Navaid Aziz – Fiqh of Social Media #02
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of privacy and privacy for everyone, as well as setting up reminders for oneself to do good deeds and avoid trouble. They stress the negative impact of social media usage on privacy and privacy, including distractions and distractions with people. The speakers emphasize the importance of finding one's own success and avoiding distractions, as well as finding one's own success and avoiding distractions with social media. They also emphasize the need to focus on being in the present and not taking photos for personal memories, as well as writing and building a business.
AI: Summary ©
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Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in Al Hamdulillah he number one is there in a one star hero when I also believe that humans should all be unforeseen our women say yeah Dr. Molina mejor de la hola medulla Who am I yodeling who further hottie Allah, or shadow La ilaha illallah, who had the whole la sharika was shadow under Mohammed Abdullah Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa seldom at the Sleeman kathira. And my bad, my dear brothers and sisters Assalamu alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
By a show of hands, how many people feel that there's a lack of Baraka in their time? Raise your hands, and people feel there's a lack of Baduk and their time. Okay, excellent. And I was reading an article this week, in preparation for tonight's Halaqa that the average person that uses social media will spend two hours a day on on social media. So that's two hours that's gone on social media. And by show of hands, how many people have a Netflix account, or access to a Netflix account, raise their hands, okay, you raise two hands, you have two accounts.
The average Netflix user in 2020, used three hours used three hours. Now there is that likelihood that perhaps people are watching Netflix and using social media at the same time. But under the presumption that they aren't, that means five hours of your 24 hours that everyone has, is going towards Netflix and social media. They have 19 hours to sleep, eat, socialize, get your work done and be productive. And at the head of all of them worship Allah subhanaw taala and pray and read your Quran and make your liquor. Right. So we want to put in front of us the challenge of using social media and how it overtakes our lives. And we'll be talking about that today in quite a bit of
detail. But I have a challenge that I want to partake together as a group. I'm not going to tell you what the challenge is. I want to see how people are going to participate with me. So he's going to participate with me in the challenge I'm going to be a part of the challenge as well. The other who's going to do this challenge with me. Come on guys, you got to raise your hands everyone raise your hands. If you have a smartphone you're you're you're partaking Okay, how many people have their screen time on your screen time is being monitored? How many of you have it on okay for those of you that don't have it on? We're going to turn it on right now. Let's turn it on right now. And next
week we're going to compare numbers okay. Next week we will compare numbers of how much screen time we have used so I turned it on just before the Halacha started and inshallah we will be comparing numbers next week. Now this is not
there is no prize if you have the least amount of of screen time. But be honest with yourself because you really want to see where does your time go? Right? We all feel this lack of baraka and our time. We actually want to see where our time is going and inshallah through screen time on the drink that will happen Bismillahi Tala. So with that being said, there was
is one part that we left off in chapter two. That's where we're going to begin with and then we'll quickly proceed to three, four and five, within the HIPAA law. So the part that we left off in chapter number two, was the part about destructive practices online. One of the most destructive practices online is trolling and bullying. This type of behavior is contagious, and encourages people to pile on, and join in, sometimes anonymously, we should resist that behavior, even with those that we dislike, even with those that we dislike, you know, it's inevitable that being present on social media, you're going to come across people that you don't like, perhaps these are people
that are criticizing Islam, perhaps these are people that are leave living a lifestyle that you don't agree with, and, in fact, frantically disagree with perhaps these are people just doing foolish things. How you react to these people, says more about you than it does about them. And we have to understand that our behavior towards people won't really have much of an impact, in terms of them changing for the positive, right, this is a discussion we were having last week, that you could quote all the AI article code, all the Hadith, bring all the logical proofs on social media, and in the YouTube comments channel is not really going to change people's minds. You want to change
people's minds, create your own video, create your own forum, create your own post, that's what's going to engage people that are sincere in changing. So the point over here that I want to bring across is that if one of the best deeds is to give people nnessee Have privately, one of the worst deeds that you can do is to troll people and bully people, particularly online, particularly when you're hiding your identity. Now, I know a lot of people may feel that they need to hide their identity, perhaps for work reasons, perhaps for social reasons, perhaps for the country that they're in, whatever it may be. But if that is the case, don't use that to harm someone. And I can't
emphasize this enough, right? Like if you look at the negative impact on mental health, that bullying has particularly online, it's actually really, really big. You see, people start harming themselves people contemplate suicide, it destroys people's self confident confidence, and self esteem, all through that. So there has to be an awareness and inshallah that's one of the plans for you know, one of the holidays that we have free, that inshallah we will be focusing just on this topic of bullying, dealing with bullying in person, whether it is high school and university, or even online Bellavita either. So we want to look at it from that lens if advising people in private
is one of the best deeds, understand that bullying people and trolling people online is one of the worst. And just because you may get away with it in this dunya don't think you're gonna get away with it in the ACULA. Right. That's one of the points we mentioned. Last week, in the summer, our boss or our for the cooloola Iike Ken who Missoula, that indeed, your heart indeed, you're hearing and indeed, you're speaking and everything that you do, these are all things that you will be questioned about in the Hereafter, my Alfa Romeo colon Illa de Hiraki Bonati that words are not ordered, except that the angels are documenting it. And it doesn't matter if you're seeing them
through your mouth or through your typing them. These are things that are being documented and they will be presented to you on the Day of Judgment.
Which now brings us to chapter number three. Chapter number three is about the phone.
How old were you when you got your first phone? I remember when I got my first phone. I was 19 years old. I was 19 years old. When I got my first phone. How old were you guys when you got your first 117 Okay. Who else how old? You are 20 when you got your first phone?
