Mufti Menk – How Does Islam Tackle Loneliness

Mufti Menk
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The speaker discusses how Islam helps with loneliness and usage of social media, which is now being used by individuals without their parents or siblings. They explain that social media is not as social as it used to be and can lead to isolation and loneliness. The speaker suggests investing more time in relationships to alleviate these symptoms.

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			I've got a question here. Someone is saying,
		
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			I feel lonely and depressed and don't know
		
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			how to help myself.
		
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			How does Islam help with that?
		
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			So,
		
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			just to add on to what,
		
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			Mufti said,
		
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			when the underlying
		
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			cause
		
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			of your relationship
		
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			is not only blood,
		
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			but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as well, that
		
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			helps in a great way. Because ultimately you
		
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			know that we are together
		
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			not only because of blood, but because Allah
		
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			made us blood. And I have to look
		
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			after this person.
		
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			So and I have to keep with this
		
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			person, and I can't break my relationship. And
		
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			if it is broken, I will mend that
		
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			tie.
		
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			With regards to loneliness,
		
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			many people, many people send me messages saying,
		
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			I feel lonely. I feel like I'm within
		
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			my family,
		
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			but nobody understands me. I'm all alone. I
		
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			don't,
		
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			I don't feel like I have anyone in
		
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			my life.
		
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			And
		
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			there are 2 approaches. 1st and foremost,
		
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			repair your relationship with Allah
		
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			to remedy that loneliness. Why? Because when you
		
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			fill your heart with Allah,
		
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			then
		
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			you will not need and require and desperately
		
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			search and look for the companionships
		
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			companionship
		
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			of others. Why? Because you have the companionship
		
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			of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
		
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			And secondly,
		
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			look into your usage of social media
		
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			and how you are using it. Oftentimes,
		
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			we are not using it, we are abusing
		
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			it. And this is the underlying
		
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			cause in a lot of these
		
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			cases.
		
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			They are using social media
		
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			hours on end.
		
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			And what essentially you are doing now, social
		
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			media is not as social as it was
		
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			when it started.
		
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			You are now interacting
		
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			with a screen that suggests
		
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			certain content to you that you've been clicking
		
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			on, and I implore you to look at
		
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			your feeds. What do your feeds have? Do
		
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			they have your cousin, and your uncle, and
		
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			your aunt, and your friend, and your brother?
		
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			Most of the content that you are seeing
		
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			is suggested to you by an algorithm because
		
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			of what you clicked on. It has nothing
		
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			to do with social
		
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			interaction anymore.
		
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			So what you're doing is you are isolating
		
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			yourself and people around you are also isolating
		
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			themselves without realizing. You know sometimes I think
		
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			of the irony of it. You are sitting
		
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			in bed, your spouse is sitting in bed,
		
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			and instead of talking to each other, you
		
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			are sending each other reels on Instagram.
		
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			You are sending each but you're sitting next
		
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			to each other. Hey, did you check that
		
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			which I sent you?
		
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			Why why can't you put the phone down
		
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			and talk to each other, stay into her
		
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			eyes, you know.
		
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			Gaze into her eyes and smile at her.
		
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			You know sometimes we are guilty of that
		
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			which we say as well. So
		
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			we realize that it's a problem and you
		
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			need to invest more time in your relationships.
		
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			So sometimes just have
		
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			no phone time where we're gonna put phones
		
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			away, and we're just gonna talk to each
		
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			other, and we're gonna interact with each other.
		
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			And this really
		
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			helps remedy that isolation that you feel and
		
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			that loneliness that you feel. May
		
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			Allah grant us the ability
		
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			to fill our hearts with him such that
		
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			we don't feel