Navaid Aziz – Fiqh of Social Media #01
AI: Summary ©
The speakers stress the negative impact of social media on people's lives, including negative outcomes and personal relationships. They emphasize the importance of setting principles and values for one's life, revisiting intentions, and considering the impact of social media on one's identity and national security. The speakers stress the need to be cautious and selective in using social media to promote modest lifestyles and avoid negative consequences. They also stress the importance of cultivating relationships and being aware of one's actions and intentions in relation to Islam, as well as curating one's feet and following on unfriend, mute, and blocking.AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in Al Hamdulillah hinami Double understeer in a row and Estelle Pharaoh when our villa Himanshu rhodian fusina. Woman Cntr Marina may Hello Philomel Villa Who am I available for the Hodeida or Chateau La Ilaha illa Allah who had the hola Chica or shadow under Mohammed Abdullah Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa early he was so humble, he was seldom at the Sleeman kathira. And my bad, my dear brothers and sisters as salaam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.
So I want to start off tonight's holochain discussion, going through memory lane on all of the social media and communication apps and platforms that we've used since the 90s. So if you've ever used a social media or a communication platform, I want you to just share with me what you've used. So I'll start off, I've used MSN messenger. And I know that's probably so that a lot of you don't even know what that is. So that's what we want to start off with. What have you used ICQ nice okay, go ahead. Yeah.
You use the MSN
you didn't use it? What? You know what it is? You read it like an encyclopedia. Got it? What else have you guys used and continue to use? Yeah.
BlackBerry Messenger. Okay, I haven't heard that one in a long time. Sisters. What have you used and continue to use? You can say the obvious ones as well.
Instagram, okay. Excellent. Facebook. Sisters on Facebook. Okay. What else?
Snapchat, okay. Tick tock, who's on tick tock over here. Okay, go ahead. So you can say something? Yeah.
Twitter. Okay, excellent.
All good. Or good time will tell me what that is. I've never heard of it.
And is it just like a chat platform? Or what is it? Okay.
It's like Facebook. Pre Facebook. Interesting. Okay, go ahead.
Come on, bro. You can make stuff up. What is next Sofia?
A long time ago. Okay, got you. Got you got you. What else? What are we missing?
Yahoo chat messenger. Okay. My Space off. I have not heard that in a long time. What else? Skype okay. Yeah. Skype WhatsApp. Those are the obvious ones. Yeah.
Viber. Okay. Is anyone on Discord? Anyone use discord over here? A few people. A lot of the younger people seem to be on Discord these days. Okay, Alhamdulillah. Okay, I just wanted to get those out there. Just to show you the different varieties and how back in time, we're actually talking about like MSN Messenger. We're talking about like 1992 and 1993. Like around that time, it's a very, very long time. But ICQ, I think may have been even earlier than that. SubhanAllah. So it's crazy to think how back time, social media goes back. So for the series of our discussions, and we're going to be together with the Lightoller for four weeks, maybe five, depending on how things play out the
fifth week as a contingency week. And the layout of the ground is we're going to be basing our discussions on this book called The field of social media by Omar Osman. And I want to tell you, just very quickly about this brother, this brother, mashallah is your average individual in the sense that he hasn't gone to study traditional anywhere. He didn't go to all as her he didn't go to Medina University, even graduate from a data alone, but he was just a very active brother growing up in his community, he spent a lot of time with various scholars, and he spent a lot of time self studying and attending local programs, as well. And this shows you Subhanallah, that one should
never underestimate their own capability, and should never minimize the contribution that you can make to your community and to society as well, that even though it's such a desperately needed topic, like the field of social media, we haven't seen a scholar write about this topic. We haven't seen a scholar, do a series of lectures on it. We have a brother from Dallas, Texas, mashallah very capable, very enthusiastic and self motivated. He is the one that came up with this. So I think this is something to aspire for that never underestimate your own value and your own capability. And we pray that Allah subhanaw taala makes this heavy on his scale of good deeds. So I want to read out
the chapters that he has, and then start with the introduction of the book, which was given by shake up the Nasir Junga. So altogether, there's 14 chapters in this book. Chapter number one is the intention. Chapter number two is friendship. Chapter number three is the phone reflect the cathode, publicizing sins, family and V. Change echo chambers nnessee have to face
says spirituality and optimism. And just to give you an idea, like chapter number one is two pages long. So even though it seems like there's a lot of chapters, the actual chapters itself are really, really short. What I really like about this book is that this book isn't there to tell you. This is halal. And this is haram. And this is how you should be dictating your life. But it really focuses on establishing principles that you should navigate your life by. And this is something that's really important to understand that oftentimes when we think and we'll we'll talk about this in chapter one, that when something is halal, we should automatically pursue it. But what we fail to
understand is that sometimes something can be handled in a generic sense, but it's not halal for you. So to give you like a food example, eating peanuts is halal. Allah subhanaw taala has made eating peanuts halal. But if you have a severe peanut allergy, you should not be eating peanuts. In fact, eating peanuts for you at that heart at that time, actually becomes haram for you. So now, if you tie this into social media, yes, we can say social media as a general rule may be valid. And that's something we'll be exploring together. But it doesn't mean it's the right thing for you to use, based upon your own habits based upon your own individual personality, that perhaps you become
very obsessive with it, perhaps you can't control yourself over it. And then maybe it's not right for you to use, even though it may be generally highlighted. So that's what I like about these guiding principles. And it helps us navigate our lives through principles, as opposed to giving a specific rules that we're looking for. So that's something to keep in mind that if you came to look for, hey, my child has a phone addiction, you know, this HELOC is going to solve his problem. No, it's not. But what this Hanako will do is to give you tools so that when you go back home, you can have a fruitful and beneficial discussion. With your own child, you can have your fruitful and
beneficial discussion with your own child. So let's start off with the fort. So the foreword of this book was written by Sheikh Abdel Nasser Janga, a very famous scholar from United States of America. He runs column seminary and Marcela Tabata Cola has done a great job of helping produce the next generation of North American scholars. I'm not sure if some of you may remember, but one of our local themes over here, brother Muneeb, Sarmad. You know, Mashallah. He memorized the Quran over here. He studied here for a long time. But now he's gone to the states. He's a youth director in the masjid in Texas, but he is also in his like fourth year at the kalam seminaries, also in his fourth
year at the kalam seminary. So they are doing a very good job in trying to produce the next generation of scholars. And they also do a great job of various online activities. So they have an intensive Syrah, course and intensive Arabic course. And they also do international travel as well, like ombre and then Istanbul, and some other places as well. So do check them out. If you haven't heard of them before. It's called column Institute, based out of Dallas, Texas. So in his forward, she got the NASA agenda, he highlights some things that I want to start off discussing with you. How do we understand what a human being is? How do we understand what a human being is? So he says the
logicians defined the human being in Arabic as an Haiwan and notic, the animal that has been endowed with speech, he highlights this point, because once you have a certain ability, it is only normal that you will want to use that ability. So our defining characteristic between us and animals is not just the ability to communicate, but it is the ability to articulate, so communicate, I can say, you will go like this, and you will understand me it means come here. But I can also say, Can you please come and sit down next to me, and I can become more specific. So that ability to articulate is what differentiates us from Hume from the animals. And this is how he starts off with. So now this
necessity of wanting to communicate, it will manifest itself in different ways. So early on, you were very restricted. You can either speak to a person, you can write letters, and that's pretty much all you can do. But now as technology advances, you can do a wide variety of things. You can communicate through an avatar, you can you know, type text messages, you can send voice notes, you can do a variety of different things. And then he quotes the verses from shorter Rockman which I believe are very befitting to start off with. So ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada he starts off solotaroff Man by saying, our rough man and Lemuel Quran halacha Ensign Allama Holbein that Earthman meaning the
source of all mercy, and he taught to mankind the Quran, and he created mankind. And then he taught mankind began he taught mankind how to articulate themselves and to speak for them selves. So now if you look at these set of verses, Allah subhanaw taala mentions all of the blessings at the beginning of Surah Rahman at the head of