Anyone get their phone when they were 13 years old? Their teeth one person
60 Allahu Akbar mashallah Tabata kala that's amazing. hamdulillah protected you for for 60 years of your life may protect you for another 60. I mean, okay. There's always this discussion on when should children get phones, and particularly for the parents in the room? I know, this is always on your mind. And you have to look at various circumstances that come into play, and there is no cookie cutter answer for this situation. So the things that you want to look at is, is the phone and immediate necessity for my child right now. So for example, are they taking the bus, the public transport, to and from school every single day? Are they having to walk out after sunset? Are they
having to go out early in the morning? If they are having to do those things then? Yes, they need the phone. But do they need a smartphone? That is a separate question. Do they need a smartphone? That is a separate question, right? So the conversation we want to have is when should your child get a smartphone? Your child should
Get a smartphone. Once you have ingrained the topic of Taqwa inside of them, once you've ingrained the topic of Taqwa inside of them, meaning that you had a discussion with them, this is who Allah subhanaw taala is, and Allah subhanaw taala knows everything that you're doing, and knows everything that you think and knows everything that you feel, and you have to ingrain Taqwa inside of them. The second thing you have to do is make sure you have a discussion with them with regards to who they are going to be interacting with. So they should only interact with people that they already know. Don't interact with strangers, just like you don't want your children interacting with strangers in
real life. You don't want them interacting with strangers online, because there are terrible, terrible things that happened in the online space. Number three, what are the things that they're going to be sharing? What are the things that they're going to be sharing online, as we mentioned last week, that once you put something online, it's going to be there forever, right? So you have to be very, very careful that you're not going to share something that can compromise you. And compromising can be such a generic term. But I want us to look at examples of mothers that share pictures of their kids, as they're dropping them off to school. You know, they're like, Yeah, first
day of school, I love my child X, Y, and Zed. But now someone's stalking you. They know what school your child goes to, and they know what your child looks like, right? And you don't even have to do any research whatsoever. So someone comes up to them, he's like, Yeah, I'm a friend of your moms. And they know all the moms history through Instagram, the food that she likes the clothes that she wears X, Y, and Zed, and all of a sudden, the child's going to believe them. Right? So things that can compromise, you are not just about the standard things that can compromise you there, even the general things that can compromise your privacy. So all of those things you want to discuss with
your child before you even contemplate giving them a phone. Then number two, are they mature? And are they responsible? Are they showing that they can handle responsibility? Are they showing that they can handle accountability, the show that, then give them limited amount of access to their phone. So for example, when they're out of the house, they can have it but once they come home, the phone gets taken away from them, no phones in the bedroom, nighttime comes, you leave the phone downstairs to charge and that is word states. So those are the things that you need to think about as you give your child the phone. In an ideal world. If you can delay social media usage as much as
possible. I believe I firmly believe in that. Number two is the type of social media that they use. A I also believe in that. So for example, if you can restrict your child to like Twitter Hamdulillah, like what 14 year old wants to be on Twitter, right? But they want to be on Tik Tok, they want to be on Discord, they want to be on Snapchat, those are the things that you want to be very, very careful of if they're gonna use them. Open phone policy access parent asks for the phone at any one given time, the parent should be able to view it, no discussions, Acts. So those are just some guidelines as to when you should give your child a phone. So now, let's talk about things that
have changed through the presence of smartphones. So before the presence of smartphones, you wanted to hang out with someone, you're like, Hey, I'm coming over, you go over to their place you hang out. But now with the presence of smartphones, you want to game together, you can game together from the comfort of your own homes, you want to watch a movie, you can watch a movie together from the comfort of your own homes, whatever you want to do, doesn't really require physical interaction. And this is a huge thing that has changed. Right now this is a huge thing that has changed right now. One of the most difficult things to do is that when you're invited to a wedding, and you get placed
at a table, where you don't know anyone at all, and you're like, man, you know, the bride and the groom must really hate me that they put me on this table. So now before smartphones, you're forced to converse with everyone, you can't just sit there silently. There's nothing else to do. So you have to talk to people, you socialize, and you learn and you benefit and you grow and you interact. But now with the presence of smartphones, anytime you don't want to interact, you can just pretend you're doing something on your phone, even if the battery's dead, right. Like one of the best things to do is that if you take public transport, put on your headphones, even if there's nothing on, no
one's gonna bother trying to talk to you, because they're going to assume that you're, you know, listening to something or that you're doing something so you can prevent socialization altogether. And that has had an impact. So if you remember last week, we briefly spoke about how people are more virtually connected, but now feel lonelier than ever. Why is that? Because the online social media space
does not allow for deep intimate connection, which requires multiple interactions over time, in situations where you can grow together like the statement of amadablam job of eating together, doing business together, traveling together and sleeping in the same compound, or same confined area together. So now, what we want to look at is what is the trade off that has taken place. So constant engagement on the phone has created a trade off in these casual social settings, where we would normally meet new people, we converse less with those seated next to us on a plane, or with our Barber, or even with a fellow dinner guest at someone's home. So now, this concept of you know,
nothing is ever free. In life, I want to make it more specific. Nothing is free of consequences. Nothing is free of consequences. No matter what decision you make, no matter what action you take, there will always be a consequence, and a ramification of it. So the time you decided to upgrade to a smartphone,
there are going to be ramifications and consequences to it. Now, what is the trade off for us being more virtually connected for us being more virtually connected, responding to text messages, while conversing with someone is now viewed by many people to be completely normal and acceptable? Regardless, it does create some tricky situations, when is it appropriate to respond to a message or glance at a message? What about talking? What about taking a phone call? What about taking a picture? So the consequences of having a smartphone is that there's this concept of capital on social media, that concept of capital on social media, how many followers you have, how many likes
you get, how many messages you're getting, how many interactions you're getting, how many views you're getting? This is all considered capital on social media. So back in the day, when we wanted to look at someone's status, you look at how much wealth a person has, this person is worth X amount of money, and therefore they are socially more powerful. They have clout in society. That is all drastically changed now to how many followers do you have on social media to how many followers do you have on social media? What that has done is that once we have created that as a form of capital, just like mankind, and humanity loves money, well, you had born and murder have been janma, then
similarly, mankind will now crave likes, views, and interactions. What that does on a personal level, is that we can no longer be engaged with long conversations that are deep and intimate. Because we want to see that that last picture that I posted, did someone comment on it did someone like it, I need to know instantaneously. And it's created this desire for instantaneous gratification. Right? This concept of being bored, does not exist. And we'll we'll talk about that shortly. This concept of delayed gratification does not exist. We want everything here, right now, as soon as possible in the best way possible. So now let's try to answer some of these questions. So
imagine you're at a coffee shop with a friend. You haven't seen them in a long time.
You get a text message. You don't know who it's from.
At what point do you check who it's from? What are the guidelines? What do you do? Do you just check it at any time?
No, you don't? You're shaking your head. Bismillah you're the first one to answer. So when do you when when do you check it?
The conversation gets to a point where it could be deemed as disrespectful to Libby glance and see who it is. Like it's an important conversation. No, I'm not going to look, I'm going to listen. It's getting to a point where Oh, hold on. Let me show you a picture of my cat and may God bless them.
Almost messaged you at that time. So you want to look for a break. You want to judge what type of conversation it is. You also want to see who you're actually sitting and having coffee with as well. Right? Like how important and valuable is that conversation? And you want to have something else to add?
At what point would you check a text message or or you know, a notification?
Go ahead
right,
of course, if your phone starts going off, I 100% agree, you know something could be going on. Someone's trying to get in touch with you urgently. That does require you know, checking your device at that time. But for this scenario, we're just talking like a one off text message, a one off text message. What do you do in that situation? So the
Let's look at one prophetic mentality. And this is an important takeaway that we're taking away from chapter number three, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when someone said As salam aleikum to him as he was walking, he would turn his full body towards them, face them, and give them his undivided attention and give them his undivided attention. And this could be from his best friends like Abu Bakar and Omar or his wife, Aisha Radi Allahu Allah, or this could be even the companion that literally we know nothing about. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam treated everyone fairly in this respect. So the point over here is, the concept of respecting people needs to be
brought back. So the general rule is, you don't want to be checking your notifications, you don't want to be checking your emails, you don't want to be checking your social media as you're interacting with someone. So if the conversation comes to an end, and you're parting ways, pounded out, by all means, at the end of the conversation, check your phone, if your phone starts going off, like someone's trying to call you two or three times in a row, or you're getting like 1015 text messages in a row. And this is like a problem as well. The other type of text messaging, you know, we have certain people that don't text message you like one word at a time, please don't do that.
