Fiqh of Social Media #07 – Summary of the series and concluding action points
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Channel: Navaid Aziz
Series: Navaid Aziz - Fiqh of Social Media
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Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in an Hamdulillah he number one is their inner who understood
when ours will be Allah haematuria and fusina Woman sejati are Marlena May Allah Who for them will be Allah who will who further Hadith Allah. Wa shadow Allah Allah Allah Allah who had the whole la sharika was shadow under Mohammed Abdullah who Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa early he was he was selling them at the Sleeman Kathira and my bad. My dear brothers and sisters are salam Wa alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
my salah tomato, I'm really happy at the number of people that have turned out tonight and I know there are a lot of young children here. So those of us that have brought our young children for the sake of the greater group can we please try to make sure that other people aren't disturbed? So the Youth Center is open for those parents that have young children that want to go there inshallah they can proceed there and then come back at your leisure inshallah jazz welcome located and and thank you so much. So tonight's presentation is a recap of the whole entire series. And the way I wanted to do this was through one of the most proper, one of the most popular tools on social media, which
is through memes. So it's going to be like an edutainment type session Bismillah hate to Allah. So let us begin. So the year 1985, that is the year that is approximated, where the last group of people lived, and were born before the advent of social media and smartphones. So therefore, their life was very, very different. What that meant was that if you wanted to get directions to a place, you had to use a map, there was no access to Google Maps, you want to directions, you'd have to call someone say, Hey, I'm at this intersection, where do I go? You want to make a phone call? There are no cell phones available for you can't be like, Hey, I don't have a phone, can I borrow your phone,
you would literally have to buy, you know, have to have money to use a payphone And subhanAllah it's become so fascinating. Like in a country like England, where pay phones were very famous for those red boxes. They become like an icon, right? Like something of like you put in a museum now because of how rare they are. And I want you to think even in this day and age,
have you seen a payphone recently? Like do they even exist anymore? But what do you do if you don't have a phone? Where do you make a phone call from? Right? That's one of the challenges that people used to go through. And now this has completely changed people's perception. So you can see that the baby's on on a heart monitor over here. But an individual that grew up after 1985 thinks that the baby's being charged, so that our lives have completely changed, even in terms of Okay, so on top of our priority list, I got to eat, I got to sleep, I got to do my homework. And I got to make sure my phone is charged tonight so that I can take it out tomorrow. So it's completely changed the way that
we've lived our lives as well, not only from the usage of technology, but even for the preparations that we need to make. Now, let's talk about in the way that it's changed human interaction. So prior to smartphones, were like don't interact with strangers, Don't come close to them. But now you download Uber and you will willingly get into a car with a stranger and only read your paper as well. So complete change in lifestyle as well. So we talk about changes that have taken place. It's not just about technology, it's not about facility and making things easy as well. But even in the way that we interact with one another has become very different. So let's go back to when I was a
kid and I wanted to play a video game I used to have when I was in grade one, actually, yes, in grade one. I used to have this friend called Bruce. And if I wanted to play video games with Bruce, I'd have to tell my mom, and this is a funny story because Bruce was never allowed to come over. That's a whole other story. And I came home I have this kid in my class, Bruce, I want to play video games with him Kenny come over, she'd be like, Okay, tell me about Bruce, who is he? Who are his parents, what was parents do? And it'll be like, you know, the hole down though, on this person's life. And eventually, the fine line was Bruce cannot come over to our house for a variety of
reasons. But all that to say in this day and age, you want to play video games with someone, you're already interacting with them online, you put on a headset, you probably send a text message, hey, I'm going online in 10 minutes, come online. And that's how you play your video games. That vetting process is no longer there. That concept of you know, getting permission and, you know, talking to your parents about your friends. All of that has pretty much gone out the window because children now have direct access to their friends through gaming platforms. Also, in terms of watching movies, Blockbuster was this massive thing growing up Friday night came you wanted to watch a movie, there
wasn't much to watch on TV. So you'd go to Blockbuster, go to the news section. A lot of the new movies were gone. And then you'd rent a movie that someone would recommend as well. It's so fascinating because I look at this one financial perspective. There was a time where blockbuster could have bought Netflix. And blockbuster is like no no
flexor is not going to, you know, thrive, we are in the future, how badly that came back to bite them in the backside SubhanAllah. Because right now as far as I'm aware, there's only one
location of blockbuster opened in like Oregon. And it's more of like an iconic thing as opposed to like them renting out the most up to the movies, right? It's this nostalgic thing from way back in the day. Now all that to say, nowadays, you want to watch something you will have you're spoilt for choice, right? You can go on to Netflix, you can go on to crave, you're gonna go to Amazon, you can go on to Disney, you can go on to a variety of other things. And then even within those platforms, it's not like you have to wait for someone to return the movie, you can watch it instantaneously. Pause it when you want. I don't know if you guys will remember this or not. But you used to get
penalized for not rewinding the tapes, you don't even have to worry about waiting the tapes, pause and start whenever you want. So that has completely changed in our times as well. And this is an example of it. Right? This guy is enjoying YouTube right now. He's too lazy to hold the phone. So he's created this, you know, table that he can just watch his videos. So while things are changing, and becoming easier, we want to recognize that ease and change does not necessarily mean better, does not necessarily mean better. So what does it do to people's habits. So in this situation, as this kid has watched so much YouTube, that he thinks saying goodbye is hey, please subscribe to my
channel and make sure you like the video. Right? That's what's what it's doing to people's mentality, that they're forgetting social etiquette that we will go through. And this is just like a side tangent. We're gonna get to this later on. But like the basic facts of going to bed, right, saying your liquor, reciting AYATUL, kursi, reciting sortal, malt, all of these different death card seniors just to be had all of these things that gets taken out the window. And we're gonna talk about bad habits while going to sleep. But this is just an example of young children, how they think saying a Salam on a calm is going to be like, hey, please subscribe to my channel, right? That's my
stop, man. And now, the future does look very, very scary. Like you look at this sort of image. And you may think the future is going to be very, very dark and gloomy, supine. I remember reading an article just two weeks ago, this lady, she had the virtual reality goggles on, and she's doing a workout. So part of the workout was she had to jump two feet forward. And in all the chaos of her like being in the jungle or something like that, she completely forgot that she's in like a real confined space, as well, I feel really bad laughing. And Allah forgive me. But she jumped forward, and she hit her head into the wall. And she like, got seriously injured. SubhanAllah. So the future
does look scary from that perspective, like, especially those of us that are, you know, boomers that think that, you know, we don't know how this stuff works. But there has to be that fine line of, at what point does technology become dangerous? At what point do we say we don't embrace technology anymore. So you have to find what that fine line actually looks like. So now, back in the day, you go to the dentist office, you're reading a magazine, you're talking to other people, you're on the bus, you're on the train, whatever it may be, you're reading a newspaper, you're doing something. But nowadays, everyone is completely on their phone. What does that actually do? SubhanAllah. So
back in the day, you got to know people, you got to interact with people, you got to know more about them. But nowadays, we even and I'm guilty of this from time to time, we use our phones, even as defense mechanisms, put your headphones on, look at your phone, even if there's nothing there, just so that you don't have to interact with people, just so that you don't have to interact with people. And that is why we're seeing that as the generation grows up. They have no social interaction skills whatsoever. They have no ability to process emotions to show emotion, because all of that has been taken away from them. Hey, how are you doing? Question Mark smiley emoji, all their emotions are
throwing more emojis. Now, it's not about that human experience anymore. So as you were looking at ease and facility, look at the social consequences of this, as well, as panel, I found this one really fun, and there's an Islamic version of this as well. But we've built more relationships, and we have even fewer friends. What is the thing that we're looking for? Like when we look at social media, celebrities, influencers, the type of following that they have? How many people are going to attend to their janazah? How many people from your friends lists are going to attend your Janessa? Right? So rather than focusing on the number of relationships we have, look at the close friendships
that you've developed. And this is what's drastically changed that back in the day, what would take months to get to know a family to get to know their background, their story, their life ambitions, their likes and dislikes. All of that happens instantaneously. And this is where we introduce the first Islamic principle, the importance of choosing who you interact with the
Prophet Sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam, he tells us that the example of bad company is like that of a blacksmith. And the example of good company is like that of a perfume cellar. So when you walk into a perfume store you can think of like,
what's that store in downtown? That's actually an art.