All those blessings is that your Lord is our man. And this is something very important to think about, particularly when we get to social media, because so many mistakes are easily made on social media. It's befitting that Allah subhanho wa Taala reminds us that he is our man, the source of all mercy. And then he taught us the Quran mean that the Quran is meant to be our guide throughout life, and the way that we conduct ourselves and Emanuel, of living. And then he created mankind, so greater than the creation of mankind was the fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala taught us the Quran. And then the last thing that Allah subhanaw taala mentions for the sake of our discussion, Allah
Muhammad bayaud Is that he taught mankind how to articulate and how to speak. And this is what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us in them in Albania. Needless to hear that indeed, from some speech, is magic. Meaning the impact that speech will have on an individual and can have uncertain people is almost like magic, the way that we can manipulate and influences people's emotions, and the way that they think through speech is absolutely phenomenal. Subhanallah so this is a gift from Allah subhanaw taala that if you're able to use it towards good, you will be rewarded. But if you use it towards evil, you will be punished, you will be punished. And if you
remember going back to our discussions on emotional intelligence, when we got to the topic of moral intelligence, we said that was the distinguishing characteristic between what a believer should be doing versus what someone evil would be doing the believer guides by moral intelligence, meaning not only do we want to influence people, but we want to influence people towards what is best for their dunya and akhira. And same thing over here when you have the ability to communicate, you want to make sure that your communication is bringing you closer to Allah and your interactions with other people is also bringing them closer to Allah subhanaw taala now, I want to start off by posing a
question to you and I want to get your brains thinking
is social media real life or not?
A social media real life or not raise your hands and share an answer with me on what you think go ahead yeah
of course so the brother says that no, it's not because you have the ability to pretend and the ability to make up and portray that which is not real right
the
reality of life
make
excellent so our brother says that we both are possible Go ahead in the back yeah
online
you value excellent all the people online
want you to
play
excellent
excellent. So it's an extension of reality. Go ahead. Yeah.
No one is posting their failures
I don't know if I agree with that. I mean, I think very few people will post their failures but I completely get your point I complete each one will come back to you sisters. What do you think is social media reality or not?
Go ahead yeah.
Okay.
Okay, so it's a mixture of both excellent. Other sisters go ahead. Yeah.
off that is too deep.
So it's a shadow but not a reflection. That's very fascinating. And that's going to take a long time to for me to find it, but I love it because I can look at any other sisters. What do you guys think? Real not real. No, it's not real. Why are you sitting nodding your head?
You will you can agree with everybody. We've had contradictory extracts.
Okay, you agree with the statement of it being fake?
Excellent. So I think that level of literacy is already present. That social media is very, very manipulative. And regardless on where we stand on this issue is social media, real or not?
What we do need to understand is that the impact of social media is very, very real, the impact of social media is very, very real. And this is what shake up the message, it says, it says, we often hear that social media isn't real life, but it is a reflection of it. It can feel artificial and distant, like staring into a mirage, but its effects on our lives.
It affects our lives in a very real way. It affects our lives in a very real way. So you will see something on social media on a crusade, you'll see another thing on social media make you happy. In those, you'll see another thing on social media, and I'll make you laugh. You know, I remember reading something on Instagram today, I'm not sure if you guys would have been following the World Cup in Qatar. But initially, they had allowed the consumption of beer. And now just within these last 48 hours, there was like, No More beer is going to be sold at the stadium. So there's this,
like Pong account on Instagram, I can't remember what it was called. But he's like, the only beer you'll be getting at the World Cup now is stuck beer. And I thought that was really funny. So that like that's the impact that it has, right? It has the ability to change your mood and has a very real impact on your life. SubhanAllah. And the more you start to relate to what you're following, the greater the impact it will have. And this is what we'll be talking about in chapter two, particularly when it comes to envy, particularly when it becomes to obsessively following someone's day to day life, and the impact that it will have on you. So we can argue and debate Is it real or
not. But something that we will all agree upon is that the impact is very, very real. And this portion, he says something very, very profound. He says this is dirt, largely due to the major benefits of social media, being economic and business related, while the harms are primary, spiritual, emotional, psychological, and social. So now as we get into this discussion, you know, is social media good? Is social media banned, he makes a very valuable point that if you look at the who actually benefits and profits from social media, it is the major corporations, right, it is a great way to make money, it is a great way to advertise, it is a great way to market, it is a great
way to sell things. But then when you look at the adverse effects, these adverse effects, in very few cases, will impact the corporation. So there's a major scandal, people boycott that corporation, they create a campaign against that corporation. And then you know what, people cut that corporation out, and it has a negative impact on them. But if you look at normal, regular negative impact, it's often that the individuals that use social media, primarily spiritual, meaning that it'll have an impact on your Eman. This can be in the form of jealousy, this can be in the form of overconsumption, this can be in the form of looking at things that are haram that you shouldn't be
looking at. Then he talks about emotional, right, that these are things that will have an impact on your emotional life as well. May you wishing that you had someone else's life, you're not being contented with your own life, developing a lens, a sense of ingratitude, psychological that these pictures are. So
what's the word I'm looking for? Not photoshopped, but like,
edited that they're so edited, that it has an impact on your self image that why can't I look as good as this? Why can I not look as presentable as this panel, and then even social, that if you look at how connected people are through social media, we haven't lived in a generation where people have felt more alone. And why is that even though we're more connected than ever, why is it that we're feeling more alone than ever? So you look at some of these negative ramifications that social media will have. And then the last part I'll share from his word, he says, however, I cannot deny that it is embedded in people's lives and cultures, and therefore extremely difficult to avoid. And
I think this really hits home for parents, because particularly when we have the discussion, when should we allow our children to start using social media? Ideally, we think let's try to delete as long as we possibly can. Right? Let's not let them use social media because we're trying to protect them. But what we're not seeing is that sooner or later, it is inevitable. It is inevitable that your children will end up on social media. So how do we navigate through that issue will be the night Allah. When we talk about family, we'll be talking about that issue as well. Bismillahi Tada. So now this leads us into chapter number one, which is about intention, and he begins with the
famous Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the Malama Lavinia to inadequate limit in Manoa that indeed, actions are by intentions, and every person will be rewarded according to what he has intended. Now, scholars traditionally began with this hadith to remind ourselves of the importance of intention and all aspects of life. And I think we need to understand the value of intention over here, and I'll briefly talk about
with this is that there are certain things that you have to have an intention of worship to Allah subhanaw taala. If you don't, you are sinful. So when the time comes for Salah, your intention has to be to worship Allah subhanho wa taala. If your intention isn't there to worship Allah, you're actually sinful for doing that action and not having an intention to worship Allah subhanho wa taala, then you have those actions that are neutral within themselves, that they're not punishable, nor are they rewardable based upon their normative state, but based upon your intentions, now, it can have an impact in terms of reward and punishment. So for example, you're eating, if your
intention is to eat the energy for the sake of Allah, you will be rewarded, you're going to sleep with the intention of I can wake up early for budget and wake up 4pm on data and the Hajaj, you will be rewarded for your sleep at that time. So now let's bring this into the world of social media. We're not even going to talk about social media good or bad yet, but let's just talk about our own intentions. If someone goes on to social media with the intention of I'm going to create a fake avatar, and I'm going to bully people, and I'm going to make fun of them. And I'm going to make them feel insignificant and make them feel bad about themselves. This is something that a person will be
punished for, they will be eligible for punishment, and they will be sinful for that. You have another individual that says you know what?
