right. Right? And doesn't mean the next thing that's wrong won't sort of take over the show, and become the popular culture, the popular paradigm. And so just focus on what Islam is teach people and before that yourself what Islam is, and whatever Islam is not will automatically be immunized against the job.

hamdulillah a last question here, is there a door I can make to stop my social media addiction and mindless scrolling?

So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in the height that we should shut down the nose of the Levant narrated by Ahmed and others, that when you find people Yekini Zuna variabel filled up.

yakhni zoom means hoarding. So think of addictions, like obsessing over gold and silver, or social media. It's a good analog. He says, you hoard meaning you hold on tight to these words, and it's like 10 statements or nine. And I'll just read through the first two and that'll be a lead for you to find the rest of the Hadith online. But that lead is what you're at what is answering your question. It is you hold on to these words, they begin with the first phrase or the first pair is Allahumma inni. Luca alphabeta. Phil Emery. Well, Azima Tala rushed Oh Allah I ask you for firmness in my affair. And in Azima in determination I asked you for firmness in my affairs anchor me on your

path and give me determination upon guidance Allah Azima Tala rushed determination upon the right decisions because you don't want to just be there anchored when also progress because if you're not moving forward, you're moving backwards.

Life's a conveyor belt. Yes, so Oh Allah I asked you for firmness in my affairs and determination resolve to do the right thing.

Humbly that is Alchemilla who Halina thank you so much for that and yeah, if you could, we would love to hear if you could share a bit about we know mashallah your motives newest instructor, and we'd love to hear about the upcoming course I just put my registration in this and I want to hear more about it in sha Allah flawless the guided path to purified heart. Could you share just a couple of minutes with us? Yeah, I mean, I I'm assuming everyone on here is registered.

That sounds horrible and shameless self promotion. And of course, I'm in sha Allah. I don't want to say of course no one can guarantee their intentions but I really hope all of you benefited because like I, I would not have accepted to teach this course. If I wasn't greedy. I hope that's my primary intention and greedy in sharing what I've been, you know, blessed

To learn over the years about the discipline of Ischia. And you know, Tez Kia means, you know, purification and beautification. And so we have to flush out

everything we got to flush out before we meet Eliza, Jen. And we need to cultivate to grow and beautify ourselves with all the beautiful characteristics, Allah azza wa jal wants to see from us and loves to see in us, and we don't have to get it done. But we have to show Allah that we're bent on getting it done. You know, the progress isn't even really it, it is the commitment, you know, only Allah rewards for effort,

fairly Subhana Allah data. And so this is my effort, hoping that you will latch on to it in sha Allah and exert your effort to appreciate that Allah has preserved for us a unique tradition that does not exist in any other civilization, because it is preserved through the preservation of sacred texts. Nothing else is purely sacred, everything else Subhanallah has become adulterated. But this system of the Islamic Sciences, part of which is the system of spiritual purification, spiritual refinement, spiritual enlightenment, is a systematic approach that is bound to make you flawless caveat, as far as the human being can be a human being nonprofit can be an Allah expects that of us

subhanho wa taala. What's so much more important than perfecting our exteriors is perfecting our interiors, because that's not just what's going to benefit us on the exterior, but it's what Allah who will judge us most closely about. And so, what is faith? What are the levels of faith? What is hypocrisy? What are the various bits of hypocrisy? What are the Stations of the Divine seekers, the seekers of Allah, you know, spiritual growth and healthy development? What does it look like? What are some major misnomers regarding putting your trust in Allah or letting go of the dunya? And some of the imbalances and the deviation that can happen? And where does Islam separate itself from the

pack between so many of these things that sort of ebb and flow, they trend and then they disappoint and all of that, and more is carved out somewhat carefully into this course. And I pray that there's some benefit and for each and every one of you, and I look forward to hearing your stories in this world or in the Hereafter about how it advanced you in your journey towards him. And I ask Allah azza wa jal to

to inspire us all, to drive with the utmost vigor towards a home under his throne, in the hereafter. Allahumma Amin.

Right back to you, Chef Justin.

Does la comme la Hi, and thank you so much for taking time to explain the course those of us who are already registered, we can't wait to see you inside the portal. And those of you who have not registered, please take a look at your screen, you have a QR code and you have a link and Maghrib dot online, forward slash special 25 That link is live right now. And it will get you 25% off of the course. And the beautiful thing about that is it is lifetime access to a professionally produced professionally recorded course that's going to be accessible to you, anytime day or night is going to include several guest instructors. It includes live q&a sessions, and a like minded community of

individuals such as yourselves who are looking to better themselves as well. So it's different than watching a series of videos on YouTube. It is something that is a structured setup to guide you through the content and to help you to insha Allah to Allah become very proficient in what is being discussed. In this case, what's more important than purifying what's in the inside one of my favorite dies of the Prophet sallallahu sallam. He's to say Hola Hola, como, I sent a holiday for us and Hello, P. O Allah, just as you have made my external form. Excellent. Make my insight excellent, too. And as we know, when it comes to dua, we don't just ask, but we take the means as well. And

Allah azza wa jal has given us through a logarithm Institute in this case in Sheikh Mohammed she naui this wonderful course which I can't wait to see many of you in sha Allah to Allah, joining us on the inside, to start to benefit be the light to Allah. Once again, Maghrib dot online slash special 25 Also, the links are pinned if you're watching this on social media, the pause there, if you're watching this on any social media platform, the description will have the link as well. So please take advantage and for you. You can watch it your family can watch it and Sharla I know all of us will benefit through becoming more proficient and more familiar with this amazing content. May

Alonzo, God bless all of you for spending this time with us today. I know many of you, it's early in the morning, it's late at night. It's doing just that

Do your work day. And yet you took this time to benefit and to obtain some blessings and we ask that allows them to accept this time that we spent together. And just as he has gathered us virtually, in this beautiful session, may Allah gather us under his shade on the day that there's no shade except for his. We look forward to seeing you in sha Allah to Allah on the inside of the portal in the class feeling guided to Allah to Zakum la Hana and to all of you was Sidama Aliko