Dealing with Difficulty #28 Cancel Culture

The cancel culture, what is it?

When someone does something

wrong or

they were misunderstood

even though they did not do something wrong

or they did something we don't like.

At times, they may have made a mistake

or committed a sin,

or sometimes they may have been exposed.

All of these reasons and even more reasons

people come about and want to obliterate these

guys,

remove them from social media,

take them out of existence, never to hear

from them again. Never allow them to come

up again. That's it. Canceled.

We don't want you. We don't want you

to come up again. We don't want to

hear of you. We don't want you to

be given a chance to be heard ever

again.

And you just be careful because we're all

out there to more you to the ground.

That's a cancel culture.

They cancel people

for many reasons. Now I want to ask

you a question.

Do you think it's fair to cancel people?

My brothers and sisters, it obviously

depends what exactly it is, but you need

to know

giving the person the benefit of the doubt

is your religious

duty.

Religious duty. Another thing, sometimes if a person

is repentant,

give them the benefit of the doubt to

believe

that that repentance is genuine.

The cancel culture, the difficulty surrounding it is

from more than one angle. 1 is

those being canceled, which we will get to

in a moment.

But more than that is those doing the

cancelling.

You're not a saint either.

So remember,

if you want to say what's right and

wrong, do so by all means. If you

want to clarify things, do so by all

means. If you want to say something,

do so by all means, but do not,

or try to avoid

hurting someone to the degree where you want

to mold them out of existence.

Especially

when they don't deserve it.

Have you given them the benefit of the

doubt? Have you thought about it? If your

son

or your daughter

were to make a mistake, is that the

end of them completely?

When Allah tells you you've committed a major

sin, you have the chance to repent and

come back and inshallah, we will forgive you

and we've prepared paradise for you. Those are

verses

Those who have committed immorality,

talking about adultery, fornication and so on, or

they've wronged themselves with major sin.

Allah almighty says, if they remember Allah

and they

sought forgiveness for their sin and they don't

repeat what they've done

or they don't continue in what they were

in,

then Allah says, we will forgive them, and

those are the people

that we have prepared paradise for. Okay?

So with us as human beings, sometimes you

find people,

sometimes popular people, not so popular people, people

who have a coping mechanism of lovely solid

people around them, and some people don't.

They've come up or they're still trying to

come up, be they revert, be they someone

else, and, you know, they are known for

decent things and so on. One day, they

go through a challenge.

Be it a divorce, be it something they

might have been exposed for something.

Yes. It might be hurtful. Yes. People will

gossip, which is Haram. People will backbite, which

is also Haram.

People will engage in their lives in a

negative way, which is also Haram. But

there are some people who respectfully would put

across, look, this has happened. This has happened.

Therefore, be careful. My brothers and sisters look

at this and look at that.

Does it mean that that particular person

is never allowed to come back into any

space again. And who decided that?

That's something very interesting. So we that difficulty

is a difficulty that's gonna be dealt with.

We're going to have to deal with it.

If you're a person who was canceled, remember

the world out there is not fair. It's

not just. If it was just,

what's happening to the Palestinian brothers and sisters

would never have happened.

That is evidence

that the world is filled with the biggest

of injustices. And if you're expecting justice,

you will not

find

total

justice.

That's the nature of the world. It is

unjust.

There may be pockets of justice here and

there. Otherwise, just by witnessing what's going on

across the world,

you know that it's unfair.

If the world was fair, we wouldn't need

a day of judgment.

But because the world is so unfair, Allah

has kept a day of ultimate

judgement.

May Allah make it easy for us on

that day.

You have to give people a chance. There

are people who've sinned and come back very

strong. No one knew about their sins. Just

because you found out about the sin doesn't

make

doesn't make them people who are no longer

allowed to live. No. Imagine your son or

your daughter

happened to make a mistake, do something wrong,

and suddenly no one wants to allow them

into the Masjid, no one wants to allow

them anywhere near, they can't talk to the

scholars, they're not allowed to seek help, they

must just die. Why?

But that's what we're doing to some people.

As a father

and a person who cares insha Allah for

the ummah,

I always see people who are struggling.

Try to reach out to them and talk

to them. What's going on? Come, let me

help you. Let's see how best we can

assist in this thing and that thing. And

others would probably get a shock. What are

you doing talking to this person?

Well, why not? As a father, if that

was my child or that was my sibling,

surely I would care for them.

So we need to have greater maturity

in this,

otherwise we're heading in the wrong direction.

Yes. To warn people of the harms of

something is one thing,

but to, to really rip through someone

completely to the end

where just because of a sin they committed,

which is which was major, but they repented

clearly. If they haven't and they're promoting the

sin and so on, it's different. You can

let people know, look, watch out for this.

But if it's not, what do you do?

Similarly, on the other hand, if you're a

victim,

like I said, remember the world is not

just number 1. Number 2, don't expect people

to support you.

You have to turn to Allah. You have

to make the most of whatever there is.

You might have to lay low a little

bit. You might find pockets of people who

may help. You might find people trying to

take advantage of you. You might find people

who

would really hate you.

People who don't even know you would really

hate you because they do not know any

better.

I mean, if the best of the best,

the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, had

people who didn't like him.

They went to war with him. They did

nasty things to him. Who are you and

I? We are nobodies.

May Allah Almighty guide us to the straight

path.

So

at times, what happens is

people lose focus. You're a believer. You're supposed

to be worried about others.

If a person came to the Masjid and

urinated

at the time of the prophet Muhammad, peace

be upon him, the Sahaba almost cancelled him.

But the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him

says, no, don't, don't cancel him. Meaning don't

even talk to him this way.

And don't,

admonish him in this way,

but rather he spoke to him with love.

He corrected him. He gave him a chance.

And this man says, oh, I understand, and

I'm sorry, and I won't do this again.

Oh, Allah have mercy on me and Muhammad,

peace be upon him. Don't have mercy on

these others. And the Prophet Muhammad, peace be

upon him, corrected him again to say you

can't say that because the mercy of Allah

encompasses everyone.

In fact, the same words, the mercy of

Allah encompasses everyone. It's very broad and encompassing

Would actually fit

to describe those at times when we're trying

to cancel.

May Allah Almighty help us. The social media

is not an easy place.

Social media to navigate through social media is

very difficult.

As you grow in popularity, you will face

a lot of weird people saying a lot

of weird things.

It's okay. Take it in your stride. Lay

low, perhaps. Or if you're strong enough, keep

going.

Allah Almighty will grant you that success.

Don't worry, the days are difficult, but with

the help of Allah, he grants you successes

through those difficulties and challenges, and he still

gives

you more than you can imagine. May Allah

bless you all and protect us all. Protect

us from being those who cancel others and

from being the ones who are canceled.

May Allah safeguard us from shaitan and help

mean, turn back to Allah.

mean, turn back to Allah.