Because of my personality, I can't go out and give dower to people. But I feel a lot more comfortable standing in front of a camera and giving Dawa in front of a camera because they don't have to interact with day to day people. So their goal is to purely give Dawa and you have quite a few of these brothers and sisters mashallah Tabata kala that are doing a great job on social media that they literally just use their platforms to give Dawa and educate people about Islam. So those people are being rewarded. And then I feel we have the vast majority of all of us that from time to time, we will fall into haram. From time to time, we will do something good, we will be rewarded.
But the reminder we need to have is that we always need to come back to our intentions. That when we download Instagram, when we download Facebook, when we download Tiktok when you download discord, when we download any of these things, what is our intention in doing so. And you have to constantly keep coming back to it that maybe your intention early on was for something good. Okay, this is where my classmates or this will want to have our group discussions. But once your class is over and your group discussion is over, you still have the app, you're still using it. Have you went and gone back and reflected on what your intention is now? Or is it something that you just continue to live
on with without checking your intention. And this is something that it's so important to keep coming back to that perhaps we had good intentions early on. But those good intentions didn't stay with us. And once our intentions changed, then maybe it's time we reconsider using certain social media apps based upon the impact that they have based upon the impact that they have. He mentioned something very phenomenal. For me at least, he says that 1985 is the dividing line in terms of how people think about technology. And he quotes
the author of a book called digital natives. 1985 was that line meaning that prior to 1985, you didn't have the ability to see regularly who was calling you on the other side, you wanted directions you had to look at a map or stop at a local gas station and ask for directions, right? There was no GPS at that time. So people born before 1985 lived a very different lifestyle. And people born after 1985, I lived a very different lifestyle. So even in terms of the way that we take notes in school. For me growing up, there was no concept of a laptop until you know, college. Prior to college. Everything is handwritten notes. Everything was handwritten notes at that time. So even
in the way that we took notes has a huge impact. And for me, that's very phenomenal to think. Because time is really going fairly fast. You know, we have to come up with these new things of you know, 2030 is the new 20 and 40 is the new 30 and 50 is the new 40 or whatever it may be, we want to feel younger. But the reality is, you cannot change and go back in time. And you have to embrace what it is. So if you're born in the 1980s you're 14 you're you're 40 years old right now, right 1980 You're 42 years old, 1990 you're 32 years old. 2000 2000 pre 911 Still, but you're 22 years old, one year later, and you've completely outlived the whole pre 911 Muslim experience, which is in
fact an old understand because it was one of the most life changing monumental experiences for Muslims. But this is the reality of time this the reality of time on how a decade can make a massive difference in the way that you view the world. Now we get to our next discussion and he quotes someone by the name of Simon
Are Mainwaring a thought leader in the space of social media. And his quote is, like all technology, social media is neutral, but is best put to work in the service of building a better world.
How do you guys feel about the statement that social media is neutral?
Do you guys agree with the statement that social media is neutral?
Raise your hand and share your answer good.
Using the tool and how they're using it
right.
So you believe that social media is neutral? Excellent. Great. Yeah.
That is a great question. That's a great question. So based on how you feel on who the product is, and who the consumer is, that'll have an impact on your answer. Sister going?
I do.
Right?
So if you were to summarize it a yes or no? Is social media neutral or not?
Depends on how you're using it. Okay, excellent. Go ahead.
Excellent.
Make me spend more time on the platform, obviously, they're gonna do whatever they can
use it. As humans.
There's no one behind this. There's no intention behind the creation of virtual
works, right.
I
excellent, very valid point. So this is this point was that at any point when you're using edge to profit, it by default no longer becomes neutral by default no longer becomes neutral. And I think this is something that's important to think about. So now let's start off from the Islamic principle and filk. We're often taught that matters of this dunya are hunted until proven Haram are often taught that matters of this dunya are halal until proven haram, whereas matters of worship, they are haram until proven halal. So examples, you find this drink, it is halal for you to consume it up until you have evidence that it's haram for you to consume it. Whereas when it comes to the Buddha,
you are not allowed to worship Allah subhanaw taala, except until you find evidence first, that this is how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the Sahaba are the Allahu Anhu used to do it. So now, this principle is not often presented in the right way. And what I want to explain that with is that the apostle and Al mafia and *, then in things that you can prove their utility and their benefit, then they are permissible until proven otherwise. But if you are not able to prove its utility and benefit, then there is the work of there, then you stop, and you make an analysis to prove utility and benefit or to prove harm. And based upon that you will make a decision. And I
think this is where when we approach social media, from a utility based point of view, from a benefit and harms point of view, can we change the ruling of social media based upon the negative impact that it is had, right? Now, it's great that you're able to connect with your local scholars, and the speakers that you love to connect with. It's great that you can get a whole bunch of, you know, Muslim content, even though you may live in a very isolated part of the world where there are no Muslims, these are all great things and things that are considered a merit. But at the end of the day, if you look at the overall harms of social media, whether it is the amount of time that you
use, spiritual, psychological, economical, right, the amount of time that is wasted on social media, as opposed to being productive at work, you know, goes into the trillions of dollars every year SubhanAllah. And corporations need to figure out ways in terms of how to mitigate social media usage by their employees. So I think we need to take a deeper look at this is social media, actually something neutral? And then if it's not neutral, where does it lie? And I can understand that the answer to this is going to be quite subjective that everyone will have a different answer to this. But again, it's one of those things that you need to reflect upon, and you need to think about and
answer this question for yourself.
