Mufti Menk – Biggest Trends on Social Media
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My brothers and sisters,
you and I know that we're living in
an age where social media
is at a peak.
We perhaps might see further growth in different
platforms on social media.
The Internet itself has
taken the world by storm for the last
few decades.
And we see so many things happening.
The world has changed.
People have changed.
And you and I know that as time
is passing, it's becoming more and more difficult
to remain steadfast. There are so many challenges,
so many things we need to talk about.
The difficult discussions
that people become
so so
upset when you talk about them. We need
to have these discussions.
The reason is we would lose ourselves
to what is going on around us if
we don't remind ourselves
where we are, where we came from and
where we're going.
Remember you were made by a maker. You
did not just come to this world to
enjoy life,
and forget about the fact that you're going
to
leave this world one day
at the back of your mind. And in
fact, as a Muslim, it's not even supposed
to be at the back of your mind,
but you're conscious of it all the time.
I need to go back to my maker.
What did I do to prepare for the
day I'm going to go back to the
one who made me? I'm on earth for
a few years. Do you know 70 years
is nothing?
It's actually
nothing. The prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
whom we consider
the best of creation, the most noble of
all prophets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
lived for 63
years. How old are you? You're living perhaps
on borrowed time. When I say borrowed time,
I don't mean that a destiny was changed.
But what I mean is,
it's almost done. All others are already done
at your age.
May Allah Almighty grant myself and yourselves
a good understanding.
Now we must embrace technology
as believers.
We have to embrace
modernization
to a certain degree
in certain aspects of our living.
No one should
change
the faith that we have. No one should
change the belief that we have. I believe
in Allah. I believe in the messengers. I
believe in the books. I believe in the
last day. I believe that good and bad
faith comes from the Almighty and so on.
No one should change that ever. No matter
how modern you become,
the 5 pillars of Islam will remain 5
pillars of Islam until the last day.
And what's halal will remain halal forever. What's
haram will remain haram forever.
No matter what anyone says, nothing
will change that. But
can I have the latest vehicle
that runs on water? And by the way,
there is a vehicle that runs on water.
The hydrogen, the h two o, they've separated
it. They run with the energy that's derived
from the hydrogen. And subhanAllah before
before long, you and I will have that
car inshallah. We'll see normally Zimbabwe gets the
first of the latest vehicles on earth. One
wonders how. But alhamdulillah, it's a good thing.
You know, we see we just hear of
a car. Next thing you see it on
the street, mashallah, with an exotic number plate,
by the way. But nonetheless,
that aside,
there is something called social media trends.
Just talking about the vehicle. Can you hear
1? Masha'Allah.
Amazing.
Even the sound is on point. Masha'Allah.
May Allah Almighty grant us good use of
our motor vehicles and everything else alhamdulillah.
Speaking about social media, like I said, we
embrace it.
As a believer, is there a limit to
the use of social media? The answer is
yes.
Use social media to do one of 2
things. There is no third. Either you're doing
good or you're doing something that's not bad.
So one might say, well, if it's not
bad, it's good. No. Sometimes it's not bad.
It's not good.
For example, you're eating a burger. You say
bismillah and you're eating the burger. Masha Allah.
It's neither bad nor good, masha Allah.
Generally, obviously, if too much cholesterol and all
that, we don't want to go into that
debate. But it's neither an act of worship
that you're going to encourage people regarding. Come
on, guys. Let's eat burgers. And it's not
even something that's haram. Right? It's just a
trend you might want to participate in or
you might want to start. That's neither good
nor bad. But if you're a believer, you
have borrowed time. Have you ever seen a
football match where they're just kicking the ball
around without the idea of scoring a goal?
No way. The whole 90 minutes, the aim
is to score as much as you can
even if they're winning 5 0.
I was gonna name some teams. But anyway,
even if they're winning 5 0, let me
tell you, they will keep on going to
10 0, 15 0. They want to break
a world record. Never do they just sit
and chill. The same applies with us. Score
as many good deeds as you can. There's
never a point in the life of a
believer where you're just chilling. Even if you're
going out on holiday,
remember Allah, moisten your tongue with goodness. Make
make provision or make a plan for halal
food for your prey. That will convert your
holiday into a massive act of worship. Imagine
I'm going on a holiday. The first question
is, is there halal food? Come on. That's
a beautiful question.
The next question is, is there a facility
for me to pray?
For example, will I be able to use
this and that? All questions that would be
helping you to
convert that holiday
into an act of worship.