Not Nordstroms man, I had it on the tip of my tongue.
Renfrew, Holt Renfrew, that's the one that Calaca thank you so much. You think of that store, like you walk into that store, they have a whole bunch of perfume departments. And you get really excited to try all the perfumes the smell of the perfumes. And as you're smelling stuff, you're picking up the notes. And even though you may not leave the store, having bought any perfume, you leave with your spirits uplifted and you leave smelling nice, because you've like sampled so many things. SubhanAllah. And that is the example of good company that even though you may not pick up everything good, they will at least leave you with some good. Whereas How about bad company, the blacksmith and
that's something that's not very common in our times. But blacksmith back in the day, they were the ones that made the swords and knives and anything metallic, they would have to use coal or fire that had coal as its sole source of fuel. So it gave off a bad odor you left with like dark smoke on you. And it just wasn't a pleasant experience. So if you didn't leave burned, then at the very least you left with a bad odor. And this is what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is telling us that you have to be very, very careful with who you choose to interact with. And before it was just about your relationships, and more particularly your friends. But it is now also about who do you choose
to expose yourself to? Who are the people that you are following? Who are the people that you're giving your ear to your eyes to, and more importantly, your heart and your mind to. And you may think that I have the ability to process between right and wrong. But from experience, I tell you, we become desensitized to bed, we become desensitized to haram. And this is why the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam tells us principle number two, you are upon the religion of your close friend, meaning the person that you get exposed to the most is who you're going to start interacting and who you're going to start acting like. Right if you want to see what your personality is like.
Think about the people that you hang around with the most. There is no way that you will hang out with someone frequently, except that you try you will naturally assimilate into that person. And thus the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gives us that warning. Be very, very careful as to who you choose, because you are upon the religion of your friend. Now, does that mean that everything is bad? And that people don't know what's you know how to
build those relationships? Now, you still have those innocent relationships. I use this example of Gregg Popovich, the coach of the San Antonio Spurs, when he was talking about Tim Duncan, that he was talking about his relationship with him, how it's transcended coach and player that they've actually become good friends. So now, what was the sign of a close friendship? Do you use emojis? It's professional relationship, no emojis, just text, close friendship, all of a sudden, you're using emojis now. And this shows us that, you know, even people that we would consider elderly and Boomers, give them a chance to interact with them. And they'll pick up the lingo, but you have to
give them a chance and educate them, as well. So now, how do friendships start on Facebook, where you find commonalities, oftentimes, you'll be subscribing to the same group, you'll be liking the same speaker's page, you'll interact in comments. And this is what I was talking about, that will will take months and getting to know a person now can happen within five minutes. You go through their Instagram feed, you know, their likes, you know, the restaurants that they've been to, you know, their friends, you know, their habits, you know, the everything else that you and you need to know about them, where they've been to on vacation, all that gets done instantaneously. So that
building process is in there, you get more relationships, but you have fewer close friendships. And this is what you see that this concept of just being alone with people and interacting with them gets taken away. And now if you try to peel put people together, particularly like back in the day, guys went out fishing, you went out fishing, you relaxed, you had conversation, and often you just sat in silence, and that was perfectly fine. But how difficult it is now for people to sit together. Not only engage with one another, not engaged with another, but sit in silence and it not be awkward. The awkwardness comes instantaneously. Because of the forget about other people. We're not
comfortable being alone with ourselves. We're not comfortable being alone with our selves. So now, let's talk about bad things that ended up happening that become meaningless interaction. So meaningless interaction means it's just for show, not deep genuine concern. So on the day of eat, I think a lot of us are guilty of this
But I get super annoyed on the day of it by all the messages I get. I was like, Dude, you haven't been in touch with me all year. And now you want to wish me and my family the most blessing and happiest ever. Like I appreciate the gesture. You don't just have to look at me Allah reward you for it. But if we were really close friends, why aren't we in touch more often? Right? That's something to think about. So don't make your relationships performative. How do you build deeper relationships, it's through that human interaction, being there for people when they need you the most, in terms of advising them in terms of helping them being there in their time of need, bringing
them closer to Allah subhanaw taala Do not be performative be real, and authentic. So now what ends up happening to people is that people get so fixated on their devices, that it becomes them. And if they're not on their devices, they don't know how to interact with people. And this creates a lot of problems, particularly when we interact with one another. So now, a father comes and speaks to their child, the child thinks it's appropriate, let me keep looking at my phone while I'm talking to my parent, but that's not appropriate at all. The husband is at home, working on his phone, the wife says, Hey, we need to have a conversation. The husband says one of two things, give me a minute, let
me finish. Or he says, Hey, keep talking. I'm paying attention. And we know whenever that happens, a fights gonna start. Because she'll be like, Okay, let me start the conversation. She'll start talking, and what's gonna happen, she's gonna be like, repeat back everything I just said, and every man who's been in, in a marriage will realize that conversation is inevitable. But you get to control how frequently that happens. If you look at this prophetic mentality, that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam whenever someone came to him and gave him Saddam's, he didn't give them Sinai, he didn't just look at them like this and talk to them. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam stopped, turned around, give them undivided attention. And this shows us that social media and technology is actually ruining our clock. So things like other than a clock that are mentioned to be there, in all aspects of our relationship are now getting taken away. So we want to make sure that we're not allowing our devices and our social media to do this to us. Because just ask yourself Self a simple question. Is your social media. Is your smartphone, more important than your child more important than your spouse, more important than your parents, more important than the deen of Allah subhanho wa taala. It's not you will all agree to this. But now that we agreed to this, why is
it at a practical level, we're not willing to put those things down. And that is why we'll come to talk about this. But even downtime from your devices is so important. Now, to make things even worse, when we were doing like the full version of this, people go to weddings now, right, you're all sitting at the table. But rather than having a conversation with another, if you want to talk about someone or say something about someone, you will text the other person, and then you look at them waiting for them to respond. Everyone knows you're texting, everyone knows what's happening. You're not fooling anyone. But the reality is, we don't have to have that conversation. And we want
to create this form of pseudo intimacy with our colleagues with our friends at that time, just so that we can talk about something specific without telling other people. But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us that no to group boo, no two people should sit together excluding the third person. So that is an anticyclonic thing to do. So make sure that we're not incurring sin, by our practices on social media over here. Now, this is a funny story. So this is actually a real life picture from a masjid in Dallas, where they used to monitor how many times the cell phone would go off in the masjid. And, you know, the Imam, he was telling about the author of the book, that