That is social media having a positive influence on my life? Or is it causing me harm? Is it causing me distress? Is it causing me to fall into haram. And then based upon that make a decision. Something that he mentioned that I really, really like, is that because he's coming from a neutrality standpoint, that social media is neutral, then he says that it's best to use edge is to make the world a better place. And this is where when you go back to the intention, if you go back to the way that you use social media, I want us to think about this, that how are we enhancing civilization? How are enhancing humanity as a whole? How are we enhancing the Muslim community? How
are we enhancing our local community? How am I enhancing myself, right, oftentimes will love to lurk, and we love to see what's happening in other people's lives. But no benefit is being brought out of that. At the end of the day, what benefit are you getting? And I mean this in a very generic sense, in terms of what shoes someone is wearing, or what clothes they're wearing, or you know what, what they're having for breakfast, and then you liking that image to have some sort of interaction with it. Like, where is the logical thought process behind all of this? Right, the senseless scrolling up and down through Instagram that takes place? Where is the logical thought process
behind? Is this getting me closer to Allah subhanaw taala? Or is it getting any further, that logical thought process gets taken away. And that's what we want to try to bring back. That's what we want to try to bring back. Then he says, the focus of this book is understanding the framework of Islam that Islam gives us for managing our relationship with technology and social media, and therefore not about specific platforms that come and go. So this is why we started with that exercise of, you know, speaking about ICQ, and MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger, those are irrelevant, no one uses those anymore. If we spoke about those specific platforms, what we're going
to discuss is no longer relevant. So what we want to look at is even bigger than the platforms itself. And they are the principles and they are the principles. And something I want to just quickly go over to prove the point that these social media platforms are not neutral, is look at the way the elections were manipulated. Look at the way the 2016 US elections were manipulated by the Russian Government still an ongoing investigation, but the advertisements that were used to target you, the consumer. So whether you searched for something or not, they were able to target you as a consumer with their ads based upon pages that you have liked based upon certain words that you have
typed, based upon certain things that you've looked up, they are able to target you, you look in terms of word being extremism, there's a plethora of lawsuits against metal right now, based on this very concept of someone looked at one video, and it just kept on prompting more videos of right wing extremism, till a person actually felt that their identity was a threat that, you know, brown and colored people are taking over the world. And if I don't stand up for my white brethren, you know, we're going to lose our national identity and control of the country that is so near and dear to our hearts. Right. So you see these echo chambers that end up building up. And therefore clearly it is
not neutral. And I think you have to keep this at the forefront of your mind as well, that as many of you have mentioned, based upon your searches, that is what your algorithms will provide for you. So if you're not looking beneficial stuff, you're just gonna keep getting a whole bunch of nonsense. So you type, you know, cute kitten video. That's what your feed is gonna be for the next week, when you type in something haram, it's going to be like that you type in, you know, what's Kanye West up to today, you'll get all the crazy stuff that he's been up to, right. And this is what the danger of the algorithm is that you look up one thing because you're curious. And there's nothing wrong with
being curious, but understand the impact of your curiosity, and how it can ruin your feed literally for weeks, literally for weeks. So it's very important to understand the lack of neutrality in that.
And then he concludes Chapter number one by saying the intention is to stay focused on the bigger picture principles that will equip a person with the correct mindset and approach no matter how much actual technologies and platforms change. So let's summarize two principles. We want to leave chapter number one with number one, going back and checking our intentions in terms of why we're using these social media platforms. Perhaps we had good intentions when we started off, but they're no longer there. Or perhaps we had bad intentions, but let's switch them to good intentions. That so that we can actually be rewarded for our usage of social media. And then number two, understanding
the lack of neutrality on the social media platforms itself and one
Once you are aware that these are easily manipulated, you have to be very, very careful of the things that you look at and the things that you search for. And I, we only spoke about the searching part. But if you look at Instagram, Instagram actually has the ability to monitor what image you're looking at how long you look at it for before you scroll. So the next time you go to the home button, and all those images are there, it is not only based upon what you searched for, but also on as you're scrolling. How long did you spend looking at this particular image, what is the closest possible image to it, and then that's what I'm going to provide to you again, because they are
making money off of your usage of these platforms. The more time that you spend on these platforms, the more money they can collect from advertising companies to market their products to you based upon your usage of it. So intention, and neutrality are the two principles that we want to leave with with chapter number one.
And we're going to start Chapter number two and be the light to Allah try to get through as much of it as we possibly can. So now,
chapter number two is entitled friendship. But in my usage, or in my going through the chapter, I would reframe the topic. It's more about, what are you exposing yourself to? What are you exposing yourself to, and we'll start off with the two Hadith that he uses as the basis of our discussion. So the first Hadith he quotes is that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, The similar tool of a good company, and that a bad company is that of the musk perfume seller, and of the blacksmith, the musk seller would either offer you some free of charge, or you would buy it from him, or you smell its present fragrance. As for the blacksmith, he either burns your clothes, or you smell
something repugnant, or you smell something repugnant. So now the prophets of Allah who I knew was telling me he's telling us the impact, that good companionship and bad companionship will have upon us good companionship, you'll either leave at least smelling something good, or they'll rub it off on you. Or they'll give you something as well. Bad companionship is that you could get burned by the fire. Or if you don't get burned by the fire, at the very least, you end up leaving and smelling that. And obviously these are metaphorical in the sense of the impact that they have in terms of our companionships. But it's about the impact that they will have on their day to day lives. Then the
second Hadith he mentions is a man is upon the religion of his friend. So that one of you look at whom he befriends that one of you look at at whom he'd be friends. Now you bring this into the world of social media. It's not about who you're friending, but it's about who are you allowing yourself to be exposed to? Who are you allowing yourself to be exposed to? So even though he mentioned friendship, early on Facebook had this concept of friendship requests. But it's not just about friendship requests anymore. It's about who are you choosing to follow Who are you allowing yourself to be exposed to. So now, with that introduction of exposure and whoring, you're allowing yourself
to be exposed to I want to share the first quote over here. He says social media was not only a communication revolution, but it was a friendship and relationship revolution. Never before in human history, have people been able to make more friendships at such a large scale, without any prior relationship without any prior relationship. So you can join a chat group. And the very fact that you get to choose what the theme and topic of this chat group is on something like discord, or even on like Facebook pages, you've already established a commonality. And through that commonality of hey, we both like the same show. We both like the same sports team. We both like you know, this
brand of clothing, whatever it may be, you've already established a commonality. So that commonality leads to a relationship. And that relationship can easily lead to a friendship, that relationship can easily lead to a friendship. The speed and pace of friendships has changed drastically. In a traditional friendship, you're exposed to personal details over time. In the digital age, what used to take months to learn about a person is now instant, you meet people at an event, add them on social media, and suddenly you know their whole life. You can see every place that they vacationed what each of their family members looks like, their favorite sports team, which sport which
restaurants they frequent, what what the inside of their home looks like, and even political affiliations, as well as mutual acquaintances. And I think this is very, very powerful, that what used to take a very, very long time. Now all of a sudden becomes instantaneous. And what becomes instantaneous can easily be taken for granted and can also wither away
quickly can also wither away quickly.