But unfortunately,
we have something that's going on on earth
right now. We need to talk about the
social media trends that are inviting you to
do something that is sinful. Something that is
against the law of Allah. Something that is
not in line with the purity of a
believer.
You as a believer are supposed to be
clean,
disciplined,
pure and close to your maker, conscious of
where you are and where you're going at
all times.
If anything is going to compromise that, please
don't be a part of it.
You know,
people might talk about anything and everything. Some
of these trends seem harmless.
But if it doesn't make sense to you
and it's not beneficial,
please don't do it.
Convert it into something that would become an
act of worship. There are trends that you
can easily convert. We call it it
or Islamize
it.
It's not difficult. Think it up.
It might become a bigger trend than the
original one.
But if there is a trend that is
silly, do you know what I've noticed on
social media?
It's becoming sillier
and dirtier and more and more impure in
terms of trends,
and better people are engaging in worse trends.
I hope you understand what I just said.
Better people, meaning people you least expected and
suddenly there's they are a part of the
strength that is really promoting gay behavior, promoting
something that is, for example, the the the
religion frowns upon or there are restrictions to
a degree on that particular item. And here
you are promoting it no matter what it
is. Just because you want to remain relevant.
That's all. Or you want to get the
likes or the follows. That is a disease.
To want to get likes and follows by
hook or crook is a big disease. It's
happening to our youngsters. And sometimes older people,
they feel left out. They call it FOMO,
fear of missing out. You've heard that? And
honestly, you see an elderly guy or an
elderly sister, for example, and you can tell
straight there's FOMO happening here. May Allah Almighty
grant us ease. So sometimes you notice good
people, you didn't expect them not to know
that this trend is actually satanic and they're
participating in it. And when you tell them,
my brother, you know, they say, you know
what? We are Gen Z. That's what they
say. And what else do they say? They
say stop being hard and harsh. Please let
us live, you know, we're letting you live.
But you know what? You are going to
die.
And when you do, there is something you
need to consider.
1 part of the hadith.
And then the another hadith says,
Listen to these 3. The first one says
whoever sets a good example will get a
reward of that example. And anyone who follows
that example up to the end, you get
a reward for what what you did and
what anyone who follows that in inverted commas
trend
did
Set a good example. I did a good
trend
Why don't people do a trend of salah
prayer a trend of this a trend of
good things? But we have to do trends
of silly things. Silly is still one thing,
but haram or something impure or satanic or
that goes against your connection with Allah, you're
cutting the rope that's tying you to your
maker and you're saying stop telling us about
anything because you know what? Let us live
our life and enjoy.
You might enjoy the other side also. May
Allah Almighty forgive us. But the second part
of it, whoever sets a bad trend, a
bad example, will definitely get a sin for
it and anyone who followed it right up
to Kiyama.
Imagine, is it worth setting a bad trend?
Is it worth participating in a bad trend?
The reason is,
someone else might have started the trend, but
when you participated in it, your group or
those who actually clicked on that particular
video of yours or whatever it was of
yours, And if they saw it because of
you, you're getting a sin for all of
those who were encouraged by you. People say,
well he did it or she did it.
I'm going to do it too. Make sure
you're doing the right thing. Remember the word
purity. Is it pure? Is it good? Is
it upright?
Is it something that will displease my maker
if this was my last day?
Is it a good idea to go into
something that is bad? Someone says, why do
you have to talk about last day and
death? Let us live our lives. That's because
Allah says when you are doing a good
deed, think of it as the last opportunity
to do a good deed. You want to
hear the narration?
Simple words. When you pray, pray as though
it's your last chance to pray to Allah.
When you are fulfilling salah,
prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is telling
you fulfill every prayer as though it's your
last opportunity to pray.
If that is the case with good deeds,
what on earth do you think would be
the case with bad deeds?
May Allah forgive us. We are human. We
have to enjoy a little bit. Allah says,
no problem. Enjoy. You can enjoy on condition
that it doesn't cut the rope between you
and I. That's what it is.
So that's the second part of the hadith.
The Another hadith that I mentioned just now,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says,
you will follow
the trends and the examples of those before
you. Shibram be Shibr. Hand span by hand
span which means inch by inch, centimeter by
centimeter. You will just blindly follow them.
Even if they were to take you into
a hole of a reptile, you would follow
straight into that hole.
Imagine there's a snake hole. Because everyone's going
in the snake hole, we're going into the
snake hole. For me, this hadith applies also
for the social media trends.
You know, trends, there are so many trends.
You have an economic trend. Sometimes people are
doing certain things. Everyone is doing one thing.
It's a trend. Not necessarily bad or good.
It just depends. Sometimes there's a social trend.
Like I said now, if it's a social
trend, you need to be more careful
because more and more people with social media
and technology are going to see it.
So this hadith says don't be blind. That's
the lesson I learned from it. Don't be
blind. Look carefully. Don't just follow others
blindly
Think and ask yourself. Is this a good
thing? Because the same narration says you will
become used to following
one after the other anything that
is done
Until when they want to take you down
the pit you just follow thinking it's a
good thing. It's a trend. It's a laugh.
Come on. Can we not have a laugh?
You know, give me my money. Have you
heard that one?
People might say it's a laugh. It is
a laugh. That's neither good nor bad, but
I can tell you what it is. I
see some of the youngsters know what I'm
talking about. I tell you what it is.
You're going to be doing that. Today, it
might just be a laugh.
What did you do? You followed
some person you don't even know doing something
that never benefited you and tomorrow it's going
to get worse and uglier and uglier and
dirtier and full fear. They've taken your purity
away. They've taken your morality away. Soon they
will take your faith away. That's all. And
then they're happy and set. So then they
start tattooing themselves all over and we're all
gonna do the same thing. That's what the
hadith talks about, To say, when they go
into that pit with you, you will go
with them into the pit. Therefore, be careful.
All we are saying,
do good trends. Do good things. Have fun.
Have a laugh. No problem. It's permissible. I'm
allowed to have a laugh. I'm allowed to
crack a joke or 2. No problem.
But make sure it's within the limits. Don't
become such that,
you know, you're gonna be embarrassed on the
day of judgment when you arrive there and
you wasted your time on earth. Like I
said, some of these may be harmless according
to you, but the harm is in the
following of something,
making sure that it goes across the globe.
I promise you it is in order to
remain relevant and nothing else.
Before I came, I asked
the AI tool that you have on Whatsapp.
What is the meaning of a trend? Because
I wanted to talk about it. And it
gave me a whole write up of it
and it says there to remain relevant. Wow.
That's how I know subhanallah.
Remaining relevant. And you know what happens? It
changes with the changing of time. People will
soon no longer laugh about giving my money.
They're gonna need to say something dirtier and
full fear and more and more immoral
in order for you to be able to
get hooked onto it because that won't be
a laugh anymore.
May Allah Almighty grant us ease. So the
whole point of today's discussion is
a relevant talk to say use social media.
Nobody's telling you don't. You have an account.
Please be responsible.
If Allah told you that your prayer should
be fulfilled in a way that it might
be your last opportunity,
in that particular case it's more important for
us to abstain
from a deed that might be the last
deed that we're going to engage in if
it were negative.
And I'm not being tough. I'm not telling
you don't enjoy life. I'm not telling you
divorce yourself from social media.
We can't because everyone knows people have accounts
on so many platforms.
I did my own little questioning when I
traveled to one country asking the guys, how
many social media accounts do you have? Do
you know on average each person has minimum
4. Minimum. I didn't come across someone who
said 3, minimum 4. You may know some
of them, you may not know some of
them. You ask yourself how many social media
accounts do I have? Considering that WhatsApp is
also a social media account. Telegram is a
social media account. What else? You have Instagram,
you have TikTok, you have Facebook, you have
Twitter, you have so many more. In some
countries you have WeChat and some different names
that may not be common in others. Still,
imagine I've got so many social media accounts.
Okay.
How many accounts do you have between you
and your Lord? None. Did you pray this
morning? No.
But you guys are being too hard. We're
not. This is reality and this is fake.
That's what it is.
May Allah Almighty help us. My beloved youth
who are here and even the adults, let's
use technology to come closer to Allah.
Let's use technology, really,
to educate ourselves. There is a beautiful side
of TikTok itself.
If you know how to use it, you'll
be educated.
You can make a lot of money buying
and selling things that are the latest things.
Those type of trends, there's nothing wrong with
it because I'm buying and selling that which
is halal and I'm learning and I'm doing
something. Why not? Use it inshallah to benefit
yourself in this world and the next, but
let's not use it in a destructive way.
And when we talk about it, let's encourage
each other. Don't just like and share something
because it's a laugh. When that laugh compromises
your faith. No. If it's not going to
compromise my faith, Alhamdulillah,
I may have a laugh. I may do
things, but try your best to come closer
to Allah
as the days pass. Because in that case,
when you are on your last breath, you
will be in your best in terms of
your relationship with Allah. May Allah Almighty bless
all of us.