hamdulillah we've been able to reach six days, but we can never reach the seventh. And almost like why what happens on the seventh of the day, and he is a Joomla comes. And on the day of Joomla, there will always be that one person that always you know, keeps their cell phone on. And, you know, this is like an essential, important conversation to have. The Imam will announce it literally at every Salah brothers and sisters, if you have a cell phone, please turn it off or put it on silent. The man will announce it sometimes even in the Juma prayer, yet somehow, some way someone doesn't heed the advice. And I want us to think about that. When someone tells you please turn off your cell
phone or your cell phone or put it on silent. Don't assume that he's talking about the person on your left or your right or behind you or in front of you. He's talking about you. So just do your due diligence and turn your cell phone off. And it brings everyone at peace as far as the conclusion of the story is that once they were actually able to reach nine days, but the next day, which was a Saturday morning, someone that forgot to turn their cell phone off and I think there's a great activity that if we had something in the masjid, you know, imagine the taking away the destruction from the cell up but also think about the type of shame
thing that happens. And this is something that's also bad. So please keep in mind of this, when someone's cell phone goes off in Salah, what do you do after the seller finishes, you're like I said, I want to go after Listen, I want to go off to LA. And everyone looked at that person whose cell phone went off there you can imagine how badly already feel. And you know, it may drive them away, you don't know that. So our responsibilities as individuals, tax your cell phones, when you come into the masjid, just put her on silent. As soon as you enter our responsibility as a community. Don't shame people don't shame people and make them you know, feel included. If you want
to say something. Wait till they're leaving in the masjid when you're all alone by themselves. Hey, dear brother, you know, I'm not sure if anyone told you. But part of the etiquette of the machine is that we shouldn't have our cell phones off. And making it worse is that what if your cell phone is like music, right, that makes the situation worse. So try not to have those ringtones Bismillahi Tada. Now, other habits that have changed, taking your cell phone into the bathroom. So this, you know sign is specifically do not take your cell phone into the bathroom, because people don't have you know, 10s of minutes to wait while use the bathroom. And using a cell phone. Particularly in the
month of Ramadan. There's lineups to use the bathroom after a thorough thorough week, and people on their cell phone, checking emails, checking Facebook, you know, doing a variety of things, and you shouldn't be delaying that. And we spoke about that in a longer session. Even the way when we go to restaurants before you eat. You know, I got to take a picture of this and said share it on social media. Because if there's no pictures, it didn't happen. And if I'm not getting validation for this food that I'm eating is or even appoints to eating this food, right? That's the mentality we ended up developing. So it's even changed the way that we eat our food. And this is like an extreme
situation where you have to make a decision. My child has been eaten by an animal, do I save them? Or do I document it for the record? Right? And subhanAllah this should be a no brainer, go save your child's dude. But no, I got to document this. So when I tell this story, I have this amazing picture to show my child being devoured by
Allah, Allah was done. So now, you may think that you can, you know, build some sort of repertoire of skills through social media, and your usage of your smartphone. But at the end of the day, we all know that it isn't real. And that's where you have to learn to decipher between what is real, and what isn't. You managing a WhatsApp group is that are those real leadership skills? Not at all, man, not at all. So it even makes you delusional to a certain degree. Now, think about the jobs that you do, particularly if you work in, in a corporate life. This is the cycle that you keep going through. You'll get into work, check Facebook, check Instagram, check your emails, go on to Twitter, going to
read it, check sports, check the news, and then do private messages. And you repeat this cycle throughout the day. You come home from work your spouse asks you, so what did you achieve today? And you're like, yeah, it was so busy. But what did you achieve? And you're trying to think in your lexicon, Allah, I didn't actually end up achieving anything specific. But I was just busy the whole entire time. And this is what we fail to realize that social media ends up eating up any concept of free time that we've had, under the guise of being busy under the guise of being informed. But the value that comes out at the end is absolutely zero. Can you remember something important that you
read on Facebook last week on Instagram, your Twitter account, your Reddit, sports news, CNN, even the messages, in that moment, it is entertaining. But even an hour later, this concept of being informed with current news events, no one remembers, and it becomes irrelevant at that time. And this takes away from the book and your time, this takes away from the baraka in your time. So now, when you think where all of your time is going throughout the day, you have to monitor your social media usage and consumption. And this is one of the activities you did it as a class. And I'm hoping that we'll continue to do this, but monitor your usage of your cell phone, not for the sake of the
amount of hours and we discussed this. It's not about how many hours you're using, but it's about how many hours you're using on unproductive things. So for example, if you're watching like three or four hours of Netflix, you're you know, three or four hours on Instagram, and Facebook and Reddit and all these things. You're losing many, many hours of your day that we forget we will be held accountable for on the Day of Judgment, our youth and how we spent it right we're going to be questioned about the time that we spent. So make sure that you're not letting it waste away. Now, let's speak about bad habits when it comes to bed. And from the bad habits is engaging with social
media before going to bed watching YouTube before going to bed. And some people Subhanallah it's so uncomfortable for there to be silence that they have to have something
laying the background just for them to be able to fall asleep. And that's because of the bad habits that we've developed. So let us look at the habits that were mentioned to have making wudu, wiping the area saying SubhanAllah 33 times at Hamdulillah 33 times Allahu Akbar 33 times, reciting AYATUL kursi reciting Surah, Al Mulk, reciting the three calls, these are the habits that were mentioned to develop. And over time, as you start saying those things, your body naturally goes into a mode of relaxation, so that you can fall asleep peacefully. But as you're engaged in social media, and watching and listening, and you're not doing your car before going to bed, your mind will always be
distracted and falling asleep will actually become harder for you. And you will start to think why can't I fall asleep? Why can Why is my sleep so choppy, the blue light is destroying you, your thoughts that are engaged with the dunya are destroying you, your ability to not come down and relax, is destroying you. All of those things are going to have an impact on you. All those things are going to have an impact on you. And this is what ends up happening. You start thinking about the notifications that you're receiving. For those of you that have your children here, if you kindly want to take them, please would be greatly appreciated. Dr. McClaren, thank you so much. So if you
if you little kids can go back to your parents, it'd be greatly appreciated, because I can love it you're making such as in the wrong direction? No problem, Shama. So this is what ends up happening. And this is why one of the things that we need to look at what purpose do notifications actually fulfill for us? Like, why do we need our notifications on? That's something to think about, like when do we have notifications on for social media? Like unless it's your business? Why do you need those notifications on?