Now let's look at the Islamic paradigm of how do you actually get to know someone. So I'm gonna I'm gonna photogra, the Allahu taala. And who he says you will not truly know an individual, till you've done one of four things with an individual, you've traveled with a person, you've done business with a person, you've eaten with a person, or you've spent the night with a person. Now, if you look at these four things that amadablam katapola, the Allahu ta NanHu highlights, what is Ahmad Mahatama, the Allahu Anhu trying to highlight for us. So with regards to traveling with a person, you get to see their personality, you get to see how stingy they are with the resources, how generous they are
with the resources. What are they busy doing as they're traveling? Are they busy engaging the vicar of Allah? subhanaw taala? Are they just wasting their time looking at what's happening around them? Or perhaps they're engaged in something haram, they're listening to something they shouldn't be listening to? They're looking at something they shouldn't be looking at. Right? So that is the element of traveling, spending the night you get to see their habits at nighttime. how closely do they follow the Sunnah of making widow before they fall asleep, reciting sortal Milk reciting certain Sajida, making the earth card before they fall asleep. Do they sleep on the right hand side
or not to the sleep on their stomach? You get to know all of those things, in terms of who they are as individuals getting to do business with them. How honest and trustworthy are they? Or are they deceptive and conniving, right? And then obviously eating with people, there was a concept of communal eating, which doesn't exist as much. But the communal eating was a big play for us to come and everyone used to share with that plate. So now if there's a limited amount of meat, you watch to see a person's personality, that would that meat? Are they going to hoard it all for themselves? Or will they actually be generous and taking the pieces of the meat and put it in front of you so that
you can share from it as well. So this is what I'm gonna call tabula the Allahu Anhu says that you will not truly get to know a person up until you've done one of these four things. Now, all of a sudden on social media comes and you're like, Yeah, I know what their family looks like, I know what their favorite sports team are, I know what their favorite restaurants are, you have the illusion of getting to know them. And this is why it's so important to highlight that it is an illusion. And you know that I'm going to keep coming back to this. It's not a reflection of who they are. It's a shadow. Right? that darkness is what they're presenting their perfect life is what they want you to
see. Yet their losses, as the brother mentioned, their secrets, their faults and shortcomings. None of that is exposed. So what you think you may know of an individual through social media, you need to keep reminding yourself, this is not real. This is not real. And I don't really know this individual, I don't really know this individual. And then he talks about on how traditionally, before social media, relationships were two way street. And a sense that if you wanted to converse with someone, you'd have to call them up and have a conversation with them, meet up with them purse, the person, have a conversation with them. But now you have unilateral relationships, where you can
follow someone's social media and gauge to see their world are what they want to present of their world with them not even interacting with you at all. They do not even know that you exist. Yet you are like going fine crazy over them. Right? As far as I'll share, like really bad examples with you. So, you know, in these past couple of months, a lot of images have come out. Allah knows best in sha Allah. They're not real. But there's that Korean pop band.
Anyone know what I'm talking about? The beat is called BTS. Yeah, I think something along those lines, but you had someone and I'm gonna make it go off with a BTS picture. They may I make a comment on behalf of this person. Then we had the very famous incident that when the Queen has to wait, you had that person. And this was a real sign that they're carrying, that I'm making on behalf of the Queen. Right? And this is like the wild stuff that gets shared. And where was I going with this? Oh, with the obsession that you developed with people that why on earth would you want to make up for BTS? Why would you want to make over a hoarder the queen? Like are there no one else that you
could think of? But this goes back to the level of obsession that we as human beings develop for individuals that don't even lead you to doing nonsensical things. It will even lead you to doing nonsensical things. So it's very important that you understand that the people that you follow on social media, most of them don't know that you exist. If they do know that you exist, they don't care about you. So you should have the exact same level of concern and love for them as well. That yes, if there's something beneficial, I'll take it. But if there's no benefit, I'm not really concerned that what happens in their lives. I'm not really concerned as to what happens in their
lives.
He
engines, consider the example of a casual acquaintance that you follow online, you rarely meet this person, or even exchange messages with them. But you see them posting a dozen times a day about how much they dislike their family, or how annoying their parents are. What is the subconscious effect of seeing these messages daily. So remember, we're talking about consumption and what you're exposed to now. So now as you're just following this random acquaintance, and this is like the, the danger of the of the Tick Tock world, and the stories on Instagram, is that all the people that you follow, and the stories that they are sharing,
you pretty much don't really have a choice, expect that you're exposed to it, unless that you make an active effort to not to be exposed to their stories. And if you click on their stories, then Instagram will naturally promote those stories to you. So now, if there's someone in your school, and I'm speaking to the younger people here, that perhaps isn't the most practicing of people, perhaps doesn't have the best of Islamic values, and they openly better rate their parents, and speak bad of them. They speak bad about their community, they speak bad about something else. And this is all they do. But you keep telling yourself and you justified in your head, that this person
is in my class and interact with them day to day, you know, we shouldn't be friends on Instagram, we shouldn't be friends on social media. But if you're constantly exposed to someone speaking bad about their parents, what do you think that's going to do to you one day, that one day, you're going to wake up and you're going to think you know what, my parents are terrible as well. They don't let me do what I want to do. They restrict my freedom, they don't let me hang out with who I want to hang out. They don't let me go out late at night, my parents are just as bad. And it drops that that that seedling of evil in your mind, that will naturally grow. And this is why one of the takeaways from
this is that you have to be so careful as to who you allow on your feet. That just because you met at an event just because a person is at your class, it doesn't mean that you need to follow them. It doesn't mean that you need to interact with their stories, you need to be very selective in terms of who you allow into your mind. Your mind is the most valuable space that you own. You can't let these people live there rent free, right? You can't let these people live there rent free. He goes on to say and consider the example of a celebrity that you admire and follow. They may post something useful and interesting content, or even promote products you're interested in purchasing. But what
is the effect when you regularly see pictures, they post that may be inappropriate, that may be inappropriate. And I think speaking to the sisters here is going to be very, very important. Because for a period of time we had
social woman, female, Muslim, social media influencers, that were promoting a modest lifestyle. So promoting clothing that was very, very modest, promoting Joe, Bob's promoting hijabs promoting that modest lifestyle. But eventually, what ends up happening is that there's so much under the limelight. And also, there's so much money being thrown at them in terms of promotional content, and adds that they have to make a conscious decision. Do I continue with this modest lifestyle? Or do I choose to take off my hijab, and you find so many female Muslim social media influencers that end up taking off their hijab. And for me, this is something that we need to think about. Because when they
take off their hijab, as soon as there's a sister that is even remotely struggling with it, they find validation in this action. And this is something I think for our brothers point, we're not going to understand the struggles that sisters go through in terms of wearing hijab. So it's not a place to be judgmental. It's not a place to condemn. But it's a place to understand the negative impact that these social media influencers can have on our lives. And even for our daughters that are constantly following them. And we're okay with it, because they're Muslim, and they're promoting a modest lifestyle. But if we look at back at the statements of our predecessors, they remind us
that the living are not safe from fitness, the living are not safe from fitness. That is not about how they're living their lives. It's about how they will pass away. How did they live their life when they passed away. So this is something that's very important to keep in mind that even these people that we're following, eventually some sort of Haram is going to coach in. Either the way that they dress, the things that they're promoting. And you may tell yourself, I'm comfortable in my foundations of Islam. You know, I know what's halal and haram, I'm not going to end up following in their footsteps. But what we don't realize is the desensitize
isolation to the Haram, the desensitization to the haram. You see someone drinking alcohol, you're like, I'm never going to do that. But the more you get exposed to it, the more the less you hate alcohol. Because someone that you like someone that you admire is actually doing it. You see someone who's having promiscuous relationships, and suddenly what you are meant to hate and dislike, all of a sudden, you're like, you know what, that's their business. As long as I'm not doing it, it's okay. That's not what our Dean teaches us. Our dean teaches us that if you see something wrong, you change it with your hands, when unable to change it with your hands. You speak out against it, if you're
unable to speak out against it, you hate it in your heart. And social media is even taking away that last element of you hating it with your heart. Because someone that you like someone that you follow someone that you admire is doing it. If you hate their actions, you're going to end up hating them. And your mind won't allow that to happen. Because perhaps you benefited them or perhaps you enjoy their lifestyle, or whatever it may be, or whatever it may be.
