Watching Television and its Harmful Effects

Next question, doctor Zakkia,

relates to

the fact that now, of course, Ramadan is

over

and the devils are set free,

many of the youth,

not to mention other people,

adults as well, will revert to their bad

habits of watching

television. Could you shed some light on

the issue of watching television and its harmful

effects?

Television

does multiple times more harm

than good.

It harms a person spiritually,

morally,

socially

and economic wise.

There are various you can give a talk

only on the ill effects of 1 on

television.

Number 1

is that

I call it rather

it's a.

It's the footstep of the devil for many

reasons. Number 1 is

that

it many a time

prevents a person from offering salah. A person

gets addicted to the tea. So Muslims,

though he realizes the time he's okay after

5 minutes after 5 minutes, and he watches

the program, the soap, or the opera, whatever

it is, and he misses salah.

Number 2,

there is too much of obscenity

on the television.

Normal channels that you see, then in which

channels you find so much of obscenity, and

Allah says in the Quran in Surinur chapter

number 24, verse number 30. Say to the

believing man that he should lower his gaze

and guard his modesty. Whenever a man looks

at a woman, if any unashamed thought, any

bathed thought come, then a man should lower

his gaze. The next verse speaks for the

woman, Surinur chapter 24 verse number 31. Say

to the believing woman that she should lower

the gaze and guard her modesty.

That when she looks at any man and

any unashamed thought comes, she should lower the

gaze. So now, how can a Muslim watch

television

on which you find ladies

without hijab,

immodest.

Many of them, the clothes that they wear,

they expose more of the body than cover

the body.

So but natural,

most of the channels

that you see

more than 99% you can safely say,

more than 99% are haram as far aslam

is concerned.

People give excuses, oh, why not news live

in news channels. The ladies that they come,

you know, they dress up, they're not having

hijab, etcetera.

And the obscenity that is there,

it is tremendous. And there are many reports,

which if time permits, I'll tell you later

on. And the second is obscenity on the

television.

Number

3 is the extravagance,

that when we see any channel, the advertisements,

they entice a person to buy things which

are not required. You may see a latest

car that is launched in the market, and

your desire will be there to buy it.

You may want a very big house or

thing which aren't required of, like, extra wagons

as Allah says in the Quran in Surah

Isra,

chapter number 17, verse number 26 and 27.

There do not be extra wagon, do not

be a spendthrift. For verily, the person who's

a spendthrift is the brother of the devil.

The 4th point is

that

it leads

unnecessary.

There's too much of glamour

and fame. The person tries to get involved

in that glamorous world, seeing the

actors and the other people, and the time

imitate them, the time immolate them. They become

the idols and they become the heroes

rather than Muhammad

and the Sabas.

Number

5

is that there's too much of violence on

the television,

and that really

influences the person's lifestyle, and there are several

reports on that too.

Furthermore,

there's too much of drug addiction, there's too

much of fighting,

etcetera, which a person gets involved, you know,

oh, some people know it's nice to have

drugs. When a person, a young person see

that, he tries to at least try it

out. And that's how drug addiction increases, alcoholism

increases, and there are various. Just to culture,

I'll just give you some of the reports.

The special report done only on the effect

of television on children.

And

since 1950, more than a 1000 surveys and

researches were done on the effects of television

on children and young adults.

And according

to a survey which was present in the

senate committee of judiciary in USA in 1999,

it says

that because of young children

and young adults watching television,

it makes their lifestyle violent,

they're aggressive,

and they're unsocial.

According to the report of

Houston,

a service conducted in 1992,

And by the time a child reaches the

age of 10, and if he watches television,

the average hours that a person in the

USA watches, he would have viewed 200,000

violent acts on television

and 40,000 murders. Imagine what impact it will

have on that young mind.

According to report of

the American

Council of Pediatrics

in the year 2,001,

it says that death in children

and young adults and adolescents only due to

violence,

that is homicide,

suicide,

and trauma is much more

than the diseases,

much more than cancer,

much more than congenital

heart disease, the deaths caused by these volumes.

And furthermore, going to research done by the

Kaiser

Foundation in the 2,005,

it said that on an average,

an average American child

watches television every week for 44 and a

half hours. That means every day he watches

television

and sits in front of the computer game

or in front of the computer screen all

put together for about 6 and a half

hours every day.

That is there's no the activity does more

than sitting in front of the television screen

or the computer screen more than sleeping. Sleeping

is the only thing where you may sleep

more. Otherwise, any activity that it does, maximum

is this. And the impact it has on

the lifestyle, on the

behavior

is drastically negative. There were research done on

what effect

does

a video

album has. You know, you have a lot

of video albums coming up and dancing and

singing and music. It takes a person away

from an Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Therefore I

say it's.

There are researches on

the sex shown on this television.

It's tremendous.

Maximum number of channels on the satellite

TV. In America, it's pornography channels.

In UK, it's pornographic channel. The maximum profit

the percentage of profit made by any channels

are the pornographic channels.

And the cheapest to run a channel is

the pornographic channel, and even the entertainment channels

have started getting obscenity on it to attract

the people.

And people get slowly and slowly alluded towards

it. And India, which is the

conservative country, the eastern part of the world,

maybe a few decades back when we

see the way the movies were made in

India, if they're to show a love scene,

they used to show 2 flowers. That's it,

indicating love scene. Later on, we had the

hero heroine,

They're running around the tree to show a

love scene.

Now

you see them openly kissing on the street

in the movies,

Even sleeping in bed,

and it's very normal. So that's how I

know it started

with just showing a symbolic

lovemaking of flowers. And then we see today

that open

openly sleeping and showing all the scenes and

all. And it's even getting into the normal

film television channels. Then you have the fashion

TV and all these, you know, therefore,

we are very particular that in our school,

all the children who are studying in our

school,

in their house, in the family, there should

be no cable TV. Even if they want

to see PEACE TV,

if they have a private dish where only

PEACE TV comes, it's permitted. But if they

have the cable TV along with PCH TV,

if another 100 or 80,

Haram Chan has come, we said, don't see

PCH TV. While the Islamic sharia says, let

a small loss take place to prevent a

big loss. So the bigger loss is the

haram channels. The small benefit

is the PEACE TV, but best is to

have only peace TV. Have a decoder, see

the channel, that's fine.

And there are very few channels which Islamic

and getting people

to the straight path. Very few. The percentage

will be less than 1% of the channels.

So we pray to Allah that we have

more channels. And even the Islamic channels should

see to that down the Quran sunnah that's

important. Whether they get deviated with

this media, the film industry, you know, trying

to get more popular, slowly slowly, the time

deviate. So we pray that we be on

the straight path.

So this is just in short the fuel

talk on this.

talk on this.