Oftentimes, it's just for the sake of further distraction. And for the sake of, you know, self importance that Hey, someone, remember, there'll be someone thought about me, and social credit that will, we'll come to talk about it as well. But those notifications are what is destroying you. So before bed, learn to put your phone away at least an hour before you go to bed. And make sure you minimize that blue light. Make sure it's on sleep mode, and make sure that you have no distractions so that you can focus on what you're supposed to be doing at that time, trying to fall asleep and making the thicket of Allah subhanaw taala. Like there's always this thing that we think that won't
happen to us, which is luck or doubt Allah, may Allah subhanaw taala protect us all. But what if we fall us fall we die in our sleep.
So the last thing that you did is go onto your social media.
And that is what you raised upon Subhanallah I don't know if that specifically how that's going to be implemented. But it's all going to be on the record of Allah. But the individual that the last thing that they did is the vicar of Allah, then that's that was that's what they want to be raised upon, they will be raised in the vicar of Allah subhanaw taala. So that's something to think about within the hit Tada. Now, all of these distractions, they take away our ability to reflect and what we want to be reflecting upon, is number one ourselves as individuals, what is happening to our other and our o'clock, what is happening to our relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala what is
happening to our relationship with the Quran? Why is it that reading the Quran becomes more and more difficult for each generation, because the ability to sit and read the speech of Allah subhanaw taala is not as entertaining as watching a second as a seven second clip is not as engaging as watching cat videos not as engaging as watching something funny. So when you have to choose between reading the book of Allah subhanaw taala and entertaining yourself, your mind will naturally want to be entertained. But in terms of your Asherah your accuracy with the book of Allah subhanho wa taala, you being a better person in this dunya is with the book of Allah subhanaw taala. So pay very, very
close attention to what is happening to you as an individual, with your smartphone and your social media. And take time for yourself alone. Be comfortable with yourself, and just being with your thoughts. Be comfortable with the fact that this is my allotted time to make vicar to make dua to recite the Quran. And if you're not going to strategically plan this throughout the day, it's never going to happen. We will make ourselves feel good by watching these short motivational clips and thinking that Hamdulillah you know, I'm a good believer because I'm watching these short clips. But at the end of the day, be honest with yourself. Have you actually done anything good? Or have you
just done something to take away the guilt from yourself? Our dean is a dean of action, not a dean of feelings. It's good to feel good. But if does not lead to action, what is the point of that feeling? What is the point of that feeling? So now social media
because all of these benefits that we can possibly think of, it will educate us. We can keep up to date with current events, we can keep in touch with our family and friends. But more specifically, it's like a magnifying glass. And we want to think of the statement of Allah subhanaw taala when he says, Your Mala and Fairmont and water balloon in them and Attala because of insulin, that on that day people's wealth and children will not avail them, except for the one that came to Allah subhanho wa Taala with a pure heart. Meaning that the most important commodity that you have is your heart. The thing that needs the greatest amount of protection is your heart. And what will infiltrate your
heart are the things that you watch the things that you hear the things that you read, the things that will cross your mind, those are all of the things that will penetrate your heart. And if you do not have a filtration system, it does not matter how much knowledge you have, it does not matter how informed you are, it does not matter how many people you keep in touch with if you're being exposed to things that are constantly attacking your heart. And this leads us to the concept of cathode. In the Quran, were often proposed of wealth and children right. And manual balloon Xena will hire to dunya that your wealth and your children are an adornment of the life of this world. But Allah
subhanho wa Taala also tells us in nama Anwar lo como Allah to convince now that indeed, your wealth and your children are a trial for you, with the oncoming of social media, this concept of the cursor has changed into likes and attention and shares and comments. That is the new currency. And you know, Omar, mashallah he shares this beautiful quote, he says, the currency of the dunya is cache, the currency of the Acura or is the good deeds that you do. The currency of social media is the amount of attention that you get from people. So people are now
competing with one another, for attention. Now, what does that lead to, is the fact that people basically try to get it by any means necessary. They're no longer competing for money as much, but it's about people's attentions. And if you're not getting people's attention, you feel as if you're invalidated, or my presence is irrelevant, or I'm not bringing any benefit. Nobody likes me. It messes up with your self image psychology. But you as an individual are worth so much more than the number of people that follow you the number of people that liked the posts that you make the number of people that share and retweet, and comment, your self worth is not tied to social media, your
self worth is tied to the fact that you are a servant of Allah subhanaw taala as Paula shakable, Isa, he shared something beautiful yesterday, on on Facebook, he spoke about how in 2022 of all the crazy things that it's happened, his interaction with people has reminded him well, one thing, that there's nothing better than the believers themselves, there's nothing better than the believers themselves. So if Allah subhanaw taala has chosen you to be his slave, and servant, this is your purpose. This is your identity. This is how you view yourself. And this is where your self worth comes from, not by the number of likes, shares, and followers, and so on and so forth. All of those
things will be irrelevant on the day of judgment, and even at your Janessa and I keep bringing that up. We keep trying to please people that will not benefit us in the slightest. They may not even remember us or make dua for us, yet we're concerned about their attention. Why is that the case? Now what ends up happening when you have a currency that depends upon attention, you will try to attain it by any means necessary. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he tells us madaraka National mean column in the Bortel Oda is this the he first namaste yet that that which has reached us from the statements of the earlier prophets, is that if you have no shame, do as you wish. And this is
why people are literally willing to do anything to get people's attentions. What was the crime of our generation and this is like a quote that Omar shares. The crime of our generation was to make people like the Kardashians famous, and we discussed this in the in the series, but what do the Kardashians actually have to offer? Is there one single beneficial thing that the Kardashians have to offer? Yet we have made them social icons that have some of the biggest followings on social media? They are considered some of the greatest and follow celebrities of our times had their own TV shows, and all based upon immoral and indecent things that they did to get that celebrity status and
quote, and this is the result of it. We keep making stupid people famous. So when someone does something stupid, Your natural reaction may be Hey, like me like that stat.