Please type the whole paragraph, and then send it you will make people's life so much easier. Like I keep thinking Subhanallah just to go on a bit of a tangent. It's like no matter how many times you tell people before salah, please turn off your phones and put it on silent, there will always be one brother and one sister that manages to ignore this notification and ends up leaving it on. And it's just purely from the gut and of Allah, that because they left it on, their friends gonna call them or they're gonna get text messages. And in those moments, subhanAllah those people that text one word at a time, it just goes ding, ding, ding, ding, ttbb Dang. And I'm like, Man, miskeen this
pours be the person is being embarrassed in Salah. And the person sending the message is just making it worse, you're because it just keeps going off. So now, a brief focal point over here in your Scylla if your phone starts ringing, or you having to put it on silent, it will not nullify your Salah if you put it on silent, or if you turn it off, right just pushing the power off button, it will nullify your salah or if you have like, you know in the iPhones, they have the sound button. If you just turn that sound button off in the salon, it's not going to nullify your Salah. So that is something that's actually encouraged to do that as soon as it goes off. You know, just do that right
away. Just do that right away. And also take heed of the Imam statement, right? The Imam is not just saying it for the sake of having fun, turn off your phones, you'll put it on silent. So for the sake of avoiding distraction. So now going back to this point of respect, that when you're with someone, you want to give them undivided attention as long as possible. And as long as is possible. And we can talk about some of the things that you can do. You know, we'll be talking about I believe in chapter number five
Yeah,
yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Correct, you raise your hand
it will not nullify your Salah it will not impact your salah.
Because it's not a permanent thing that you're doing right. So it's just like you sneeze if you cover your mouth, in your in your Sajida, it's not going to nullify your your your your Salah, right. So that sort of situation, you're just quickly moving your hand and you bring it back. But if you make the intention that you know what, I'm not going to put all seven positions on the floor, then that's where you're sinful. And that's that what that's what will nullify your Salah. So anything that you do for a greater benefit or greater cause is not a problem at all, inshallah.
So that's one thing about etiquette. A second thing about etiquette is that
perhaps sometimes when the gathering, there are quite a few people around us, and we'll start talking about other people via text message. So you're at someone's house, and you start texting your friend. And I don't know what what guys would do in this situation. But this seems more like something that
a group of sisters might do. Like, Hey, did you see her shoes? Hey, did you see her dress? Hey, did you see her hijab? And that sort of thing? Now you may be thinking, what's the big deal of doing something like that? You know, it's not really backbiting. That's fine. We're not going to talk about the issue of backbiting. Because it may be relevant, but it may not be relevant. But what is relevant is this hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, where he says when three people are sitting together, then two of them should not hold a secret conversation, excluding the third person, wait to be in a larger group. So it's not
to upset another person so as to not upset another person. Meaning that imagine if you're on the table again, going back to this wedding scenario, you're at a table. You one of your friends is on the opposite side of the table and you're with a group of people that are unknown. And you guys are just texting each other back and forth. According to this hadith, this is bad Adam, this is bad etiquette. Because you want to make everyone feel included. There's a responsibility that we have of making people feel welcome of making people feel welcome. And if you're just putting yourself into your phone, and you're conversing privately with another person, then that is something that is
considered disrespectful. Islamically that is something that is considered disrespectful Islamically a third matter of etiquette. How many of you know someone so this is not you? But you know someone that takes their phone to the bathroom? That takes their phone to the bathroom?
Reality right, that is a reality. I want us to reflect on the fact that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he teaches us to say Allah who may in the road who becoming a cobra so you want to cover if before we enter the bathroom mean that oh Allah I seek refuge in You from these filthy Jen that are that are present over here. What does that teach us? That you want to spend the least possible amount of time in the washroom? Now here we can address the Guys. Guys. Naturally, when we take more time in the washroom ask any wife, they'll testify to this Subhanallah you add even more time, if you have your phone with you that 20 minutes now turns into an hour. If you have to take a
shower on top of that La hawla wala Quwata illa biLlah an hour and a half is gone. Right? So you don't want to be taking your phone with you. And there's multiple reasons here. There's multiple reasons here. Number one is just the time number two, masha Allah Tabata kala you're all practicing, you know, observant people over here. So when you're on social media, you're going to be reading reminders, you're going to be listening to reminders, you're going to be exposed to verses of the Quran. And those are not things you should be exposed to in the bathroom. Those are, it's part of the other been the etiquette of the vicar of Allah and the verses of the of the Quran, that it
shouldn't be recited there, they shouldn't be recited over there. So that's a second reason not to do so. And then the third and last reason is that, again, so much time is just completely wasted, that could be doing other things, right? That time could be spent with your family, that kind of time could be doing work that time could be doing so many other things. So look at not only the the extra amount of time you're spending in the washroom, but also the loss of productivity, the loss of productivity. So that is a third other and etiquette, you need to be careful of a fourth thing that you know, we'll talk briefly as a tangent. When we touch a most half, we require having wudu
according to the majority of scholars, if you're going to touch a most half, you are required to have wudu. But how about if you're reading Quran off when app on your phone? Are you required to have withdrawal at that time? The answer is no. You're not required to have Google. So we differentiate between the most half and the phone even though you may be doing the exact same thing. Now, what are some of the things that we can do to increase our hasnat through our phones to increase our house and that through our phones. Number one, set up reminders for yourself to do good deeds. So for example, Thursday night comes put a reminder on your phone that I need to recite
shortall gaff I need to serve sound Salam Salam upon the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam before the time of Maghrib, I need to take some time out on Friday to make dua to Allah subhanho wa Taala because he decided to eat Java, right? So all of these things that you can take advantage of you should do number to put on the other an app on your phone, make sure that at least you get some sort of notification. For Salah timings, particularly in the wintertime. It's tough man. It's really, really tough. Like God comes, you started an assignment and all of a sudden and smuggle them. And you're like, man, what happened to the time of onset? Right? That's just the way
it happens. So at least when you're getting a notification for your Salas, it will give you an opportunity to make sure that also allows your interest, particularly in these winter months. And then one of the best things that I think a person can do is that as we set up reminders throughout the day, and that every day have a standard portion of you know what, in this half an hour of the day, I'm going to recite Quran and this half an hour of the day, I'm going to listen to a lecture and this half an hour of the day, I'm going to be making Vica and you want to make the most of your time that way you want to be making the most of
Your time that way.
Now, the last point I want to discuss with regards to respect, is remember when we were talking about interacting with people.
One of the worst things a child can do. And this applies to all of us here is when your parent is trying to talk to you, but your head is in the phone.
I want us all to make a firm intention, that the next time that any one of our parents is speaking to us, we'll try our utmost best to put our phones down. If you're doing something important, politely tell your mother and father, my dear mother, my dear father, let me just finish this task. Let me just finish this conversation. And I'll be with you right away. But if they're just talking and talking and talking, and you think it's enough, just keep nodding your head to show that you're paying attention. This is not the respect that your parents deserve. This is not the respect that your parents deserve. Now, they have action items in the book. Let's look at these action items.
Action Item Number one, look for creative ways to remove phones from social interactions. Many live shows such as stand up comedy shows require audience members to lock their phones in special pouches. Instead of selfie stations, host photo free gatherings. One solution people have tried at restaurants is to stack phones at the center of the table. And if anyone reaches for their phone during dinner, they have to pay the full bill. I love this idea. So this concept of foreign free zones. I think this is amazing. Like I think if we did our due diligence at the masjid, as people are walking in, we have those pouches. Put your phone in the pouch, you'll get it on your way out.
And if it wasn't as crowded, and if people aren't as much in a hurry, I think it would have worked really well. But try this in your own homes, like have rules. And when it comes time to dinner, take away the phones, take away the devices. You don't need your iPad, you don't need your phone when we're having dinner. Right at nighttime. Try our utmost best to just you know, keep it away from you. It will help you sleep better. Like one of the worst things that we do for our sleep is to have access to our phones, right the last thing you do before you go to bed, check your notifications, check your emails, the first thing you do when you wake up, check your emails, check your
notifications. That's the reality of life. Bring some peace to your life by taking it away. And also try this thing at the restaurant. Like I think that's a great thing. Let's see how addicted we all are. Are we willing to pay everyone's bill that night? Let's do it. Number two, force yourself to put your phone away when talking to others, even in casual settings, like speaking to a clerk at a store. So you go to a store, put your phone away if you're talking to someone put your phone away, and I wanted to dimension something over here Subhanallah I make an intention to share this every Juma. But my dear brothers, when you come to Juma while the Imam is talking, you're not allowed to
text, you're not allowed to look at social media not allowed to respond to emails, right? It will take away from the agenda of your Joomla. And a lot of times people think that the man can't see what they're doing. Trust me, the democracy is everything that you're doing. Even the guy in the back. That is like trying to take a nap in text at the same time the Imam sees you. And it's not even about the Imam seeing you that it's being disrespectful when you should be paying full attention. But at the end of the day, it's about your own agenda. Right? You came to Jomar to get your agenda. Why are you wanting to diminish from your agenda? If you're texting on your phone? If
you really, really have an urgent call or like something emergency happens, get up, have the gathering leave, take your phone call come back. That is the proper etiquette. But to like pick up your phone and start talking. For the honestly for the I remember one incident. This is when we were praying Jamaat at the Ramada Hotel. Sheikh Hasina is giving the hotbar this brother sitting in the first row, and he picks up the phone and he starts talking in the middle of Juma and I'm like what is happening? Like what are you doing? Like if you call us I understand it could be an emergency. We're not judging the phone call. But if you need to take it, don't do it there, get up and walk out
to take the phone call come back. Subhanallah so yeah, like even in Joomla you want to make sure you you turn that off with the light either.
Chapter number four, reflect.
So now this topic of reflection is actually a very, very deep one. And we're going to start off with this discussion that as believers were meant to be people that reflect right Allah subhanaw taala he tells us in Surah Al Imran and nephew Holika sama YT. What are the work the leveleleven the Hadith,
Al Bab and Levina yet Quran Allah Yama nwoko Don't wanna you know, be him. We get the fuck karoun Fu Holcus somehow it was Rob banana Calacatta had about Allah subhana Subhanallah Subhanallah there
If you look at this verse, Allah subhanaw taala, he tells us in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the of the day and the night, there are signs for people who reflect, and these people, they will be remembering Allah subhanaw taala, standing, sitting and laying down, and they will say, Oh Allah, you did not create this in vain, meaning that there are people that are contemplative, and they like to reflect they like to reflect. So this is who the believers are meant to be. This is who the believers are meant to be. So now, what we want you to reflect on is, what are our phones doing to us? What is our social media doing to us? So I want to give you an example.
This is the example actually in the book that our brother Omar Osman, posted over here. So you have your alarm on for Fetchit. You had a really late night, let's just say you were busy working on an assignment. And you've pressed snooze. The last 10 minutes later, snooze against news against news again. And now you have half an hour left till Sherlock till the sun is going to rise till you start things finally you should really get up. But this time when the alarm goes off, rather than turning it off, you just like smack it, but it didn't turn off. So you slowly starts to get up, you grab your phone now. And you start to see, you know, 27, email notifications, you know, 10 Facebook
notifications, five Instagram notifications, 20 Twitter notifications. As soon as you see that, what's going to happen at that time. If you think about the command of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, where if you're sitting in a gathering, and you're hungry and dinner has been served, and the call to Salah comes, should you answer the call to Salah? Or should you eat at that time? The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us to eat why? Because you will be distracted in your Salah by your hunger, you will be distracted in your Salah by your hunger.
What is the chaos being made over here that now that you have to pray Fajr and you've seen 27 email notifications, how many social media notifications? What's going to happen and Salah shaytaan is going to come to you and he's going to say hey, what if you have an important email? Or hey, what if x y and Zed person that you're following, you know posted a comment on one of your pictures? Or what if you want to make it more dramatic? What if that sister that you're considering to propose to she liked your picture? Rashid Dawn is really going to mess with your head. And that is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam commands us to mitigate the notification commands us to mitigate the
reasons of destruction in Salah. So now what that means is that if you've created this opportunity for Satan, you've empowered him over you. You've empowered him over you. Food is a survival for necessity. Social media is not a survival for necessity. So what ends up happening, whether we like it or not, we'll justify it to ourselves. Okay, you know what, let me just quickly go through everything. Quickly go through our emails. And you know, he posted something really funny. He said, When was the last time you actually got a personal email? That was important. We don't get personal emails that are important anymore, like work emails, yes. personal emails. No. So you go through all
of your emails, you go through all of your notifications, you go through everything. And then you're like, oh, yeah, I still have to prefetch it. But that shouldn't be the way life is. That shouldn't be the way that our lives are run. So we want to reflect on the impact that it's having on our engagement with Allah subhanaw taala. He says, Every wakeful moment we have is dedicated to being busy in some capacity. Right? We always constantly want to look busy. You know, it's Pinilla. There's a show that I grew up watching, called Seinfeld. And some of you may watch it or may know of it. And George Costanza, you know, he's like, the master Conmed. So every time his boss would look
by a walk by, he always pretends to look busy, even though he's never doing any work. And smile. This guy's a genius. Like he managed to build a bed underneath his desk, and he would take naps underneath his desk. But that's like a tangent. So the point being, like we've created this culture of I always need to be busy. I always need to be engaged in something. But is that the prophetic mentality? The answer is no. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, before revelation before revelation. He used to go into the mountains and sit in a cave, isolate and contemplate, no distractions, nothing to do with the outside world. Just focus on being present. Focus on the
existence of Allah subhanaw taala. And now after revelation, it's about your vicar.
If it's about your Quran recitation, it's about what good deeds can you do? What dua can I make? Right? I want us to think about some of the bad habits that have been created with regards to our vicar. That Salah finishes, as soon as Salah finishes, you have your phone in one hand, you're making vicar in the other hand, how sincere is your liquor? Right? You're trying to make dua, you're making dua, but you're also like scrolling through Instagram, how genuine is your DUA at that time? Now, obviously, that is still better than not making the why not make vicar what we're talking about? How do we go back to the norm? How do we elevate it, right. So it starts with reflecting on
the impact that these phones are having on our lives. So when we're talking about trade offs, one of the trade offs of social media is that all of our free time gets consumed with it, all of our free time gets consumed with it. So what is a good practice? With regards to social media? Here's a couple of things I want to share with you. Number one, turn off your notifications. And I mean, like, don't even allow it to take place on your phone. So if you're getting an email, it shouldn't show up on your phone, suddenly happen on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, any social media, you shouldn't get the notification. Why? Because that will continuously keep checking that will
continuously keep checking. And then what you do is number two, a lot time for checking your emails and doing social media checking. So remember, those 30 minutes slots that we were talking about, put a 30 minute slot that you know what, during this 30 minute slot, I'll check my emails. During this 30 minute slot, I'll check my social media. And if you want to take it even deeper, and this is like when you look at these individuals that are considered life hackers, they're trying to hack their way through life by optimizing as much as possible and living as long as possible.
All of these people, if they're present on social media, they won't be using it on their phones. In fact, they'll make it a general rule, they'll only use social media on their desktops or on their laptops. And you'll only use the social media that is relevant to them into their business. Right. So they won't have the useless ones that they don't use. Right? Like the mistake that we make is that we want to have everything we want to have tick tock, we want to have Instagram, we want to have Snapchat, so that as you're sitting through the toilet, the Instagram feed finishes. Okay, let's check tick tock now. Tick tock finishes now. Okay, let's go to Snapchat. Snapchat finishes
now. Okay, let's go to Twitter, Twitter finishes now. Okay, let's check the news. News finishes now, dude, what else is left? Have you ever get up and wash yourself and go, right. And this is the reality, this is the reality. So the third hack is that if you can avoid using social media on your phone, that is one of the best favors that you will do. And then number four, only use the social media is that you actually need to use and by need, I mean like, for a young person, your closest friends, that they're on this one social media and you want to interact with them, call us use that social media, get rid of the rest, right, save your time, it is worth more than anything else. Now,
I want to share this quote with you that he shares. He says as we embrace our technologies gift, we usually fail to consider what they ask from us in return the subtle, hardly noticeable payments, we make an exchange for their marvelous service. We don't notice, for example, that the gaps in our schedules have disappeared. Because we're too busy delighting in the amusements that fills them. We forget the games that childhood boredom forged, because boredom itself has been outlawed. Why would we bother to register the end of solitude? of ignorance of luck? Why would we care that an absence has disappeared? Right? So this is just talking about how free time has completely disappeared?
Because social media has filled that gap has filled that gap. Now we must intentionally choose in every single moment which connections matter. Right? This was back to the point that I was mentioning. Choose the social medias that matter the most limited your usage and interaction and make the most of your time. Because at the end of the day, when you're questioned by Allah subhanaw taala. What did you do in your youth?
An acceptable response is not I was checking my social media. And if we're spending two hours a day, Allahu Akbar, are we spending that same amount just in Salah? Are we spending that same amount adding in the amount of vicar and Quran that we're sending to our salah? Does that even add up to two hours? Right? That's something to think about. That's something to think about. We aren't able to give the remembrance of Allah the attention it needs, because we dedicate our cognitive energy elsewhere. Meaning that your mind it has a limited amount of capacity. Right? It has a limited amount of energy before itself feels good.
ate. And there's an odd, like physical exhaustion, where your body is tired. This is mental exhaustion, because your mind has been worked already. So it's like over sensory loaded with all the pictures with all the sounds with all the news and just need, it's just tired it needs to break. And you'll notice that when that happens, you're no longer productive, you can't engage in liquor, you can't recite Quran, because all those things require mental capacity. Harris also notes, just as every technology is an invitation to enhance some part of our lives, it also necessarily is an invitation to be drawn away from something else. So the more you are drawn to your phone, think the
opposite of it. The more you're drawn away from the remembrance of Allah and from productivity, the more you're drawn away from the rents of Allah and from productivity.
So we have to create moments of solitude. So you have to create moments for yourself where you know what, I'm not going to touch my phone, I'm not going to be engaged in anything. This is just a pure my time with Allah subhanaw taala to reflect to make vicar and make dua, and II, these aren't things that I can multitask, right? These are things that I have to focus on. Because my spiritual well being is just as important, if not more important, than my physical well being. And my phone is having an impact on my spiritual well being. And subhanAllah you may not realize this, but this concept of desensitization, particularly to the way women are dressed on social media, and as an
impact on us brothers, that we need to take seriously. The words that we hear on social media, in the name of pulling a prank in the name of observing a funny clip, these are all things that we get desensitized to, then all of a sudden, you start seeing a swear word, and you're like, Man, where did this come from? That's not the language that I speak. But it's because we've become desensitized to it and eventually, over exposure will naturally make it a part of your vocabulary.
And he concludes by saying we have to reclaim our expendable hours and make them ours essential to our connection with Allah subhanho wa taala. So his action items. Number one, reflect what trade offs you have made for social media. Have you noticed a direct impact in your relationship with Allah meetings to always pay attention to the impact that social media is having on your relationship with Allah. Number two, block odd timings throughout the day as whitespace that are screened free suggestions include blocking the first 330 minutes after waking up, and 30 minutes before going to sleep, social media phone free zones. Number three, use a physical copy of the Quran
instead of an app. Okay, let's stop here for a second. Why do you think he's saying use a physical copy of the Quran? As opposed to an app? What could the wisdom be?
Distraction 100% You're trying to read Quran in your app notifications are going off text messages are coming in. You're like, call us it's gone. It's done. Right? Whereas if you're reading a physical Quran, you're not distracted by anything else. You get to focus on the Quran alone, when reading and using your handwritten to our list for making dua. These will eliminate distractions and help you focus.
How are we for time? 838? Okay, let's finish this laptops. Last chapter. And we'll conclude with a later chapter number five is the cathode chapter number five is to kind of actually you know what?
Anyone want to share something with regards to spirituality, and relationship with alone social media. Anyone have any comments or thoughts on this topic? And it was very vague and very broad. And maybe some of the doesn't come to the forefront of your mind. But I want to give you an opportunity to talk about that. Now, what do you think the ramifications of social media on our relationship with Allah subhanaw taala?
What impact is social media? Go ahead?
Sure.
Yeah.
Excellent question. So the brothers question Are these short clips that are 30 to 60 seconds long, replacing the need for education? And I think a lot of that will come with the mentality that people have, right. So if people have this mentality that you know what, by watching a 30 to 62nd clip, I've learned all the religious knowledge that I need, that's a disaster, not in the clip itself, but in the mindset that we have, right? Even though it's not an authentic hadith, the concept is very true. You seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave, right. So this concept of constantly learning, that is the mindset that should we should have, and I get it, we can't listen to to our
lectures and I felt so bad. And I apologize for last week we went on for an hour and 22 minutes. I will try not to do that tonight to be the late either. I understand not everyone has the capacity for that. But if you're going to focus on learning, be genuine sincere with your
stuff. Take time out for 30 minutes. Find a 30 minute lecture on something that you want to learn about. Take out your phone if you want to take notes or tell even better, take out a pen and a pad so that you're away from all distractions, listen and take notes. Right? You know, if you go back to traditional learning, they used to say, and Elmo say don't Makita Tokaido writes that knowledge is this wild beast and the only way that you tame this wild beast is by documenting it and by writing it down, right? So if our intention really is to seek knowledge, then it has to be done properly. It can just be you know what these 30 to 62nd clips. Now the merit of those 30 to 62nd clips though is
that sometimes you need a good deed to do that right away. Like I'm gonna give a shout out to my to my boy idol that been for those of you that may follow him on on Tik Tok or Instagram. Like what he does from once in a while. He blocked my brothers and sisters if you're watching right now repeat after me. And he'll be like this most recent one was ready to build our hero brand will be the slimy Dean and we'll be Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihe Salam rasuna Nebia and they those 60 seconds, Allahu Akbar you've just done a good deed and he just accumulated like a million has said that, Mashallah. So if you're looking for that, that's perfectly fine. But if you're actually going to be seeking
learning Islam, a Salah Monaco As Salam Juanico if you're actually going to try to learn Islam, be genuine and sincere with yourself. And that's the way to do it. Allahu Allah. Yeah.
I will kind of time
this is the work that I'm doing. Right? Like our free because we're
unit which there's no cameras, nothing. You just have to be there for the sake of
time to read my
problem is, as
I watch, she kind of gives me very good because which this lecture.
So I've been watching a lot of lectures online, I took my friend on the phone about this problem over and over, it never goes away. I never get a chance to review this resume right? I lost
Yeah, may Allah subhanaw taala make it easy. So this brothers question is about to how shaytaan gets the best of all of us. And when we have the opportunity to do something more productive shaytaan brings us to something less productive. So the answer to this goes back to that concept of structuring your time. So if you have an eight hour you know, limit that you're working with, then break down your time that you know, watch for this half an hour, I'll reset called on for this half an hour I'll speak to my friend for this half an hour I'll watch a lecture for this half an hour I'll go on to social media for this half an hour I'll go take a walk and make vicar like that's what
you needed to do. And just to be added means by it right? You have to hold yourself accountable for that you have to hold yourself accountable for that.
The smallest one Alikum Salam Ricardo
to one
not performed by
somebody
in your desk, I should have
got ISIS
Allahu Akbar
uncle, but that is so much easier said than done. right to say that I control my phone and my phone does not control me. Very easy to say very hard to do. Very easy to say very hard to do. Right. And this is like, remember, last week, we were talking about those people that are born after 1985 that they've lived a life before the onset of a smartphone. They know what life was like, and they could remember what life was like. But after 1985 If you ask these young kids, you know, what is life like without a smartphone? It is their lives, right? Everything revolves around it. So now, we can't take it away because it's almost a necessity of life. But what we want to do is establish these
guidelines and principles to mitigate the harm as much as possible. And Allah subhanho wa Taala help us chapter number five is is a relatively short one is not the cathode. Who knows what the cathode means? from Surah to the cathode? What is it the cathode? I mean?
What did you say?
I desire for increased mutual rivalry or competition, where you compete with people for more, right so Allah subhanaw taala, he tells us and how can we counter Hatter's Ottoman macabre, that you will continue to compete with people up and until you visit the graves up and until you visit the graves. So now, what he tries to do in this setting or in this chapter, is he wants to talk about that concept of capital again. So that concept of capital where people are craving
likes and desires? What? How does that translate into social media? So if people are constantly competing for wealth and children, as per the Quran, we add that now into likes, interactions, views, comments, and so on and so forth. So the new social media as a new form of currency, which is attention. This is measured in likes, comments, shares, and followers, right? We compete with one another over these metrics. And the most powerful of people are those that have the largest followers. And we actually discussed a lot of this already.
So what we want to take away from this now is,
how often do we do things for the sake of purely just posting them on social media? Right. So for example, I don't know if we have such a place to you're in, in Calgary. But in Los Angeles, there's like this mural of like angel wings, people will specifically go there so that they can stand in the middle, grab a picture. And you know what they went there just for the sake of taking a picture. Or like if you go to, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or to the Eiffel Tower, people put their thumbs away from a distance as if they're holding it. The only reason they went like 200 meters away from the Eiffel Tower is to take that picture that so that they can post it on social media. So going
back to intentionality that we were talking about last week, what are our intentions for the things that we do in our lives now, how much of it is dictated by purely just sharing that on social media, versus going there to experience things and enjoy the things that we're doing? So that's what we want to discuss Bismillahi Tada. So he says over here, if we see someone posts photos from a new park, we have to visit it and post a photo from the exact same spot. If a new restaurant opens up, that is trending on social media, we rush to visit and take our photos before the hype dies down. Sometimes the documentation can start with a noble intention, and then becomes problematic. Consider
the case of people documenting charity work, such as feeding the homeless, it can serve as something that helps an organization build credibility, share the good work being done, and encourage support for the cause. Left unchecked, it can also become a source of self adulation, and shifting the focus from helping the people to lauding the one that is doing the helping. So let's take this chapter, this paragraph over here, you know, the ISC, once a month, we go to the Calvary dropped center and Hamdulillah we don't we don't document this anymore. But we used to document it at one point, to show that we as a Muslim community are doing good work, we're helping out to the disenfranchised,
and we're giving back to the community that we live in. And we used to share the photos on the icy webpage. So if you go back to like 2016 2017, you can find all of this there a time eventually came where we're no longer doing this. Why? Because Subhanallah it key became more about, you know, congratulating the IOC for the work that was being done, as opposed to recognizing the greater need in our society to help people. So the focus that was meant to be on the cause, now became on the one that's doing the work and appreciating them, as opposed to helping more people do more good work. So here, you can start off with a noble intention. But along the way, your intention gets distracted by
you constantly sharing everything that you do by you constantly sharing everything that you do. So now his action items for this section are number one, self reflection, have you ever gone somewhere with the intent of taking a photo to share online, instead of the experience of visiting that place? We were discussing that already. I think that happens all the time. Don't allow it to happen as much as possible. I understand there are certain things that you go somewhere you want to you want to document that I've been here, done that, but look at your possible intentions.
Number one, I'm documenting this for my own personal memory. And I'll share an example spinal I just met a friend after like six or seven years, and we were talking about when was the first time we actually met. And I was like, Yeah, I remember the first time we actually met. It was an x y and Zed spot. You know, we had an ice cap, right after all we? And he's like, Yeah, I remember that. And he's like, how did you remember that? I'm there because when that happened, I took a picture of us together. But when I took that picture, it wasn't for the sake of posting it on social media. Like I genuinely like to do things that I meet someone for the first time. I was like, this is our first
moments together. Because like many years down the line as you reflect, yes. When did we first meet? And you may not actually remember that Subhanallah which you can go onto your phone, go into your feed, check that person's photos, and you'll see the very first photo Yeah, that was our first meeting. Just for my own personal
Number. So that's one possible intention that you have intention number two, is that you're taking it purely just for the sake of posting it online. And I think this is where the problem actually arises. Why do we post stuff purely for the sake of online? Like, why is it important for us to be socially validated to be, you know, have as many likes as possible to have any as many shares as possible to have as many comments as possible. Now, we as human beings, yes, we are social beings, we've discussed that. But why is it that this is what we're constantly craving for, as opposed to real validation? Why does it matter? A 4000 People who do not know you on a personal level, like
your picture or not? I want you to think about this, that when you pass away, and it's inevitable that we will all pass away? May Allah subhanaw taala, grant us personal Kadima, I mean, how many of those people are going to show up towards janazah, they're not. The people that are going to show up to the janazah are the people that you've had a personal impact on the people whose lives you have touched, the people whose community you were a part of, these are the people that are going to show up to your Janessa. And that's something to keep thinking about. And that's how you keep yourself in check that every time you want to post something online, just for the sake of likes and engagement,
you know, think about that, are the people that I'm trying to please? Do they actually care about my Acura? Do you actually care about my well being? Are they going to show up to my Janessa? That's what you want to think about? So now, can you post pictures online for other intentions? Yes, for the sake of creating conversation, for the sake of educating for the sake of dialogue, you can post it for those reasons. But don't be shallow, that you're just posting it just for the legs and for the follows. And for the you know, wow, you look so amazing, with like, you know, an edited picture and stuff like that SubhanAllah. Number two, he says, the next time you visit a place or do
something, you would be tempted to document, focus on enjoying the moment without taking any photos, not even for personal memory. So he's got a different methodology. He doesn't believe in the concept or actually, he tries to mitigate the concept of personal memories. You don't need to document them, your mind will naturally
you know, remember them. But if you have a very scattered mind, I don't think there's anything wrong with taking those pictures for personal memory. But I do agree with the point that focus on being in the here and now. And enjoy that moment. And if an opportunity comes to take a picture, take the picture. But don't make the picture the primary purpose. Don't make the picture the primary intent, even if it is for your own memory, even if it is for your own memory. And Allah subhanaw taala knows best. We'll open up the floor for questions and comments. Just for next week, we'll be talking about publicizing sins. We will be talking about family and we will be talking about envy. So we have some
big topics coming up next week. Bismillah he Tada Wallah who Tada for some Allah who has sent them a Baraka then they'll be in the Muhammad why that he was so happy to send them Subhana Allah whom we haven't dig a shadow Allah in Atlanta, Starfield go to the lake, and they open up the phone now for questions, comments, concerns, whatever's on your mind a bit Nila he Tyla. Let's start with the sisters.
Questions, comments, concerns from the sisters? anything?
Nothing. I agree with everything that I said was 100% factually correct. And we're going to implement everything mashallah
Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar de from the brothers questions comments concerns?
Amo Bismillah?
hamdulillah
so is that a comment or question?
So, the point that uncle is making that he's avoided most of social media and most of the internet and hamdulillah he's still alive
fairpoint you know, that's game set and match
Okay
Hi, jeev Subhanallah so because you didn't have an email address, you wouldn't Subhanallah so the uncle was trying to buy a pair of shoes, and I guess he tried to register an account for him at the cashier and they asked for email. He's like, I don't have any
Email address your next door you can find issues. That's discrimination man. That's like a form of ageism. That's a form of ageism. That's not fair. SubhanAllah. Uncle, we should file a lawsuit. Let's do it. May Allah help us
brothers, go ahead in the back.
And I'm not on social media.
I don't want to
use a cell phone. I know ideal world, I would come home and keep it outside by the positive.
But still throughout the day, because we're so afraid with our phones, like, definitely ended up being on our phones. And she's 14 minutes closer to go around the house.
To like, turn it on for me.
No, yes, there'll be
a point where she knows, either scroll
through like, well, I know how to go about it.
I know you mentioned ideally, keep the phone away from them as long as possible, which I agree with. But unfortunately
I love it.
But somehow this is such a so the brothers comment is with regards to a 14 month old daughter that has basically learned how to scroll and brings them their phone and asks them to unlock it for her. You know, this is
a lesson in parenting, in the sense of how much children follow the example of their parents, right? I think like that's my takeaway from it, that if we can teach them how to use a phone at 14 months, what else could we possibly teach them for the positive, right? Like if we were just as engaged in the positive habits where they have picked those up as well. So I don't have any, like phenomenal, mind blowing advice that this is what you need to do anything to solve our problems. But it's just a reflection, that look, this is the power of leading by example. And you've only had her for 14 months now. Now for the rest of her life, let's try to direct it towards more positive things.
Right, and you can take this as an l like, take it as a loss. Hello, as we've lost this battle, May Allah help us. And it's not just you, by the way, I think all parents are in the same boat. Like, because we're so constantly engaged with our phones. When our children see this, they think this is what it means to be human. And this is what they they try to mimic and try to replicate. And it becomes even more disastrous, when rather than engaging with them to keep them busy, we give them videos to watch, even if they're Islamic cartoons or what else, you know, from a very young ages, it starts to have an impact on them. So if we can keep them engaged by ourselves through activities,
hands on activities, coloring, drawing, painting,
you know, in the sheets that we sync together, things like that. I think that would be a lot better. But I don't have any phenomenal advice to share with you, unfortunately. Continue. Go ahead.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this is I was born and I was the house is not those guys. We don't use
the phones on this thing. Even with that, the only time I'm on a phone, call my parents or, you know, my wife's family member, but you do have that little anguishes Jesus on the phone. He's used to it and now she wants to like
so
you
know, I'll give an example of like soda, like, this is just something that used to happen in my household that we used to drink soda, and we wouldn't let the kids drink soda. So eventually, we started drinking soda when they were asleep, or you know, when they're not around. So similarly, over here, like a takeaway could be if you want to use your phone, use your phone, when they're not around and observing like they're in bed, they're taking a nap, they're doing another activity, use your phone at that time, but if everyone is together, try not to use the phone in front of them. That could be a possible thing to explore inshallah. Bismillah.
What would you say to people that
will not make a name for yourself, especially the
kind of culture that is exploding right now that you will make a name for yourself online. You
transcend just like?
Like making money? Is this whole idea or have great ideas are very good talking to people? Why don't you have a presence online?
And, like, personally, for me, I'm like, I feel like that, like yes, maybe there'll be good if I mean as a blogger
Not for
presence online, our conversations with our team, like the damage on the person who might be too much that are worth the effort. But then sometimes you get a guilt trip. It's just like you're not doing enough for your team presence online, trying to reach as many people and getting started because you have this specific.
So it's just kind of like, What is your opinion on that matter? Like it's right today? You know, not?
Personally, I'm not active on social media at the moment. Sorry, just one second brothers, when someone's asking a question, we listened to this, to Zack Morgan. Just kinda like sometimes feels like you get used to for not being present online, because you wouldn't be doing good online. But you're choosing not to. And for me, it's almost like protective measures that I take for myself. So it's kind of what is your opinion on that? I think that's very fair. So the sisters question is with regards to, you know, if you're starting up a business, everyone's telling you, you got to be online, you got to be president, you got to be in people's faces. That's how you'd be relevant. And
then even from a religious perspective, they're like, you have so much to offer, why don't you share your reminders online.