We're going to move into the last couple of sections. I know we've gone on quite a bit. Mashallah. One of the pitfalls of social media networking, is the idea of hyper connectivity. The abundance of superfluous connections sometimes gives the false impression of meaningful interactions. What does that mean? Exactly? He shares the example of a football player in the Kansas City Chiefs. One of his teammates, ended up dying by suicides panela. And that very morning, they were having a conversation through text message, Hey, how's everything going? Everything is great. Yeah, X, Y, and Zed. And the point that Omar is trying to make over here is that if you look at the way social media has impacted
the way that we interact with one another, that even though we may not intend to be fake, we're definitely not being genuine. We will not intend to be fake, but we're not being genuine. So for example, if I come in today, and I'm not feeling well, you're gonna see it, you can see it on my face, my face may be pale, I may have dark shadows under my eyes, my energy is really low. So when you asked me, How are you doing today, and I say, Alhamdulillah, not wanting to complain, you know, praising Allah in all situations, even though I'm saying that hamdulillah you're able to tell Okay, he's not 100% today, but as you conversing with someone on social media, to text message through
WhatsApp, whatever it may be. And so when you ask someone, how are you doing? We've programmed ourselves to say Hamdulillah, and that lets people's guard down the person centered Hamdulillah, they must be okay. Why would they lie to me, it's not an active conversation that we're having in our heads. But this is what ends up building up in the back of our heads. The fact that they said Al Hamdulillah, therefore, they must be okay. But what we need to do over here is two things. Number one, is that we ourselves, need to learn to be honest and genuine, particularly with those that are closest to us, that if we're doing well, say Alhamdulillah in all situations and circumstances, but
I'm struggling today, I'm not feeling well. I'm struggling with work, I'm struggling with school, and I'm in probably my family, learn to be vulnerable with your closest and most intimate people. Because if you keep putting up this facade, and you keep letting things build up inside of you, it will lead to severe psychological, emotional consequences. The counterpart to this is that when you feel close to someone, going that extra step and asking them, Hey, are you actually doing okay? I know you said that hamdulillah you're okay. But is everything really okay? And actually asking them that question. And this is a part of you being a good friend, that good brother and sister, you're
going that extra step and allowing them to confide in you allowing them to confide in you. So that you see that even though we're hyper li connected constantly in contact with another quantity snapping one another constantly what's happening one another, that deep genuine connection gets taken away. And that's what you actually need to focus on. That's what you actually need to focus on.
Okay, I want to share with you two quotes from an audible Morford. So Malibu Coda Rahim Allah, he has the famous sahih al Bukhari, and that is his collection of Hadith. There are all authentic hadith. One of his other collections of works is called an edible morph rod, which basically deals with the HELOC and the character of a believer. And Omar he quotes two statements from them. One from alila, the Allahu Anhu and one from Omar Raja Lovato. He says from angiology Allahu Anhu. Love the one whom you love moderately. Perhaps one day he will be someone for whom you have hatred and hate the one whom you hate moderately. Perhaps one day he will be the one whom you love. And I think
let's stop over here.
So we're speaking about those modesty influencers, that now they've taken off their hijab, they're no longer promoting that modest lifestyle. And what you love to them for is no longer there. So you have to have be moderate in your love, so that when they change, and you can't love a person's bad habits, and you can't love the person, since you should allow yourself that flexibility through that lack of excess love, to actually be able to dislike the actions that they do, to actually be able to dislike the actions that they do. And then also the exact opposite, that perhaps someone who is an enemy of Islam, someone that has done terrible, terrible things, when they accept Islam. Are you
able to love them for their Islam? And I think one of the most recent examples was Andrew Tate. Right? It was such a complicated situation, because you have allegations of *, allegations of assault allegations, of profiting over the abuse of women, all those allegations are there. But then all of a sudden, he accepts Islam. And it becomes a very complicated situation. Do you feel happy about this? Do you feel upset about this? And how are people impacted it? Remember, we were talking about the impact of social media, there was actually a very famous tweet that was rapidly shared by a lot of people even, you know, Muslim speakers, about how this woman Muslim sister, she says that
if agitate is platformed within the Muslim community, I'm going to leave Islam. Right. This was a tweet that was shared publicly. Now, the way we react to this can be in a variety of ways, be very judgmental, that the sister doesn't understand Islam, that you know, how can she leave Islam over someone else being platformed, it shouldn't make sense. But what we need to get at the crux of things is social media, whether it is real or not, the impact is very, very real, the impact is very, very real. What we also want to extract from this is that there are complex scenarios and situations that Yes, Andrew Tate may have lived a very bad life. Now that he accepts Islam, he is
clear with Allah subhanho wa Taala is clear with ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. In order to become clear with humans, he needs to apologize and rectify, he needs to apologize and rectify, and then also moving forward, he needs to change his bad behavior, he needs to change his bad behavior. And based upon those things, that is how the Muslim community should react with regards to the Islam of someone like Andrew Tate. It shouldn't be his Islam fixes all the wrongs that he's done, and he's forgetting for everything that he will do. Nor is that you know what we hold his mistakes over his head, and there's never going to be redemption for him. But there's a more nuanced approach that we
need to have with this. Then he shares a statement, abominable hottub he says, do not love your let your love be an obsession, nor your hate be destruction. He was asked how so he responded when you love you are clingy, like a child. And when you hate you wish destruction for your companion. And subhanAllah I think this is like a science of our time, that someone that you follow does something good. And all of a sudden, you want to follow everything that you're doing, you want to know every single update in their life. But as soon as they do something bad, you hate them and you wish destruction for them. There's no balanced approach in our lives anymore. It's either Everything or
Nothing. It's either everything or nothing. And then let's look at, you know the impact that it has. And these are the final two or three points that will conclude on within the heater either. One of the dangers of social media, is the law of connection. So all of these people, and as soon as the older ones amongst us in our 30s and in our 40s that you want to connect with your old high school classmates, you want to connect with people that you knew way back in the day, you want to know what's going on in their lives. And you justify it with something innocent, or you just want to see how they're doing. But little do we realize that particularly when it's with the opposite gender,
that's what she thought wants you to do. Just ask how are you doing? And then you really relive all these childhood, you know, things that happened for you, as a teenager, when your emotions are running wild. And you had no idea of what you're you were doing and where you're going in life. And perhaps you had you know some haram relationships without actually doing something haram, all that is rekindled in your head, or I just want to see how she's doing. And that is how she thought opens that door for you. And you could be married at this time. Subhanallah and as soon as you have a fight with your wife shaytan comes to you and says you know what? Why don't you go and tell this
person about it.
And they start being your confident, they start hearing about your problems. And then they feel comfortable sharing their problems with you. And then what was innocent of just wanting to know what they're up to in life now becomes you having a very secret relationship that you don't want your wife to find out about. And this is an emotional affair that's taking place. Often people think that what is haram is the physical affair. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam warns us against Zina, before it even takes place. So the eyes commit Zina. The years commit Zina the tongue commit Zina, before the private parties commit Zina. And you need to be very, very careful of that of this
deception of shaytaan. And how that actually takes place.
The second part we want to talk about is nothing on social media is temporary. Nothing on social media is temporary. As soon as you put it out, it will be saved, it will be archived, it will be screenshotted. So you may think that I'm sharing something with a close friend, I'm sharing with someone that I'm eventually going to marry, they will never betray my trust.
But you don't control. Once you've released something out in the world of social media, it's no longer in your control anymore. And I think this is where parents need to have a very serious conversation with their children. What are the things that you're going to post on social media? What are the things that you're going to put out there, that even though you may not realize it, one day may be used against you, one day may be used against you. And I think let's have an honest conversation with Snapchat, that one of the primary functions of Snapchat was for you to be able to send a picture that someone else can't save. So you can expose something about yourself to another
individual that you don't want them to save. And if they take a screenshot, you get a notification that they took a screenshot. But the very premise was sending haram stuff. That was the very premise of it. And then eventually, and Inshallah, I hope this not happening in the Muslim community. But sooner or later, I know that it's inevitable. You know, you share something of yourself, folks, just their shares a picture of herself without a job to a brother that she feels that she's going to marry on Snapchat, she feels that you know what, because Snapchat will delete it. But he takes that screenshot. And he'll give you a notification, but you no longer control what he can do with that
picture. So you have to have a very serious conversation with your kids about that about responsibility, understanding who your friends are, and understanding that even though someone may be your friend on social media, it doesn't mean that they have your best interests in mind. What is more important is that you have someone that who has your best interests in mind wants what is best for you and wants to protect you from harm. That is who you should be sharing your intimate and content material with that, who is who you should be sharing your intermediate, intimate and private content with.
The last thing we'll discuss is social media. As an MV amplifier, it is easy to look at someone's timeline and assume that everything is perfect for them. They're sharing photos of their perfect family, fancy foods and exotic vacation. Meanwhile, it feels like you're sitting there with all of these problems and struggles that no one else is dealing with. This is a recipe for developing has said the same is true the other way around as well. Be careful of what you share, because you may incite has said in others. So now understanding this concept of sharing the best version of yourself. I think, you know, one of the brothers has shared that spoke about sharing your losses
online. We need to change that culture. Like we need to create a culture of online where it's alright to share your losses, Hey, I didn't get the job that I wanted, hey, you know, I didn't you know, the relationship that I was in my marriage. It broke down, hey, you know, the school that I wanted to get into, I didn't get into it. There should be this culture of being authentic, and being your true and authentic self. And I think that'll be doing wonders for for people as mental health. Because oftentimes, when you're on social media, taking a logical approach to reminding yourself that this is not real, it's very, very difficult, that we just assumed that what we see is real,
because that was what we're trained to believe. If you see something that must be real, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Everything is manipulated, everything is doctored. Everything is controlled in the way that is presented to you. So make sure that you're not developing an asset for yourself. And one thing that I cannot emphasize enough is that if you see something from your fellow brother or sister that you like, and that you want, Your natural reaction should be Allahumma that
Nik Lahu Allahumma barik Na, then Oh Allah bless them in it, oh Allah bless them in it. This is how you protect yourself from getting envious and jealous. And this is also how you protect the impact of the evil eye by making dua for them. And then the vice versa, if it is true, that having this frame of mind that I need to share everything, as it happens, I understand we want to share things with our family and friends that we've done, that we've experienced that are really cool. But you don't have to do it in lifetime way to do to wait a couple of hours, so that even if someone is jealous, it can't have an instantaneous impact, because it's already preceded. And that is how
jealousy works. It has an instantaneous impact. One of the sahabi was walking, he didn't have his shirt on, looked very good. One of the other Sahaba saw them gave him the evil eye eventually fell down and became paralyzed, went into accommodative State Department sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam commanded that the person that gave them the evil eye make will do with that water, then that person is washed. And that is how the aid was removed. So this shows us then when you do things in lifetime, and you're streaming things in lifetime, and posting things in lifetime, you are inserting problems for yourself. Always leave a buffer, let that moment go by, and then share it. And that's
how you save yourself from pastured as well. And this concept of what you give out into the world, meaning if you seek baraka for others, I believe this is true as well. If we protect ourselves from giving others the evil eye, this will also be a way for us to protect ourselves from getting the evil eye as well.
I'm just going to conclude with the action points now within the heater Allah even though there are two other points I wanted to discuss. So action points for chapter number two. Number one, curate your feet and follow on unfriend, mute and block ruthlessly, the same way and as an elite athlete protects your body from eating junk is the same way we need to protect our minds and hearts from consuming junk. Right? So curate your feed, unfollow, unfriend, mute and block. Number two, focus on cultivating relationships, change your focus from accumulating more friends and followers, to cultivating the relationships with close friends that you do actually have, right, this whole
delusion of, I need to, you know, get as many followers as I can possibly get. Now it's getting so ridiculous that people on their CVs are like, Yeah, I have 1 million views on each book. And I'm like, why is this on someone's CV? Right? I have 100,000 followers on Instagram. Who cares? How is this going to impact your career, like unless you're a social media marketer is completely irrelevant. But people love to brag and post about these things from Muslims perspective, focus more on cultivating the relationships that you have. And then last, but not least, watch what you share. Scroll back through your post history, take account of what you've posted, and why. Look for
instances where perhaps you may have over shared, like intimate details, or had an intention to show something off. And if that was present, then fix your feet and take those things off of your social media. Take those things off of your social media. We'll conclude with that. I know I went really over time, please forgive me for that. But I want to allow some time for questions and discussion. So particularly with regards to intentions and neutrality, particularly with regards to curating or feed cultivating relationships and watching what we share, you have a story that you want to share a comment or if you have a question that you would like to discuss as a group. Now is your time to do
it within the heated
No, no, leave it on leave it on inshallah.
Comments, questions concerns Sinhala guide.
Yeah, a lot of
times, it's very confusing that you
don't really understand and I get into a conversation with people they say, I use that.
And it's even
watching some content on station or just the whole concept.
Excellent, excellent. So this this question is about consumption of entertainment and what that looks like, and what is the approach that one should have towards that? And I think the same approach that we're trying to develop towards social media is what we want to develop towards the things that we watch and the things that we listen to as well. So understanding that just because something is a fad is something that is being massively spoken about. It doesn't mean I necessarily need to be partaking in it.
No matter how much I want to be, you know, involved and integrated into these fights, the clearest example I can give you is the tide pod fad, where this young, stupid kids were taking Tide Pods and drinking it and in eating and stuff, and they're ending up in the emergency room, right? Just because it's a fad. So you have to be very careful of the content, that you're getting content getting caught up in with regards to fads that create a level of comfort in yourself that I am okay, not doing the latest and trendiest fad, especially if it's something that's harmful, especially if it's something that's harmful. Number two, is that when it comes to entertainment, is there a way to
filter out the things that we watch and this is coming up in a later chapter, but Allah subhanho wa taala, he tells us in the summer when Basavaraj will fly the cooloola eco Cana and houmas Hola that indeed once hearing, and once seeing, and ones heart, these are all things that we will be questioned about. My Alfa Romeo, Colin, in the day here are Cuban it is that not a word is uttered. Except that angels are writing down everything that you are saying. So is there a way to filter out what we're watching? And this means that you go on to different websites, and read reviews, and then see is this something that I feel okay, exposing myself to, and this can be from the promotion of
certain ideologies and agendas, this can be from scenes of intimacy. This can even be you know, things that are just completely an Islamic like magic and, and set out and, and things of that nature. Right. So read the review about it first, and then make a conscious decision of is this something that I want to expose myself to?
Number three, is that supporting those platforms, there are actually trying to create Halal content. So you have something like us hub, I think, I hope I'm pronouncing it right. US hub is like a Muslim Netflix, where they filter out a whole bunch of content, and the only one to present you that which is halal. And people may think yes, it's not as entertaining. Yes, it's not as interesting. But at the end of the day, you have to understand that everyone needs to start from somewhere. And then if we are not investing in our own platforms, to create Halal content for us, and to promote Halal content to us, then how can we expect to view that Halal content, right will always be at the
mitigating the lesser of the two evils, and you don't always want to be in that approach. So the general rule of thumb is that yes, things that are beneficial, Allah subhanaw taala is made halal. But at the end of the day, what your eyes see and what your ears hear, you will be questioned about as well. Do your due diligence before you expose yourself to it. And ask yourself, Do I feel comfortable? Meeting Allah subhanaw taala? Having watched this or having heard this? If the answer to that is yes. Go ahead and proceed? If the answer to that is I feel uncomfortable, then maybe second guess you actually watching and hearing it. And I hope that helps. Allah knows best.
Anything from the brothers? Questions, stories, comments? Go ahead, yeah.
What?
Excellent. And I think that's a great question to ask. So the others question. And for those that are having side conversations, can you please stop? Because it's distracting myself and others here in sha Allah?
So with regards to people, if the comments that people people post online, particularly on lectures of Islam, particularly on posts by Muslim speakers, they'll promote things against Islam promotes things against the Muslim community. How do you react to that? How do you react to that? One thing that I've learned by experience is that you will never or you will almost never convince someone online, that your logical approach is, if I can refute all of their arguments, they will accept Islam. That is not true. If I can convince them that Islam is the truth, they will stop hating Muslims. That isn't true. So that's the first thing that you need to understand that at the end of
the day, this person is a creation of the circumstances that they're in and what they've been exposed to. So perhaps, whatever they're saying, I don't need to take personally, because one, they may not have the true picture of Islam and the Muslim community, or number two, they're evil and they're misguided and
You know what, I don't need to pay attention to something like that, report the comment, block the individual and move on with your life. But in terms of interacting with it, you want to say something I'll get to you in a second. But in terms of interacting with that comment, I don't see any fruit in interacting with those comments. Like, very rarely, if someone is sincere, they're not going to post a comment on the YouTube lecture, they're not going to post a comment on Facebook, to learn about Islam, if they're sincere, they'll go and find a Muslim in our community, they'll go out and reach out to their local mosque, they'll go to the local university, go to your local library,
they're not going to be posting that comment on YouTube for sincerely educating themselves. So if that is the case, and you recognize that interacting with them is going to be fruitless. So if it's having an impact block, report, and move on with your life, right, what are you going to say?
Convince him to convert, for example,
or
like
other people,
if you're not able to get this discount, but you know, you have other supports?
Debate?
No, I completely get what you're saying.
Hey, how
are you
have other guys that normally give in to that?
Messenger bot? Maybe somebody else is reading it
interacting with?
US I picked up example, of Apple
of all for the first time,
for example.
It makes absolutely no defensive the question. Your personnel would
defend it in the proper way of manner, then yes. But otherwise,
there's no way you're gonna change his if
anyone else is different, right? I, I respect your approach. And may Allah subhanaw taala rewards you for good and noble intentions, and the actions that you you're taking. But I think there's a layer to this that also needs to be recognized, is that we have so many robots and trolls that aren't even real, right? So when you're interacting with these robots and trolls, they just magnify and make things so much worse. And number two, I think about being honest as well, then even looking from our own experience, how often you come across someone's comment on the YouTube section. And you're like, you know what, I agree with this person, and when it completely changed my mind on this
issue.
And comments, and I completely get it. But it's more for the sake of entertainment, the reading comments for the sake of entertainment, not for the sake of being educated. Right. So I think the response to this is, why not create beneficial content on tick tock on on YouTube, that response to those comments, but not in that section there. So those that are genuinely sincere, they'll find it. But no one goes into a comment section genuinely sincere, a wanting their idea or their ideas challenged, right. And I think that's where we just get so caught up on these online debates. And we have a section on this coming up is just a lot of waste of time, a lot of wasted energy and emotion
and very little fruit that comes out of it. And Allah help us and protect us. Go ahead.
So there is a command from Allah subhanaw taala that says, well, unmapping maturo Becca for Hadith, there are some of the Blessings of your Lord speak about them. So we are commanded to share the blessings that Allah subhanaw taala has given us for the sake of inciting gratitude in other people, right. And for the sake of inspiring people as well. So an example someone isn't able to have a child after many, many years, Allah subhanaw taala fine versus them with a child. In that sort of situation. You want to share your story, that look, we tried hard, we made a lot of dua, and Al Hamdulillah, Allah subhanaw taala finally blessed us with a child. But you don't want to do it the
day you have your child. Let a week go by like two weeks go by. And that is how you share that news. Right? And this is the problem with instantaneously sharing your blessings. You're also instantaneously opening the door for hazards, and that's what we want to protect. So share your blessings with the right intentions, of course, but leave some gap with it. Leave some gap with it to protect yourself from the evil lie. Allah knows best. Go ahead
yeah because the evil eye only happens at that moment right? So for example someone shares that we just got married you know you've you're sharing it the day that you want married instantaneous impacts takes place because this is the the impact of the island is that it happens right there and then it's not like a gradual effect that will happen weeks later or something like that. Right? Where so if you share this news you've already solidified to the relationship, the likelihood of it taking place after is a lot more mitigated and minimized.
Right let's conclude with that in sha Allah subhanaw taala on behalf decrescendo Allah in the ancestor field, go to Lake Docomo current everyone for attending, and inshallah we'll see you next week at 730 in the light Allah where we will be starting chapter number three, which I believe is about the phone. If I'm not mistaken, chapter number three is about the phone. So we'll see you guys next week in Charlotte, North Haven
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