Does that mean like this video, let me share it. But you have to fight that urge because we have a responsibility to ourselves to our deen to our accuracy. And even to the people that when we like and share something, it boosts that thing in the algorithm, so that more people get exposed to it. You may laugh at something, but just keep it to yourself from time to time, yes, to cheer people up, share it. And I actually think that's a good thing. When people are down, lifting up their spirits is a very good deed to do. But when you're constantly only sharing irrelevant, stupid things, like again, I keep coming back to the tide pod challenge. Why are we supporting that? Why are we a part
of these tick tock, you know, themes that people are doing? That's not a way the believers should conduct their lives. And what this leads to, is that people are even willing to share the sins that they commit, and is the story of like a Catholic going forward confession that like, Oh, my father, I have said, Please, you know, forgive me and the father is like, Hey, I already know what you did. I follow you on social media. And this is the reality that inshallah it doesn't apply to the people in the masjid over here. But we all know people that share their sins, on social media. They can be clubbing, they can be drinking, they can be at a concert, they can be somewhere in decent. And
they're documenting it on social media. But at the end of the day, what is the consequence of that? And what is that leading to? So think about just from a dunya perspective, people know that you're committing the sin, that the deen isn't a priority for you. And now when it comes to you getting married, when it comes to you getting a job when it comes to all these other beneficial things that you could be doing? Do you think people are automatically going to skip over all of these things that you've done? No, it is going to be even on your personal record in this dunya. And you will lose status in the eyes of the people due to the commits that you sin due to the sins that you
commit and publicize. And this is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he tells us that all of my OMA will be forgiven, except for those people that publicize their sins, except for those people that publicize your sins. And this is a big lesson in our deen that all of us sin, none of us is free from sin. And we all sin differently. We all have different tests and different challenges. But what should unite us is the fact that we will hide our sins, we will conceal our sins, we will never brag about our sets. Whereas what social media makes you do for the sake of getting that social credit and that currency and having people's attentions and likes and shares is that we will
be willing to compromise on that. Even if it means it takes away the forgiveness of Allah subhanho wa Taala from us so never publicize your since one of the Beautiful Names of Allah subhanho wa Taala is a Satya, the one that conceals your sins. And you commit a sin by night and Allah subhanho wa Taala conceals it by day you come into sin that day and Allah subhanaw taala conceals it by night. Our predecessors used to say it is such a big favor from Allah subhanho wa Taala that our sins do not have an odor, that our sins do not have an odor because no one would want to sit next to us. They remind us that when people are impressed with you, they're not impressed with who you are.
They're impressed with Allah's ability to hide your sins, faults and mistakes. This is the virtue of a city.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us another mu Toba feeling remorse and regret is a part in fact, the most integral part of our Toba to Allah subhanho wa taala. When you brag and Boast not only does that take away the remorse and the regret, but you're doing the exact opposite you becoming proud of that sin. And that is very, very dangerous territory.
Now, it is not only about our own mistakes and our own sins that we publicize, but even publicizing the sins of others. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he tells us that whoever conceals the faults of others, Allah subhanho wa Taala will conceal his faults on the Day of Resurrection. So we have a responsibility to conceal the sins of others. So just because someone has done something wrong, it doesn't mean you need to go into social media and partake in it. And I want to just briefly talk about something over here. It's not just about sins, it's about people's private lives as well. Someone gets divorced, what rights do you have to publicize it on social media? Someone
goes through a hard time. What right do you have to share it on social media? None. And you have to remember that the way you treat Allah's creation is the way that Allah subhanho wa Taala will treat you this is what this hadith is showing us. So if you're a merciful, merciful, compassionate, and considerate people since Allah subhanho wa Taala will be merciful and compassionate.
towards you, and will conceal your sins as well. And this goes back to the issue that I was talking about, that you may think that you can escape from your sins. But at the end of the day, when people look you up, one of the first things that they do, or when people want to get to know you, one of the first things that they do is go on to social media, and see what your history is like. And anything that goes on to the internet, you may think I've deleted it, but there will always be some way somehow for it to resurface. And it will always come back to bite you. So always think of this, am I putting something on the internet? That I would be proud for people to know? If the answer to
that is not Yes, don't put it on the internet. And this goes even deep, deeper and further, particularly when it comes to like private information about your life. Don't expose your house address, don't expose the schools that your children go to, don't expose where you work, keep all those things to yourself. Because all of that can come back to haunt you. And you don't want to be in that situation. Now, even in terms of this perception that we have, in terms of interaction, right? Sometimes someone tags us in something, and we think more of the relationship than it actually is, when in reality your reading, do too deep into it. Keep an arm's length away from the
internet. And it'd be something serious in your life.
Now, this necessity of constantly having to update the world, where does that stem from? Like, why do people have this need to constantly update their status and Subhanallah it's amazing how even something like Facebook early on, I don't know if they still have this, but they recognize people's needs to constantly update their status, so much about the relationships that you had married single, it's complicated. And like every other subdivision that people could possibly put, because they knew that people wanted to constantly update people. So only share on Facebook, what is relevant, what will not compromise your personal matters, what will keep you safe. And I've said
this time and time again, particularly when it comes to your happy things. Only share it with people in your close circle. And if you must publicize it, don't share it instantaneously. Give us some time, let some time go by before we publicize it, getting married, having children getting a new job, all of those things. Take your sweet time been in the heat. Tada. Now, let's talk about what this does to our interactions at home. So we have shaken Oman being sharing. A husband complains to me that his wife holds her phone more than his hand. And you can reverse this with the husband as well. How often do husbands share or hold their wives hands as well. There was a clip that I saw
with Sheikh
Mohammed by Jordan from the epic machine in Dallas, he did a challenge with all the brothers. He said pull out your phones and text your wife, I love you. And let's analyze the responses. And the vast majority of women they responded, I love you too. But someone like some of the women they responded, you know, did someone hack your phone? Has your phone been stolen? You know, one of them even responded Who is this right? And that's completely changed the dynamic of our relationships at home, that we no longer spend quality time no longer suppress those feelings. No longer do those small things. You may think that the small things are irrelevant. But my dear brothers and sisters
when those small things are taken away, that is when the downfall of your relationship has to be done. Like if you can't even have dinner together. You can't eat from the same place. You can't complement one another. You can't help and encourage one another and support one another. What is the point of that relationship? You might as well be roommates. Right? So it is those small things that count. And those small things will go a long way. And we see very adverse things happen Subhanallah that a man comes home from work, and he's on his phone all night. His parents will try to talk to him, doesn't have time children come try to talk to him. He doesn't have time. wife comes
to talk to him doesn't have time. But he has more than enough time to share videos with his friends and to talk sports. And this is final assembly I want to address the the fathers that are and the fathers that will be this is like the number one complaint that often comes up our dad our husband may be physically present, but he's not psychologically, emotionally, spiritually present in the house. And you have to create those barriers. There's a time for you to be on social media and on your phone. But then there's a time for you to be with your family as well. Allah subhanho wa Taala he commands in the Quran, qu and Fusa como Alico narrow, save yourself and your family from the
hellfire. And if you're not able to be present for them, your presence is just as good as your absence. Why are you doing that? So now
The future of spousal arguments, you said x will be followed by Alexa adding, actually you said, and playback the actual conversation. So even when it comes to fighting now, all of that is being documented by, you know, by Siri by Alexa and all of that. And this is the future of what's happening, because everything has been technologically enabled. You want to turn on the lights, Alexa, turn on the lights. Alexa, close the lights, Alexa, repeat back everything that my husband just said, right? And that's what's going to end up happening. SubhanAllah. So what is the most important function, that technology ends up serving in our lives? Right, and this is like one of the
scary things if you think of this new AI function that's coming about the hit is really scary with this new AI chatbots. And I shared this in in the class. But even if you ask him, hey, prepare a quotable formula. Taqwa actually asked him when he shared this, it typed up a whole football, a 10 minute football, from beginning to end with Ira with a hadith with hot button Hydra. All of it was there. But what function are we actually serving with technology, it always keeps coming back to the intentionality. So now, your relationship with your children is also very, very important. And oftentimes we get parents that complain about their children, that whenever I talk to my children,
they won't take their headphones off, they won't give me time of day, they're not going to pay attention to me. Same thing applies, put your phones down, interact with your family, because when it goes through difficult times, no one is going to be there for you after Allah subhanaw taala than your family. And this is just a general one apply all the time, but the vast majority of cases, invest in your family.
And this shows us in terms of even how much is taking away from our intellectual capacity.
So the child is asked, you know, who is the first US president? And he goes, he saw Getty Images at the bottom. He's like, Yeah, Getty Images was the first president, when your intention span is, you know, they are, you're not going to invest in your education, or your intellectual capacity. Now, people often think that parents don't know how to interact with their children, there's a generation gap, there's a cultural gap, all of these gaps are there. And yes, navigating throughout the relationship is very, very difficult. But it is something important that you have to invest in. Right, I always try to advise young people, that is not only on the parents, to build the
relationship with you, you also have to take time to spend time with them. And if you social media is your thing, educate them about social media, if you know phone is the way you want to connect with them, teach them how to use the phone so that they can communicate in your language and in the way that you communicate. But if you feel disconnected from your parents, it's not on them. It's also on you.
Now, we always want to interact with those people that give us attention. But the people that give us attention are not always the best people say you want to prioritize real relationships over that which is fake. So when it comes time to having dinner, create a general rule, put the phones away, and just focus on interacting with one another, when you're at home, have a limited amount of time of how much you're using the phone, when you're out with your friends, as I mentioned, created will put your phones in the center of the table for someone to reach the phone ends up paying for dinner that night, what are things that you can do to manipulate the situation as a parent, change the Wi
Fi password every single day. And this was, you know, relevant at a time when date on the phone was very, very expensive. But nowadays, you can get like, you know, 100 gigabytes fine, my camera was telling me this, but like their family plan has like 100 gigabytes, amongst the three of them. That people the kids just end up using all the data even if the Wi Fi is off. But create, you know, this level of responsibility that don't just give your children free access to the internet and free access to their phones where they can do as they please, whenever they please, whatever they please. But there has to be restrictions and limits as well. This is a funny one that, you know, having a
fun time with your family is also very, very important. So this mother, she's just learned how to use emojis when her son isn't waking up for five hours, she sends him the fire emoji. He's like, Yeah, you're gonna burn Subhanallah and this shows us you know, investing in your relationship with your parents is so important as well. Now as we get to the conclusion, one of the things that's most important is this concept of men personnel Islam and moderator Kumada Yanni, they're from the best of ones Islam is leaving alone that which does not concern you. So on the internet, you will get exposed to the black hole to the rabbit hole that we talked about. You look at one thing that leads
you to something else that leads you to something else and you just end up going into this hole that you completely end up wasting time on Subhan Allah, but at the end of the day, what benefit did it bring you nothing, absolutely nothing, right. So you want to be very very careful of this and let this be a guiding principle from usage of social
have media. And what this ends up doing is not about just the stuff that we're consuming, but the stuff that we're putting out there as well. So wherever we are, we no longer enjoy the moment, we want to document everything. And this picture is so telling Subhanallah, this elderly lady that's grown up in a generation where they didn't have smartphones. So he's actually enjoying the parade. Everyone else is busy documenting it. And this is what you need to come back to that natural innocence, of living in the moment and enjoying the moment, because that moment will fade away. And there's more than enough people documenting it, you want to watch it later, there's hundreds and
1000s of people documenting what's happening. But live in the present moment. Enjoy it, make it valuable, make it worthwhile by being physically, emotionally, spiritually in present and present and engaged. And this is obviously exaggerated when you have two phones, documenting what's happening around you. Now, this concept of putting content out there,
you have to understand that people only put out the best versions of themselves. They don't share their mistakes, they don't share their shortcomings, they don't share their losses, they only put out what they feel like sharing. And what this leads is to people being envious of one another the process um, specifically tells us what to has to do, do not be envious of one another. So one of the things we always need to remember that as a part of our etiquette as a Muslim, when we some see something that we like, we say Allahumma barik Oh, Allah bless it for that individual. And not only does this prevent from giving the evil lie, but in sha Allah, it protects us, as well, from envy
protects us, as well from envy. So now you see this guy, you're like, Oh, my God, he's in the bay having the most phenomenal vacation of his life. But what's he actually doing? He has the Burj Khalifa behind him taking a picture and is like hashtag living my best life. But he's in his living room taking this picture. Social media is not real. And you want to keep reminding yourself, of that. Social media also leads us to having two faces. So we really like I love my parents, I love my grandmother. But when it comes out to helping out at home, you're more concerned about sharing that picture, hashtag, most important, so poor person in my life, hashtag Bay, hashtag X, Y, and Zed,
which are not doing anything in the house, you're a burden on the family, you're a burden in that relationship that leads to facing this. And I'm gonna go back to this again. Because it's very important when it comes to piety as well, that you may be in the machine, you're like, Yeah, I'm attending this amazing Holika tonight, but what you're showing to the world, is not as important as who you really are. And I'll emphasize this again, try to live your best life in private, make sure your deeds in private, are better than your deeds in public. And this, you know, exemplifies it. This guy's a Yo, why is my wife always taking pictures and bring it to three. This is what we want
to be portrayed as, as these pious, righteous and good people. We want to be known as the social justice activist, to make people think better of us. But your private life will always speak volumes, your public life is just for sure, and will be worth nothing. And this leads us to that on social media, you don't need to partake on every single thing that's happening. Everything that happens on social media does not necessitate that you have an opinion. The Prophet salallahu alayhi. wasalam teaches us that whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day that didn't speak, go to remain silent. So you have something valuable to contribute something good to say, say it. But it was not
positive. It's not bringing some sort of benefit. Why are we sharing it, we don't need to have an opinion about everything. As a young child, the show The Jetsons used to make us think of what the future would actually be like. And we will be like, yeah, it's going to be so cool to have video chat. But when we think about this video channel, do young kids, that's all they know now, right? They don't know the simplicity of interaction, just being face to face. And that's what you need to bring back. So now when we think about interactions that people have, you know, this is not the way it's supposed to be. The vicar is meant to be with your tongue, not with the emojis that you share.
Your feelings are meant to be inside of you, not what's displayed on your phone, all that needs to be brought back to reality. Now, I wish Omar was here today, because he was my Pokeyman guy. But you know, you know, this same concept of what we imagined the future to be, is very, very different from what it is right now. Like, we literally have to tell people don't poke him on a drive like this is a real sign Subhanallah we imagine that the future will be free of cancer and will be riddled of disease, and everything would be easy and facilitated, and everything would be good. But with all this technology have come a lot of downfalls because we didn't mind it or what is actually done to
us. So it always comes back to what is your intention on social media. When you have Facebook Why do you have it when you have Instagram? Why do you have it? When you have YouTube? Why do you have it? Keep asking yourself these questions when you're interacting with
content, why are you having this interaction? Everything comes back to intention. And what will save you is your intention, what will save you is your intention. Now, you look at the this individual that deletes their Facebook account leave social media, Leo leaves the city and this is the adverse side of it. Well, you know what, if I can't have a good intention, I'm just going to leave social media altogether. But the reality is, the vast majority of your friends are not going to do that the vast majority of your family will not do that. So even though you may be able to save yourself, you're gonna miss out on these things. And you want to have this FOMO this fear of missing out, and
you need to be okay with that. But it doesn't have to be like, I'm on all social media, or I'm on nothing of social media, right? It's about balance. And it's about intentionality, and choose when to unplug. And you have to be very cautious of this before sleeping, when it's family time when you're supposed to be doing your homework. And other important moments like saw completely disengage, and that should be fine. There should be nothing wrong with unplugging, you shouldn't have the jitters if you have to put your phone down. If you're having Judah's when you put your phone down, something isn't right. And I love this one. So hurricanes going on, everyone's escaping
them the seat in disguise, like you, I flipped a charger, I gotta go back home and get it because of my phone dies. I don't know if I can survive. Like literally that is how bad the addiction has gotten. And that is the conclusion of the PowerPoint slide. But what I wanted to conclude with is the ending of this book. And then I have a request from all of you as well. So chapter 15, of this book, in this last chapter in the book is called the action plan. And he talks about five steps, which we've covered most of them, but I want to just go through it again. So number one was intention. We've spoken about that constantly check your intention, why am I interacting? Why do I
have these social media platforms? What purpose is it serving in my life? And what is it doing to my relationship with Allah, my relationship with my family, my relationship to my close friends. Number two, you have to be able to unplug, develop that willpower and strength to unplug. turn off notifications have downtimes or uninstall apps. Like if you use social media on your computer as opposed to your phone that is making progress. Number three, learning to unfollow, like, you know, somebody that was from my parents generation is that they were hoarders of everything. Like for their 10th birthday and Auntie gave them like a scarf. Till 80 years old, they'll still have that
scarf with the illusion of one day, I will wear that scarf. And what happens with social media, we end up following people and you're like one day they're going to share somewhere I'm going to benefit from so I'm going to keep falling with them to a day that I die. Don't delude yourself. Not everyone deserves to be followed. So only people that are, you know, keeping your best interests in mind benefiting you with teaching stuff about the dunya are benefiting you will bring you closer to accurate. Those are the people that you want to follow and allow your heart to be exposed to number four, prioritize, learn to prioritize your time and use social media almost as something secondary,
that if I've done all of my tasks, I've done all of my chores, if I've done all of this, and I need to now have time to go into social media. Let me go on then. But other than that have a very limited amount of time that you go onto social media. unrestricted access to social media is detrimental for the baraka in your time for your mental health. For your spiritual well being, it will slowly destroy you if you're not prioritizing. And last but not least, I actually want to read out the section number five, which is supplement, it is almost a laughable cliche to tell people to imagine that they spent as much time reading Quran as they do on social media. The default function of these
devices is to occupy our time, downtime will only downtime will happen only with intentionality. The more you find yourself interacting with people online, the more important it is to schedule time for in person meetups. The more you consume information online, Islamic or otherwise, the more important it becomes to attend classes in person, have group discussions, or simply read physical books. In short, your online time needs a constant complement of active offline time. And that is the conclusion of the book. Now I asked Omar you know what's the one plug that I can give you at the end of the presentation and he's like, tell people to sign up for my newsletter. So if you ask people
just a simple thing, if you have your phones with you take a screenshot of that URL, and please sign up for the his newsletter. It would mean a lot to him. And after praising Allah subhanaw taala and thanking Allah subhanaw taala. I'm indebted to my dear friend, Omar Osman, who compile this book, and whose book we use as a curriculum for the year
A series of Hello class tonight was just a summary of everything that we went through in the series. If there's anything that you want more information on, all of the HELOC cars are up from last week now, just go to the icy multimedia Facebook page, go to the first playlist, the fear of social media, and you'll get that detailed content over there. Bismillahi Tada. I love to thank our volunteers that have meticulously taken the time to edit the beginnings and the endings the ending sent you and the dead spaces that we've had in our discussions. So when Allah subhanho wa Taala make it heavy on your skill of good deeds. And I hope it's been a beneficial learning experience for
everyone, and shows us all that we have a lot of improvement to make with our phone usages, and with our consumption of social media, may Allah subhanaw taala grant us Tofik to be slaves of Allah, and not slaves of our smart devices and social media. Now Allah subhanaw taala increases in our sincerity increases in our good deeds, protect us from the evil of our sins and our souls and protect us from the sins that we get exposed to on social media and the sins that we commit on social media. May He make our social media for those of us that are on it and continue to remain on it a proof for us on the Day of Judgment and not a proof against us. Allahumma Amin anything that
I've said that is correct is from Allah subhanaw taala alone, and all praise is due to Him. Anything that I've said that is incorrect is from myself and shaitan and they seek forgiveness from Allah subhanaw taala. And from all of you. To conclude there's one session that I wanted to include in this series, but I didn't get to include and that is social media and mental health. And when Allahu Taala sometime this year, we'll have an exclusive session on social media and mental health. actually look at serious statistics on what it does to people's mental health. And then navigate through those challenges as well with Allah Stovic. I open up the floor for questions, comments,
concerns and discussion for seven minutes Bismillahi Tada.
Excellent. So this is your question is regards to Baraka in time. And how do you increase it? The number one thing that takes away baraka from our lives is the sins that we commit. So minimizing our sins, increasing our stefarr will go a long way. Number two, prioritizing the deen of Allah subhanho wa Taala over everything else, the process of them says that whoever prioritizes the ACA over the dunya, Allah will give them both and or prioritize the dunya over the ACARA will end up losing both. So always prioritize your deen. Number three making the most of our time. So there are certain things that we do where you can do other things, your driving, make the call of Allah subhanaw taala
you're sitting on the bus, listen to a lecture, listen to Quran and trying to make the most of your time in your three gaps of getting closer to Allah subhanaw taala. Number four, try to understand what quality means to you try to understand what quality is with the book of Allah, with the deen of Allah in your relationships, and focus on those quality moments, as opposed to the quantity of time that is spent on those things. And when we focus on quality over quantity, the baraka will increase. And those are just some suggestions. And Allah subhanaw taala knows best
ahead.
At what point is wasting time become a sin. There's two ways of looking at this. Number one is that when it leads us to abandoning something that is obligatory upon us, so that for example, time slot comes and you're watching a video this whole entire time, and in Salah time comes and goes, and that is where wasting time openly and clearly becomes a sin. A second thing that scholars mentioned is that if a person stays within this realm of wasting time while fulfilling obligations only, but not doing something that is highly recommended. And the example that they give, is that if a person lived their whole entire life, and they didn't pray with her once knowing the value that it has in
Islam, then this is something that would that would be considered sinful. So for example, if you're always edging that line of, you know, I'm just going to do the bare minimum of Islam, like the the five daily prayers, fasting Ramadan, and that's it and that is going to save them. Now someone may respond to this but isn't this what the Bedouin man asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the process of them said in Sadhak that if he is truthful minute he does nothing more and nothing less. But when you understand the reality of Eman in order to fulfill the obligations of Islam alone, there has to be supplementary action there has to be supplementary actually because Eman dips
and when your Eman dips and all you have is your obligatory deeds, then your obligatory deeds will go. So for example, a person prays their fourth and prays their sunnah and prays tahajjud Eman Depp's tahajjud will
Go Sunnah prayers for they're still there, life continues Eman dip some more for prayers are there the Sunnah prayers may dip, but at least he has as far as the individual that only has his fourth now as his layer of protection. When their Eman goes down, there's nothing left to protect them anymore. So that's like a second tear or category that is mentioned. And Allah knows best. Excellent. So what is the balance between seeing someone doing something wrong on social media, and giving them the see her and talking to someone about it. So for example, a clear example of this, may Allah subhanaw taala protect us, our families, our communities, and everyone out there. But
people that are doing self harm online, it's become like a thing. And that sort of situation, there's nothing wrong with calling the police immediately, if you don't have direct access to this person, and can't stop them yourself. There's nothing wrong with getting the police involved at that time, because that is something that you should do and is the right thing to do. But anything less drastic than that. You want to look at the nature of your relationship. And that is if your close friends, reach out to them and say, Hey, this is not befitting behavior. You know, let's go out for coffee, and let's talk and you advise them at that time, as opposed to doing it through like a chat
messenger or, or, or, or a voice message. But it is someone that you're not the closest to, or perhaps to someone, not the best person to advise them reach out to the person that is, and always advise people of that right? When you look at the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that whoever amongst you, sees an evil, let them change it with their hands, if they're unable to speak out against it with their tongues. And if they're unable to, at the very least hated with their hearts. This shows us the level of authority that we have with these people, but also their level of relationship. Sometimes you may have the authority, but you don't have the relationship.
Sometimes we have the relationship, but you don't have the authority. Sometimes you may have neither. And as long as you're hitting it in your heart, then that is sufficient. So all of it will depend on who this person is, and the severity of what they're doing. And Allah subhanaw taala knows best. Excellent, very good question. So we have a whole session that we did on, on media on social media, and social justice. So we tell people not to be performative. We tell people that we need to strategize approach to causes so that there isn't burnout. So gathering people together, and you know, seeing what people are passionate about. And just stick to that cause because social justice
is the fourth key fire, not for the AI, right, you don't have to be involved in every single cause. So if we're more strategic about our causes, that not everyone needs to be supporting every single cause, but support the causes that you can actually make change in. And then number three, you also want to make sure that you're not jeopardizing your family, your career, your safety, and all of those things. So as long as it is not a first aid upon you, and the communities fulfilling the fourth key fire, then you don't actually need to to support that cause if it's going to get you ostracized in your workplace, right. So those are some gum, just some guiding points, but I'd refer
you to the whole session that we have on social justice and social media. Which brings us to nine o'clock on the dot Zakum lokalen, everyone for your attention. Next week. We have Shakira Heyyo Brahim here, talking about a Shemitah Muhammadiyah the specific characteristics of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so kindly do attend to that bitten Allah hate Allah. My main man as the children is here on the brother side, he has some fliers so we'll give those out to you inshallah. I said Is there anyone on the sister side do you know there are sisters there as well that have flyers for the McGraw plus, so please do check that out inshallah. The week after that at this location. We
will be starting with Sheikh Hamza last thing he told me it was going to be on the Hmong Rome, I've added a poem on good character, but I'm not sure if that's what he's finalized. So keep following social media and our emailing list to find out what's next in sha Allah subhanaw taala humble Be humble shadowline the headlines are still filled with tofu Lake wa salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh