imeeru
Politcal Worker (100+ posts)
Beware of Social Media
Part 1: A Reminder
This is quite possible that someone willbe be repeating same mistakes everyday but still remain unnoticed, until somebody else draws his attention towards it or sometime he observes by himself the same mistake done by others. I believe this is a blessing of Allah(swt) that he makes his servants to observe those mistakes and give them a chance to rectify them. And what a tragic thing it can be, if we remain heedless of our actions and never try to correct ourselves, even after we have been warned off them.
For those who don't know me, I drive Taxi forliving, and I really like my job, actually. It provides me a lot of time to think about myself and searching meanings of life, while driving through some deserted roads in night. In fact, I can write a whole article about benefits of driving taxi in Europe :).
Anyways, Recently, I had a passenger who neither spoke nor he could hear, so he showed me a piece of paper with an address written on it, I took him in car, we exchanged greetings by hand signals and then he sat quietly.
For some reason I was already impressed by his humbleness. While I was driving towards his destination I started thinking....indeed it's a great lose for not being able to speak or hear but on other hand, how fortunate he is that he doesn't have to listen any gossips and he is not backbiting anybody, after all Allah(swt) had saved him from these major sins.
The sins which are, probably, the most heinous in any society. Allah describes backbiting as an act of eatingflesh of your dead brother. A sin which nearly every single Muslim struggles to keep himself away from. And here's a man whose tongue can't utter a word and whose ear are save from all the evils, we can hear.
I had created some angelic image of him within myself and as I was going through these thoughts suddenly he took his phone out of his pocket and started checking Facebook.
Ohh...dear, Facebook? A website which has mastered the art of how to turn people into stalkers, stealing precious moments of people's lives and making them virtual zombies. Today, people are so much consumed by it that they don't have their own identity anymore rather they live by what others think about them. It really shocked me for a moment. I forgot we were living in a different world. And it was as if my thoughts were just halted in the air. His image scattered faster than I just had created in my imaginations....... then I asked myself another question, maybe I'm just incriminating him for no reason, maybe he was as innocent as I had imagined and he was only trying to connect with his friends and family, and most probably this was his only option to do so.
I collected myself and started thinking positively again.... but then, another thought struck in my mind, a thought which I should've been struck with a lot earlier and maybe even harder.
"How easy it was for me to judge someone for what he was doing but when did I hold myself accountable for what I had been doing on Facebook,whatsapp or other social networking sites?"
Soon we reached his destination and that passenger left the car but he also left me with alot questions to think about, and I think we should all be thinking over that.
I'm not against the Facebook, in fact I believe Facebook and other social networking websites has provided the people like you and me, a platform for our voices to be heard globally and whichever means we find, we should use to raise our voice for our rights or against any injustice. On the contrary, electronic and social media has also become the most active tool of Modern Warfare, unfortunately, against Islam, from our perspective. Holding ourselves back from using it, is like retreating from your enemy on this Warfare, and leaving our young generation exposed to all the propaganda being done there. It also can be used in numerous ways for personal motives whether it be for social, business or education and information purposes. So we recognise the importance of social media in today's world.
But as they say everything comes at it's price, the evils and distractions that may come with social media as dark clouds can easily overshadow it's advantages, and if we're not aware of them we may end up falling into major sins. So let us remind ourselves that backbiting, slandering or being involved in gossips is a major sin, regardless of doing by tongue, typing or texting. Let us remind ourselves the best among us, the one who is best in his conduct, as our beloved Prophet(pbuh) said. The manners and etiquette what Islam stresses upon, should also apply in social media as well, so let's not acts as a scavenger while talking or arguing somebody on social media. And let us also remind ourselves it's forbidden sneaking into people's personal lives and wasting time on useless things.
I want you to pause here for a moment and think for once, how many times, just in a try to be smart or funny, we have posted or commented about someone which was nothing but just mocking about our brother. What if our some derogatory comments on somebody's profile could've cost him, losing his credibility for no reason, would we like it to happened to ourselves? And what if our just gossiping around about somebody's private life could've cost them breakup of their relationships, are we ready for it's punishment? Or what if our laughing at other sects or what others believe would've resulted in cause more hatred and fitnah among people.
May Allah(swt) save us from these sins, but these are very, very important questions, which I believe, we should keep reminding ourselves, constantly.
Note:
There are some questions like (we love bashing our rulers and celebrities) but how far we can go in criticising them? Is it allowed as well or not? Where to draw a line when warning off your brother? Some answers I got during my research, for some I'm still waiting to consult with some scholars, who know this subject well. I will share in part ii, when I'm done,inshaa Allah. Meanwhile I'll appreciate your input which can help us. Jazzaak Allah
Part 1: A Reminder
This is quite possible that someone willbe be repeating same mistakes everyday but still remain unnoticed, until somebody else draws his attention towards it or sometime he observes by himself the same mistake done by others. I believe this is a blessing of Allah(swt) that he makes his servants to observe those mistakes and give them a chance to rectify them. And what a tragic thing it can be, if we remain heedless of our actions and never try to correct ourselves, even after we have been warned off them.
For those who don't know me, I drive Taxi forliving, and I really like my job, actually. It provides me a lot of time to think about myself and searching meanings of life, while driving through some deserted roads in night. In fact, I can write a whole article about benefits of driving taxi in Europe :).
Anyways, Recently, I had a passenger who neither spoke nor he could hear, so he showed me a piece of paper with an address written on it, I took him in car, we exchanged greetings by hand signals and then he sat quietly.
For some reason I was already impressed by his humbleness. While I was driving towards his destination I started thinking....indeed it's a great lose for not being able to speak or hear but on other hand, how fortunate he is that he doesn't have to listen any gossips and he is not backbiting anybody, after all Allah(swt) had saved him from these major sins.
The sins which are, probably, the most heinous in any society. Allah describes backbiting as an act of eatingflesh of your dead brother. A sin which nearly every single Muslim struggles to keep himself away from. And here's a man whose tongue can't utter a word and whose ear are save from all the evils, we can hear.
I had created some angelic image of him within myself and as I was going through these thoughts suddenly he took his phone out of his pocket and started checking Facebook.
Ohh...dear, Facebook? A website which has mastered the art of how to turn people into stalkers, stealing precious moments of people's lives and making them virtual zombies. Today, people are so much consumed by it that they don't have their own identity anymore rather they live by what others think about them. It really shocked me for a moment. I forgot we were living in a different world. And it was as if my thoughts were just halted in the air. His image scattered faster than I just had created in my imaginations....... then I asked myself another question, maybe I'm just incriminating him for no reason, maybe he was as innocent as I had imagined and he was only trying to connect with his friends and family, and most probably this was his only option to do so.
I collected myself and started thinking positively again.... but then, another thought struck in my mind, a thought which I should've been struck with a lot earlier and maybe even harder.
"How easy it was for me to judge someone for what he was doing but when did I hold myself accountable for what I had been doing on Facebook,whatsapp or other social networking sites?"
Soon we reached his destination and that passenger left the car but he also left me with alot questions to think about, and I think we should all be thinking over that.
I'm not against the Facebook, in fact I believe Facebook and other social networking websites has provided the people like you and me, a platform for our voices to be heard globally and whichever means we find, we should use to raise our voice for our rights or against any injustice. On the contrary, electronic and social media has also become the most active tool of Modern Warfare, unfortunately, against Islam, from our perspective. Holding ourselves back from using it, is like retreating from your enemy on this Warfare, and leaving our young generation exposed to all the propaganda being done there. It also can be used in numerous ways for personal motives whether it be for social, business or education and information purposes. So we recognise the importance of social media in today's world.
But as they say everything comes at it's price, the evils and distractions that may come with social media as dark clouds can easily overshadow it's advantages, and if we're not aware of them we may end up falling into major sins. So let us remind ourselves that backbiting, slandering or being involved in gossips is a major sin, regardless of doing by tongue, typing or texting. Let us remind ourselves the best among us, the one who is best in his conduct, as our beloved Prophet(pbuh) said. The manners and etiquette what Islam stresses upon, should also apply in social media as well, so let's not acts as a scavenger while talking or arguing somebody on social media. And let us also remind ourselves it's forbidden sneaking into people's personal lives and wasting time on useless things.
I want you to pause here for a moment and think for once, how many times, just in a try to be smart or funny, we have posted or commented about someone which was nothing but just mocking about our brother. What if our some derogatory comments on somebody's profile could've cost him, losing his credibility for no reason, would we like it to happened to ourselves? And what if our just gossiping around about somebody's private life could've cost them breakup of their relationships, are we ready for it's punishment? Or what if our laughing at other sects or what others believe would've resulted in cause more hatred and fitnah among people.
May Allah(swt) save us from these sins, but these are very, very important questions, which I believe, we should keep reminding ourselves, constantly.
Note:
There are some questions like (we love bashing our rulers and celebrities) but how far we can go in criticising them? Is it allowed as well or not? Where to draw a line when warning off your brother? Some answers I got during my research, for some I'm still waiting to consult with some scholars, who know this subject well. I will share in part ii, when I'm done,inshaa Allah. Meanwhile I'll appreciate your input which can help us. Jazzaak Allah
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