So you know, I think that it fits in really well with what we were discussing today that everything has consequences, and you have to look at are the consequences worth, you know, what I'm getting in return. So with regards to Islamic education,
I think that's a fallacy. Like, if you want to make an impact on the community, you have to go into the community, interact with them, and change people and mentor people, and be there for people. And that's what positive impact is going to be like, I think there is value in writing as well. So if you have the skills of writing, starting off with a blog, writing books, writing articles, those don't require regular engagement you posted and it's there, and people will continue to benefit. And perhaps those things are going to be easier. Now, with regards to building a business. You know, this is one of the things that as you build your business in the beginning, you may have to do it
yourself. But as you build your capital, and as you build your team, you can hire a social media director and a social media manager and let them focus on that, right, like social media is not something that we have to manage ourselves when we run our businesses. And in fact, I'll share inside scoop with you. If you look at every major Islamic speaker that's out there, I would say 90% of them have social media managers, and they take clips and posted on them, and the share or the shaker doesn't even like bother looking at the comments and stuff like that. Alone was best. Go ahead, yep.
What if someone online started bullying you or your friend.
Now let's find subhanaw taala protect us. That's not an easy thing to deal with. And I think in that sort of situation, our natural reaction may be to respond to them right away. But the best thing that you can do is go and speak to your parents about it. So speak to your parents, let them know what's happening. And then with your parents, you make a decision on do we want to tell the school about this, speak to the guidance counselor speak to the principal, and you escalate it that way. But one of the worst things that you can do is just keep it to yourself. So if someone's bullying you, and you get intimidated and you feel shy, and you feel like you know what, I don't want to tell
anything about anyone about it. That's the wrong thing to do. One should never feel ashamed for being bullied, even if it comes with a stigma. So tell your parents speak to the school counselor escalated to the principal if need to be and deal with it that way. But never hide in the shame of being bullied. That's what I was suggesting sha Allah, Allah make it easy. Go ahead.
But
people other like, public counselors,
always criticizing other Muslims.
Not just like public figures, but like regular.
And because I'm like a shipwreck people.
They'll say that I'm arguing in the sea. I'm commanding with forbidding evil, and then they'll bring certain statements about or prominent scholars like Oh, look.
So how, like, first of all, what's wrong with that?
And we know people were engaged. What can we tell them? And when they're just like, Oh, I'm not even doing this.
Okay. The you know, that's one of the challenges of the online space, is that people learn a little bit and all of a sudden, we think we've come scholars overnight. So the brothers question is, with regards to people that justify religiously, shaming and criticizing people publicly, under the pretense of enjoining good and forbidding evil. So the first thing I always tell
People that that there is no greater gift that Allah subhanaw taala gives to anyone that knowledge. And that is your best defense in these sort of situations. So, when you look at the objectives of Islamic law,
when you post something about someone we should say, see someone doing something wrong? Is the goal to point out the fact that they're doing wrong? Or is the goal to get them to change their behavior and to repent to Allah subhanaw taala. When you take this approach that you publicly criticize someone, know for a fact that getting them to change their position, their stance and their behavior is very, very unlikely. Because no one likes to be shamed publicly, no one likes to be called out. And what that may do is not only will build a wedge between you and this individual, but depending on the level of this person's faith could build a wedge between them and the deen of Allah subhanaw
taala. And how do you meet Allah subhanaw taala with something like that, that you've created a wedge between them and Allah. And even though it's not our fault, people are responsible for their own Deen. But sometimes we can be catalysts and we want to be catalysts for good, not catalysts for evil. Number three, this hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that says whoever amongst you sees an evil, let them change it with their hand, if you're unable to do so speak out against it, if you're unable to do so hate it in your heart. And that is the weakest of Eman.
This hadith will know itself has conditions. The first part of changing it with your hand, it requires that you have position and authority. Right? Number two speaking out against it is knowledge, wisdom, time and place. Right. So sometimes you have the right thing to say. But it's not the time to say it. Sometimes you have the right thing to say. And it is the right time because you're alone and in private. But you say it harshly as opposed to being soft. That's not the way to do it, right. And sometimes it's in public instead of being in private. So all those things have to be kept in consideration that you learned from the thick of this hadith. And the last thing is the
process is still given us that option there. If you're unable to, then at the very least you hate it with your heart. Because sometimes you may not get the capability to do that. So that's sort of my, my two cents on that issue. Allahu Allah. I'll take one last question within Katana, our brother in the back Go ahead.
What's
Excellent. So the brothers question is, in high school these days, people have the freedom to dress and act the way that they want. Should we be judgmental with regards to that, particularly when people are speaking about other people? Or what should we do in that situation?
You know, in being in in high school in this day and age, it's tough man, I completely get that it's not like high school during my time is definitely not high school, do my parents time. And I just feel it's going to get tougher and tougher. So the first thing that we want to always look at is how is my relationship with Allah? And how am I doing with Allah? That is number one priority? If I haven't got that on point. And if I haven't fixed that, I don't have time to be concerned about other people's problems. Number two, is me looking at the way people dress and act. If it's not impacting me and affecting me, why do I actually care? What is the point of caring? Now if the point
is that other people are talking about it, and other people are mentioning it? We encourage those people mind your own business focus on your relationship with Allah subhanho wa taala. If they don't change, maybe we want to question why am I hanging out with these people? Why are these people my friends? Like what is it that we have in common, that we're actually hanging out together? Now the third and last thing to do is
give people the benefit of the doubt some people genuinely don't know. And this is Pinilla. You know, when you study early books of Islamic tradition, there were things that people used to say are my alumina, DEEN Medora, that they're known by necessity, that you have to pray five times a day, you know, you have to give us a cat, you have to wear hijab all of these things, they will consider known by necessity. But the level of ignorance and accumulation with overload of useless information has made people ignorant about their Deen. And we can't really change that by judging people, right? So I would say give people the benefit of the doubt that maybe these people don't know any better.
If the opportunity arises, speak to them about it. Like I think one of the best things that ever happened to me was having German school in high school. Right? If that doesn't exist in your high school, try to bring that about. And then this challenges that Muslims are facing in your high school. Try to address that in the hotbar. Right. I think that's one of the best things that can be done. Go ahead.
Have you?
In that sort of situation, this non Muslim friend that you have, tell him that yeah, you know, there's always things that we could do better. And maybe one day, she will do it better for the time being, you know, let's just hope that she learns, right? Try to frame into something positive like that.
Right. And again, like in that sort of situation, I think it's been different than what I was talking about. You can say, Maybe we should just focus on our own relationship with Allah, because he would like talk smack you doing your own cover that's worse than the way she's dressed. But that wouldn't make sense to him. Right? So that's not focused on that. But I think focus on the positive of like, you know what, let's just hope that she changes her ways and she becomes better, right? That's the way I would frame it. May Allah make it easy? Folks, this conclude over there in sha Allah Subhana Allah humblebee hum decrescendo Allah Allah Allah the sulfuric go to the lake next
week 730 We have those three topics be in the light of the car, then was salam Wa alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh