The Fiqh of Facebook & The Tafsir of Twitter
By Abdul Nasir Jangda | 2026-01-19T06:36:40.841609+00:00 | Topic: General
The Fiqh of Facebook & The Tafsir of Twitter
Shaykh Abdul Nasir Jangda
Opening and Introduction
Alright, so this looks like the nap time session. Alright, where a lot of the people are just taking a nap, they're taking it easy. But no problem inshallah, those of you who have shown up to the session, may Allah bless you and reward you. And what we're going to do is we're going to try to make the most out of the session.
The Relevance of Social Media in Muslim Daily Life
Because personally when I saw this session on the schedule of events, this is the session that I was most excited about. Or one of the sessions I was the most excited about. Because it addresses something that is so practical to our daily lives.
The other discussions are just as important. Talking about issues of spirituality, talking about how to reflect on our relationship with Allah. That's very important. But this is taking it into a more practical realm. This is talking about something that has become not just a daily, but has become literally a repeated part of the daily life of the average Muslim. And that is social media on a broader level.
Scope of the Discussion
I know the title mentions Facebook, it mentions Twitter, but it's talking about social media in general. Means of communicating online. Whether it be through Gchat, whether it be even through other social media outlets that are maybe not as popular as Facebook and Twitter, but are nevertheless out there.
There are means of communication like Tumblr, or there's tons of other things. There's these text messaging apps like Beluga. You know, in different different ways we're learning to communicate with mass amounts of people in a very short, quick, manageable amount of time.
And also in short little messages we're communicating with people now. And so this is like any other form of communication where we're going to have to learn how to manage this properly in view of our faith, in view of what our deen, Islam, teaches us about it.
Facebook as the Primary Example
So when talking about social media, and I'm going to kind of group it together in terms of all of it, Facebook will be kind of what's mentioned a little more predominantly, just simply because that applies to the vast majority of people. I mean, for the most part, Facebook is, I mean, you know, the statistics go,
it's like a country of its own, right? If it was a country, it'd be like, I don't know what the statistic is, like, I don't know, one of the ten biggest countries in the world or whatever. So that's what applies to the masses. So that'll be a little bit more at the forefront of this discussion here today.
But nevertheless, keep in mind this is talking about all types of communication, interaction, social media outlets online that are available to us.
The Four Major Issues with Social Media
So let's go ahead and talk about what are some of the key issues at hand. I know the description described a few very specific things. It seemed like gender relations was the overlying, you know, concern there. I'm going to kind of differ from that just a little bit. I'll come back to that later on.
But I'd like to take the discussion in a broader, more general sense. I'd like to address the fundamental values or rather the key things to avoid or to look out for when engaging in this type of communication online, regardless of whether you're having that communication with, you know, even family members, personal friends of the same gender. All right.
So it's just your other friends, which is permissible for you to communicate with them. And then eventually, then we'll go on to talking about, well, how does it work in terms of inter-gender relations? But first, I'd like to talk about the basic principles or values that need to be in place. So when we take a look at how social media is used, and again, Facebook is primarily the scene for this. We have what I have listed here. I would say four major issues. I have four major issues.
Issue #1: Living a False Existence
The Problem of Being Fake Online
And the first amongst them is social media, it's allowed people to start living an existence that is not their own true existence. All right. To put it in more simpler terms, basically people are being more fake online today than they have ever been in the past before.
You know, and being a poser or being fake or acting like someone that you're not, that's something that's always been a problem and that's something that's always been addressed by psychologists, by educators, and hopefully also by spiritual leaders of different faith-based communities. But the reason why it's a key and critical issue online and through social media is because the online realm allows you to manifest a fake identity for yourself unlike anything ever before.
The Unique Danger of Online Deception
I mean, because other forms of communication, first of all, it was person to person. All right. Or later on, then we had verbal, vocal communication. But this is a completely distant, artificial form of
communication through text, through words, through pictures, through links, right? Through attachments and et cetera, et cetera, comments and statuses and updates and likes.
And so this is such a distant, such an artificial form of communication that you can completely create, manifest and push out there a completely fake identity. You can be acting like the complete opposite person of what you really are. And I know this sounds somewhat trivial because so what if I'm acting like I play on my high school football team when in reality I don't? Like, I don't know, what's the big tragedy about that? Right? I'll get to that in just a minute.
The Extreme Cases
First, I want you to grasp the very, like, just the really, really ugly side of it where somebody could be posing, somebody could be talking to thousands of people online, communicating with them at a very intimate, private level, pretending to be a 16-year-old female when it's really a 16-year-old dude. All right? And you made me laugh. Shame on you.
All right? So, but I mean, and I'm trying to keep this serious because what I'm talking about right now is a real serious issue. I want you to grasp the dangerousness and the danger and the severity of the issue. This is really nasty stuff. This is really dangerous stuff. You do not want to be dealing with this. And this outlet provides that opportunity.
Understanding the Severity
And you might sit here and think, but what type of a sick, perverted individual would want to do something like that? But that's the exact thing, that's the point. Fine, you're a decent person, you're not going to do something like that. But this entire realm, this entire media, this outlet, this tool, allows, facilitates, enables somebody to do it who might be just that messed up. And so you need to kind of grasp the severity of the issue. So that's how severe the issue could be.
The Psychological Impact
But now let's take it down to a more psychological level. Now I want to address where you are acting like someone that you're not. You're posting a picture of a car that's parking your neighbor's driveway talking about how you just bought this brand new car. Alright? And you're taking pictures of a classmate that you have saying that it's you.
Right? And you're creating this fake identity. What you need to understand is that over time what it ends up doing to you. Over time, it erodes your confidence in who you are. Because now you're getting all these likes and you're getting all these updates and all these comments and all these, oh, you know, wow, that's awesome and that's cool. And for the sisters, I don't know what the fascination is, but oh my God, you're so beautiful.
Right? Like 86 comments and every single person has said the same exact thing. OMG, you are so beautiful. Like, I don't, I mean, at least be creative with your words. I don't know. So it's making us dumb as well.
The Destructive Cycle
And so, but what ends up happening is now you're getting all this praise and you're getting all this approval and you're being validated and you feel nice getting these compliments. But over time you start to realize that that person online is getting those compliments, not me. And so you become more and more ashamed of who you are. And you start to find so much comfort, so much satisfaction, so much gratification in the fake version of you that you yourself as a human being continue to recede further and further and further into the darknesses of your room behind that screen. And now you're solely, exclusively living online.
And again, if you're hearing that shocks you and makes you go, but what kind of a sicko would that happen to? There are actual cases and people like that out there. This is not far-fetched at all. This is going on very, very actively and a lot more frequently than you would realize than you would believe. And so that's what starts to happen. That's a detriment to you. And that's a detriment to who you are.
The Personal Harm Before Religious Perspective
And so I wanted to first talk about it in a more sympathetic tone. Don't be fake. Why? Because you're only hurting yourself when you do it. You know, I'll even go as far as saying this, even though deceiving people is haram, it's wrong. Notice I didn't say Facebook's haram, I said deceiving people is haram. Alright? Deceiving people, lying to people, it's not permissible, it's not allowed. It makes you a deceitful, it makes you a dishonest human being. It's not right. But I'm not gonna go there. First, what I want you to understand is the harm that you are causing to yourself when you do that. You're hurting yourself, you're harming yourself. You're gonna be worse off for it.
Long-term Consequences
A few months, a few years down the road. And you cannot sit here and confidently tell me that the damage will be reversible because you don't know that. You don't know that. You can't guarantee me that. You know, so many people are so blessed that they have good families, and they belong to good communities. And even though they begin to become sick, psychologically, emotionally in this way, but they have family and friends and community that pulls them out of this ditch that they keep dropping themselves into.
And, you know, they're able to have people around them in terms of family and friends. They're even able to facilitate, their community is able to facilitate for them to even get married and find a partner in life,
that they can find true satisfaction, that they can be appreciated for, for who they actually truly are. But they've become so sick, emotionally and psychologically, that they sabotage themselves.
Real-life Consequences in Relationships
They drive their family members away, they ruin their marriages. You will not believe how many cases I have dealt with, where there was a decent young man who married a young woman who became sick psychologically and emotionally, living a fake life online. And he says, I want to love this woman, and I want to appreciate her, and I want to, I want, I want to, I want to make her feel comfortable in who she is. But she won't allow me to. She continues to live this fake life online, when I'm willing to show her the world. I'll give her whatever type of satisfaction, compliment, whatever she needs.
And it ended up falling apart, that marriage. I've dealt with it in the vice versa, where women are coming in crying. I will devote my life to making him happy. But he is so addicted to living this fake life online, that he has completely just shut me out. And they sabotage themselves, and they end up alone, and they end up miserable.
How Small Lies Escalate
And while they are sick, and I do think they need help, but I can't help but warn you right here, right now, that it started off with just a little lie. Not even a lie, let's call it something else. A little twisting of the truth. A little twisting of the truth. Right, just a little bit here, and just a little bit there. And it just escalated from there. Because remember, ego of this nature, lies especially, they only escalate, they only get worse, they get stickier.
The Analogy of Adhesive Tape
They get stickier, and stickier, and stickier. Until it completely just latches onto you, and you can't rip it off anymore. You know when you put tape, or some strong adhesive on your skin, on your body, and then you rip it off, how painful is it when you rip it off? Right, it hurts. Especially for us dudes, right? With the hair and stuff. Manly men. Right? So, it hurts, it's painful for anyone.
But subhanallah, what I want you to think about is this, you ripped it off and it was painful, it was excruciating. Alright? And you screamed, like a little girl, no offense. Alright? I said like a little girl. Alright? So, and, but even after that tape or that adhesive came off, is there something left? It leaves that residue behind, doesn't it? And you scratch at it with your nails, till your skin turns red, till you're almost bleeding, and that stuff just won't come off. You put soap and you're scrubbing it, and then you go read online. Right? And it tells you put baby oil, and you're doing it, doing it.
And it just drives you crazy getting that off. That's what lies are like. That's what lies are like. But this is scratching, this is damaging, this is irritating your skin. That is damaging, that is irritating, and that is scratching away at your soul. At your psychological well-being, at your emotional well-being. So, don't
think you're just gonna turn around and recover one day. You're just gonna shut it down. It's over. Shut down the profile. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. Trust me, it doesn't work that way.
Islamic Warning Against Being Two-Faced
Alright, so that's the first thing I wanted to talk about. So after giving a more sympathetic view of it, now that inshallah, and we're gonna basically have husn al-dhan, we're gonna expect good things of all the brothers and sisters here today, right now. That, let's just say that you haven't indulged in this type of behavior. Now I'm gonna give you a little bit of the Islamic warning about why not to indulge in this type of behavior where you create a fake identity for yourself. At any level, in any realm.
(Bukhari and Muslim)
Abu Huraira radiallahu anhu, a very knowledgeable, blessed companion of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "You will find from the most evil of people on the Day of Judgment, in the eyes of Allah, to be that person who is the one with two faces. He is that person who comes to this group of people with this face, but when he goes to that group of people, he comes with that face."
Escalation from Online to Multiple Identities
And that starts off by first, with a certain segment of people, whether it be my family or my close friends, I'm still me, and then when I go online, then I become completely somebody else. But it gets worse from there on. Then it starts becoming multiple profiles. Then I have one profile that's like this, and one profile that's like that. Then the real person is completely gone. You can forget about that. The real person completely is gone.
Scholarly Commentary on Two-Faced Behavior
Then some scholars, and this is an authentic narration from the multa of Malik, Bukhari, Muslim, etc., many of the books of hadith. But then the scholars, they add some commentary. What does it mean to have two faces? What is this talking about? What is this referring to? Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani rahimahullah says that, Imam Al-Qurtubi says:
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says that the person with two faces is from the worst type of people is because his condition is like the condition of the hypocrite. So when he goes and sits with the disbelievers, he says, yeah, you know, we gotta go get them. And then when he comes and sits with the Muslims, he's like, yeah, Muslims, yay, yahoo. Right? So he's playing this game. And you don't... Do you have any level of sympathy for that person that plays Muslims like in this manner? Of course not, this is a
hypocrite. This is the category of people that Allah says in the Qur'an, we'll be in the deepest darkest pits of the fire of hell. Well, he says that the person with two faces is not too different from that person. Because he's again creating a fake identity for himself.
Because this person has completely embodied evil and lying. He is an embodiment of evil and lying and falsehood. His whole existence is based on lies. And he interjects evil within people. He creates chaos and corruption between people.
The First Principle: Never Resort to Being Fake
So this is the first thing that I want us to take into consideration. Is that the first principle I want you to have in place is to make a commitment to yourself to never resort to being fake at any level. Because you will harm yourself. You will harm yourself in this world psychologically and emotionally like I mentioned. And you will sabotage yourself in the long run in this world by eventually sabotaging all the personal relationships in your life and even your professional life. But then more importantly in the hereafter you will be counted by Allah among the ranks of the most horrible evil people on the internet. And I'm pretty sure we can all agree it's not worth the trouble.
Issue #2: Wasting Time
Understanding the Boundaries of Worship
Alright. The second principle in place or the second thing to watch out for is wasting time. Wasting time. What I want you to understand is I talked about this earlier today. The boundaries of ibadah and worship. And I knew that I was going to give this talk later and that's why I really stressed on that point.
By broadening your boundaries of what is ibadah anything you do in order to abstain from evil or abstain from wrong and when you do even fun or enjoyable things with a consciousness, a cognizance of what is right and what is wrong and implementation of that that is living a life of worship. But then there are certain activities and everything is permissible within moderation.
Islam's Balanced Approach
You know Islam and I'm going to get a little bit into a higher discussion here more philosophical discussion on Islamic law because I want you to understand this. Because of the Islamic lifestyle and because it's viewed because we live in very very progressive liberal times today Islam is viewed as a extremely conservative tough religion to practice. Right. That's typically how it's viewed by people.
But I want you to understand how Islam is extremely balanced and actually extremely accommodating. There is nothing You know in Islam everything is permissible and there are just certain very very small
restrictions put into place. But the general rule is that things are permissible and just a few things have been made impermissible and that's it.
Examples of Islamic Permissibility
In the realm of food everything is permissible. What's the one food unanimously that's impermissible? Pork. End of story. That's it. Other than that it's all good. Within drinks right. Water and juices or milk or whatever else there might be. What's the only one singular type of drink that is impermissible in Islam? Alcohol. Anything intoxicating. Outside of that it's all good.
Right. We talk about inter-gender relationships. Islam out of the ancient religions Islam is the most flexible in terms of relations between a man and a woman. It is the most flexible. It just has that one restriction in place. And what is that restriction called? It's called marriage. It's called marriage. And then after that there's nothing that limits that interaction between the husband and the wife. It doesn't restrict that relationship. It doesn't stop them from getting to come together and become like one singular unit. Become a family. Become a home. It doesn't stop them from that.
Making money. Very very limited restrictions. Again those same items that were mentioned before about being impermissible and on top of that you add the element of usury or interest. Outside of that make money. Do business. Do what you gotta do. And the list goes on and on and on.
Time Management in Islam
Your time is yours. We just gotta pray five times a day. And I give lots of talks about prayers. There's a class I teach about prayer. But I'm gonna talk on a very general level here alright. No misunderstandings. If you just basically offer your fard, the obligatory part of your prayer you don't need more than 30 minutes in the day to pray five times a day.
I'm talking about the person starting out. I don't want somebody sitting here who's an intermediate or advanced person in terms of their practice of Islam to say what are you talking about. Shortcutting prayer. Shame on you. No no. I'm talking at a very general basic level. Alright. Five minutes of prayer. 25 minutes. 30 minutes to round it off. You are done in a day. That leaves 23 and a half hours for you to do what you want. That is the philosophy that Islam is based on. Permissibility. Permissibility.
The Importance of Being Productive
So in terms of your time, it's for you to enjoy. But like we all like to be productive. We all like to be efficient. We all like to be able to be the best version of ourselves possible. We have to make sure that we don't indulge in wasting our time. That we grow. That we increase. That we get better.
Quranic Guidance on Avoiding Useless Talk
And there's an ayah in the Qur'an that is very very key in terms of this discussion from Surah Al-
That the true believers, the ones that are guaranteed success are those people that they especially go out of they make an extra special effort to abstain from indulging in completely useless talk. Laghul doesn't mean useless based on somebody's definition versus somebody else's definition. No, no, no. Those things are debatable, right? So what I consider you know useful activity a very productive brother like Saqib might say that's useless brother. Right? You could do so much more better stuff with your time. No, no.
Definition of Truly Useless Activity
I'm talking about completely totally useless activity. They make an extra special effort not to indulge in that. Where it doesn't even bring them any emotional benefit, any psychological benefit any personal benefit even those things are included. Laghul is something that just has no benefit to you as a human being. I'm not talking spiritually. Even as a human being it doesn't have any benefit.
It doesn't have benefit to your health. Playing ball has benefit for your health, right? At the least. If nothing else. And then brotherhood and sisterhood and all those things are all bonuses. But at least it's good for your health. I'm talking about stuff that doesn't benefit that much.
Appropriate vs. Inappropriate Social Media Use
And engaging in social media, again particularly Facebook because that's at the core of the discussion. For the basic level of communicating with friends that you made at the MSA Central Zone Conference, that live in another state 300 miles away and you just keep in touch, salam, how are things going, this and that, how did your test go, inshallah, whatever. That's fine. Because that was a like minded person that you met, that is concerned about their deen and you're concerned about your deen and it helps you practice your deen talking to that person. That's a benefit. But I'm talking about the useless indulgence. Where it's hours on top of hours on top of hours on top of hours. That's where it starts to become a problem.
Classical Scholars on Time Management
And I'm going to give you a couple of quotations of classical scholars. The reason why I'm doing this is I typically when I talk about these topics and subjects, there are a few videos online about me talking about some of these topics, I like to keep the discourse very very general. But because there are some, maybe some more advanced level students sitting here in terms of their knowledge or their practice, I want to be able to give you some food for thought as well. And even the basic student, the one who's engaging in this discussion for the very first time. I want to show you that there are higher levels later on. And that you can strive to be an even more productive and better person.
Abdullah bin Mubarak, rahimallah, was a great scholar from the history of Islam. He narrates in his kitab of Zuhud, his book on asceticism. He says, Hassan al-Basri, rahimallah, who was a great scholar of this ummah, he said, I saw those people, describing the people that came before them. The people of the early times.
And Hassan al-Basri was a tabi'i, which means that he was somebody who in person got to meet sahaba. So when he's describing the righteous, pious people that I got to see in my time, he's basically describing the companions and the family of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. So these are remarkable people that you want to get to know about. Like I was talking about earlier, these are those heroes that you want to look up to.
Valuing Time More Than Money
He says, I saw those people and how they were more careful about their time than they were about their dirhams and their dinars, meaning their money. They were more concerned about their time than they were about their dollar bills. Just like you will shop for a deal, right? You want to buy a backpack? You want to buy a pair of shoes? You want to buy a laptop computer? Right? But you know a friend that works at the Foot Locker and you have a friend who works at the Apple Store and you saw a deal online on Amazon for that same backpack and you know you can get it for 20% off? And your parents told you, you got to buy this stuff with your own money. Are you? Are you not going to go for that 20% off? Everybody? Yes. Alright? That's why I added your own money. Because then you and young people are very responsible about money. Alright? You'll go for that.
But so just like you'll try to save that extra 30 bucks, that 40 bucks, that 100, 200 dollars because it's your valuable money that you've been saving for so long, they used to be even more careful about their time. Be even more efficient about your time. Be more concerned about managing your time.
Practical Example: Priorities When Interrupted
So I got 45 minutes. I got an hour and a half. Now what I could do is I could crawl up into a corner in my room. I could lay down on my bed, bust out my phone, and Facebook time. Everybody leave me alone. Nobody talk to me. And then when you're on your Facebook and you're doing your thing or you're retweeting people who have private profiles, but then you click quote tweet and you take off the quotation marks and you put RT in front of it. I have a friend who has a private profile and I still do that to his tweets. Alright? So when you're busy with your thing, whatever it is. Alright? Or you're a hipster and you're updating your Tumblr.
Alright? And so you're doing your thing. What happens when like your mom calls you? Nasir! What? God! Right? I mean and then you even like frustrate yourself. Man! I can't even get a little bit of time to myself. Like she just interrupted some majorly productive activity. Right? It's not like you opened the door and I was like, I was praying! Right?
And what would be ironic about that is that what did Allah and His Rasul tell us about that? That if your mother was calling you and you were offering like voluntary prayer, what's your first obligation? Right. Subhanallah. Subhanallah. I'm sitting there reciting Quran and my mom calls me. Right? And it's like outrage! And the Prophet said, uh-uh. There's a priority here buddy. Your mom comes first. Go recite your Quran later. Keep your self-righteousness where it belongs, in your back pocket. Right? And if that's the rule about reciting Quran or making dhikr, then what about Facebook y'all? I mean it's food for thought. Right? So that's the wasting money, value time.
Young People's Potential for Change
Like I said in an earlier session today man, young people, subhanallah. I give a khutbah on this. I mean and Dr. Attaf addressed it earlier today. Did you see what happened in Egypt two months ago? Did you see what happened in Egypt two months ago? Yes or no everybody? I gotta know because I don't know man, Rebecca Black can keep you so busy you might not even notice what's going on in Egypt. Right? It's Friday. So anyways, did you see what happened in Egypt? You know who was the driving force behind changing the last 40 years of a country's history? They were young people.
They were young people. Yeah, and they did use Facebook for that. Not for, and I'm gonna get to that later. I'll talk about that in a little bit. But what I really want you to think about, they were young people who did that.
The Prophet's Young Companions
I didn't have the narration in front of me and I had full intention to find it in the book of Hadith. It's from the Musnad of Bazaar. It's a more rare book of Hadith where it talks about there were 20 youth in Medina at the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And these guys were like the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's crew.
You know when you talk about a crew? You know when you see a sheikh or a local imam who's very influential and he does a lot of work in the community? And he's got those 4 or 5 guys that he always depends on? And those 4 or 5 guys that are his guys, whenever there's like we need to have a class or we need to do a basketball tournament or we need to have a picnic for the community. Those are those 4 or 5 guys or even 4 or 5 sisters for that matter that immediately mobilize themselves. Right? And they just go and they get it done.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had 20 young people in Medina. And they were the life force. They were the life blood of all the activity that used to go on in Medina. Young people. That's what y'all are capable of. So you gotta learn to value your time and what you're doing with it.
A Personal Assessment Tool
And I didn't want to go there. And I personally enjoyed a lot more when Hafidh Usama you know touches
on a topic like this just because of how he touches on it. In a very epic fashion. He's probably somewhere destroying sound system somewhere else right now. Alright? But I want you to make one little comparison in your head. Just do the math in your head.
Every person individually, privately it's a private matter. But you need to hold yourself accountable. I want you to compare the amount of time you spend everyday on Facebook versus the amount of time you spend talking to Allah. And that includes everything. Reading Quran, making dhikr and even performing salah. Accumulate the amount of time on a daily basis you talk to Allah and compare that to the amount of time you spend on Facebook.
And that's all of a gauge you'll ever need. As long as the amount of time you spend talking to Allah will be more than the amount of time you spend on Facebook. I can't guarantee this. This is not based on any hadith or any ayah that I have. But I'm just kind of putting myself out there. I'd be willing to say you'll be alright. You'll be okay. In sha Allah. So just take that into consideration about your time.
The Parable of the Ice Cube
And I wanted to give one little example about the nature of time. And the fleeting nature of time. This is an example my teacher gave me a long time ago. Long, long time ago. When telling us to be very practical about our time. Because you know we used to get obsessed with our own things when we were young. I was just telling some of the young brothers outside. I'm a lot older than you guys. A lot older. So I mean Facebook didn't even exist. Alright? When I was your age. And so there were other things that we would become obsessed with. That would start off again with a basic pretty innocent premise. And then it would get out of control. And my teacher gave me this example early on.
I was a student. A student of knowledge. And he said the first thing you're going to have to learn how to do if you're going to succeed in being a student of knowledge you're going to have to learn how to manage your time. And he took an ice cube. He took an ice cube and it was a burning scorching heat of summer. And he placed it on the desk in front of us. The desk between us. He placed the ice cube on his desk. And he said that's time.
And he said now I just want you to sit there and stare at it. And we watched it literally melt away. Seconds. And he said is that good for anything? And after it melted away and the water was on the desk now it's all dirty and stuff too because it picked up all the dust and the dirt from the desk. He said is that good for anything now? I said no. He said is it even good for you to take a straw and sip up that water? I was like no. It's not good for anything. He said exactly. And in the burning scorching heat of summer you take some tap water and you put that same ice cube in here and is it productive, is it helpful now? He said extremely. He said that's time. It's a resource but it's what you make of it. It's how you utilize it. How you apply it. So either it will melt away right in front of you and you'll have nothing to show for it
afterwards. Or you'll drop it in some water. You'll put it in something productive and it'll benefit you. It'll benefit you. And that's what I want you to remember here.
Issue #3: Exposing One's Own Sins
The Escalation to Spreading Evil
The next point that I wanted to make here about social media and this online form of communication and that is another major problem in this whole area, in this whole realm is the exposing of one's own sins. As you see the conversation is becoming more and more severe. It went from being fake where you harmed yourself primarily right? Then it went to wasting of time where you start to take away the benefit that you could provide to even the community to now exposing your sins which is actively spreading evil within society.
Quranic Warning Against Spreading Shamelessness
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the Quran Surah An-Nur, Ayah number 19 Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says:
That most definitely those people who love to spread evil, rather spread shamelessness. They love to spread shamelessness amongst the believing people. Exclusively reserved for them is a very, is an extremely painful punishment both in this life and in the hereafter. Because Allah knows and you don't know. Allah knows the severity of this crime and you don't fully realize it. Allah knows what's waiting for you on the flip side and you don't realize it.
The Modern Problem of Bragging About Sins
And so this is just about one of the worst things that a person can indulge in. It's not only does he do wrong, not only does this person commit wrong, but then they make it a point, they make it their objective, they make it their agenda to go and spread this throughout the community and spread this in society. And this is a common problem now. This is a means of bragging. This is a means of showing off of how much on the edge you live. How dangerous you are. How adventurous you are. Right? And this is becoming a problem because then it becomes competitive and everyone's trying to one up the other person.
Allah's Love for Those Who Purify Themselves
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala on the flip side He tells us:
But Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala rather loves those people who purify themselves internally and externally. Who keep themselves not just internally pure, but even externally they purify themselves and they keep a clean presence. That doesn't just mean washing your body or wudu. It means how you present yourself. How you put yourself out there in society and community. That includes that as well.
Prophetic Warning Against Public Sinning
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is reported to have said:
(Bukhari 6069, Muslim 2990)
All of my ummah will be forgiven. Meaning forgiveness is open to every single person except for those who sin openly. Because they're not just committing the crime but they're literally throwing it. They're bragging about it in front of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. They're being rebellious on top of that. And he said, It is a part of sinning openly when a man does something at night than the following morning when Allah has concealed his sin. He says, Hey, hey you, hey guy, oh so and so. I did such and such last night.
And that's the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam explaining that in his terms. In our terms you might have committed a sin or even worse you didn't even commit that sin. And then you somehow find it necessary to go online and to post a status or to post a picture saying, look what I did. When all night long the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, His Lord had concealed him and the next morning he uncovers what Allah had concealed from him. There's nobody worse than that person.
The Story of Musa and the Drought
I gave a similar talk to this and I told this story at that time. And this is a story that again I was I read in a book very early on in my studies. And it deeply affected me. And it's like this one story. There are lots of things that you read, lots of narrations that you come across. But usually there's a few that just really really affect you. They're always there in your head. This was one of those particular narrations. Because it not only gave me a sense of accountability and responsibility, it also was such a powerful lesson in how merciful and how loving Allah is.
Ibn Qudamah who's a great scholar of our history, he has a very famous book about pious and righteous people. In that he has a narration, a story that he delivers. He says that during the time of Musa Alaihi Wasallam, when he was a messenger at that time, the people went to him and complained that we have a severe drought. And we can't deal with it anymore. We need to ask Allah what we need to do in order to solve this drought. To get rain and blessing and mercy from Allah.
The instruction came that lead the people. And there was literally 70,000 people. Take all the people outside of the town, outside of their city, into an open field and gather out there together under the burning scorching heat of the sun. At the time of noon and go out there, bring women, bring children,
bring elderly people, bring disabled people, bring everybody. And you beg and you plead and you cry and you ask Allah to shower you with His mercy. And you seek Allah's forgiveness. Because sins are what hold back the mercy and the blessings of Allah. Ask for Allah's forgiveness out there. Humble yourself before Allah out there.
The One Person Holding Back Allah's Mercy
And they go out there and they cry and they beg and they plead and they cry and they ask for forgiveness. And they go on and on and on and on and on. And they finally go, Musa, why won't the rain come? Why won't Allah have mercy on us? He prays to Allah subhana wa ta'ala and Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, Oh Musa, there's one guy who's left. There's one guy who's left, who's been disobeying me consistently. He's been committing one sin consistently for 40 years. Like on a daily basis. And this guy hasn't asked me for forgiveness yet, not from his heart. And I'm waiting on him. It's all held up because of him.
The Secret Repentance and Allah's Mercy
Musa alaihissalam turns around and says, everybody, there's one person. There's one person who's holding this entire thing up. Now when he says that, that one person in the crowd, he thinks to himself, that's me. That's me. But then immediately he thinks, he says, Oh Allah, I'll ask for forgiveness. I apologize. I beg for forgiveness. I just want this much. Don't embarrass me in front of everyone. Don't let the word out that it was me. I can't take that level of embarrassment. I've learned my lesson. Point taken. But just don't embarrass me. He just thinks this to himself and starts pouring rain.
Starts pouring rain. Everyone's like, Musa, what happened? Musa alaihissalam says, Ya Allah, what happened? I thought there was that one person. He said, Musa, not only did that person repent to me as soon as you made the announcement, but his repentance and his return back to me was so beloved to me that this rain is just because of him now. This rain is because of my love for him, my mercy for him, my compassion for him.
Allah's Protection of Privacy
Now Musa alaihissalam says, Subhanallah, that's gotta be a really interesting person. That's gotta be a remarkable human being. Like I need to meet this person. I went from there to there like that. Oh Allah, tell me who he is. Tell me who he is. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala responded to Musa alaihissalam saying, and this is it. That Oh Musa, when he was still sinful and he hadn't repented to me, I didn't tell you who he was. I didn't expose him. Why would I do it now that he's becoming near and dear close to me again? This is how Allah protects us. This is how Allah hides our sins, hides our faults and our shortcomings. Subhanallah. Now think about the egregiousness, the seriousness, the heinousness of going out there and exposing that for ourselves. Inexcusable. Inexcusable.
Practical Perspective: The Analogy of Physical Ailments
That's a religious perspective on this. Like I told you once before I gave this talk, I gave a practical perspective on this as well. And the practical perspective is this. I gave the same exact example. If you have a boil or a rash or like an open wound on your shoulder or on your back, it is the nastiest, grossest, pussiest thing any human being has ever grown on me, has ever had on me, whatever. You get my point. Alright? It's like a living, breathing thing now. Right? It's gross. It's nasty. You have it. It's a medical condition. You're dealing with it.
While you have that here on your arm or your shoulder, are you gonna decide to wear something sleeveless and go, hey everybody, check it out. Say hi. Right? Are you gonna do that? No, you're gonna go long sleeve. Even though it's up here, you're gonna go long sleeve. Right? Somebody's gonna come up and try to pat you. Hey brother, how are you? Right? Get away. Why? Because you're ashamed of it. The boils and the rashes and the pus that's on our soul is a lot more ugly, is a lot more disgusting and a lot more embarrassing than what's on our physical body. And yet we go around just displaying and showing it. We need to think about that.
Issue #4: Invading Others' Privacy
The Final Straw
The last and the final major point I wanted to talk about here. And this is now, it's been a constant escalation of issues. This is the final straw. This is where, if it's reached this point for you, I'm gonna be very stern and serious with you. You need a serious self-evaluation and a self-assessment. Alright? And that is invading others privacy. When you become sick in your soul, your heart becomes blackened to the point where you go around invading other people's privacy online. That's when things have reached beyond just things have gotten too far now. It's time to really sit down and figure out. Go take a long hard look in the mirror and see if you like the type of person you've become.
The Online Stalking Behavior
Who clicks and clicks and clicks and clicks and clicks and waits for the day that Facebook changes something in security settings, privacy settings, so you can pounce. And you can see those pictures. Oh, and she was saying this online and he was saying that. Oh my God. Right? Like, what's wrong with this? You know, and again, I'm gonna give you the spiritual perspective and then I'll give you the practical perspective.
Quranic Teaching on Privacy and Permission
The spiritual perspective, Allah tells us in the Quran:
"O you who believe, do not enter into homes that are not your houses. Don't enter into a house that is not your house. First seek permission and you give salaam to the inhabitants, to the people living inside the house.
The Practical Purpose of Islamic Etiquette
You know what that means? Oh, yeah, we give salaam because we're Muslims. Right? No, no, there's more practical purposes to this. That just because one member of that household gave you permission, like, come on in. Right? At the doorstep, at the doorway, you're still supposed to say (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ - as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah) To let everybody else in that house know that somebody who is not from this private household, this private family, is about to enter into our private space. So that they can respect their privacy and you can learn to respect their privacy.
The Importance of Asking Permission
You know when we walk into a room or a door, even, I'm not talking about like personal bedrooms even. Right? Because that's very serious issues. The Qur'an even talks about that. Right? That children should learn not to barge into their parents' bedrooms. Yes, siblings should not be barging into each other's bedrooms. Talks about this. The Qur'an does. Right? But rather, even like a classroom, or like a meeting room, when you walk in, excuse me, some etiquette, some type of decency. The Qur'an is telling us we need to have this about us.
Prophetic Teaching on Privacy Invasion
And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) tells us something really severe. Because the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) was very particular about respecting people's privacy. He tells us in authentic hadith, authentic narration, that if any person peeps at you without your permission, meaning there's a, there's, your blinds are open, or there's a hole in the wall, or there's a crack in the door, and somebody comes and he's peeking in at you without your permission, and you see him, you're like, wait a second, what's that? Right? And you see something. And you poke him with the stick and injure his eye.
(Bukhari 6902, Muslim 2158)
And you say, BAM! Gotcha, sir. Right? And you end up poking that person through that hole that they're peeking at you, and you poke them, and you literally puncture their eye. Right? An eye for an eye, all that stuff. You can be held accountable for that. At the least you would have to pay a penalty, maybe spend a couple of days in jail. If you just, if you walked up to somebody just randomly in the street and just punched them out, right? The judge would be like, come here, let me give you one, right? No, he wouldn't do that.
Right? But he would find you, he'd put you in jail for a couple of days, he'd tell you, you need to learn your lesson, sonny. You can't be acting like this. But this person was peeking at you, he took a stick and
he literally punctured their eye. The Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said, you will not be blamed. Islamic law is in place. You will not be held accountable in the court of law.
The Loss of Human Dignity Through Privacy Invasion
You know why? Because the second you started invading this person's privacy, you forwent your own rights. You gave up your own rights. Because you decided to act below a human being. You decided to act like an animal. So that's what you get treated like. You made yourself insignificant and lacking respect and decency. So that's what we're gonna treat you like. You did this to yourself. And so that's something to think about.
What is the dignity, what is the honor, what is the distinction of the person who goes around sneaking on people, looking into people's private conversations, their private lives. There's no honor in a person like that. And I told you I was gonna be harsh about this subject because we need to be. We laugh it off, ha ha Facebook stalker, ha ha ha. No, it's not funny.
Protecting the Honor of Muslim Sisters
I'll speak for the sisters, alright? I'm not condoning, I'm not condemning. I'm speaking just, again, I'm talking reality here, okay? Agree, disagree, that's your business. I'm talking reality. Many of our sisters, and I have a mother, and I have a sister, and I have a wife, and I have two daughters. So this, I think, this very personally. Many of our sisters who practice hijab or decency or dress modestly, right? And they might have pictures of themselves maybe without their hijab or their full covering or whatever it be. That they just share with their family members that are only available to their female friends or family members.
Again, I'm not here to get in a fiqh discussion with you whether that's even permissible or not. I'm talking about the reality of the situation. And when we go creeping and when we go stalking and when we go looking into that, you're violating the honor of a Muslim sister. Shame on you. You are violating the honor of a Muslim sister. And that's something very, very serious that you need to think about.
The Golden Rule Applied
And you know, Sheikh Yasser in the earlier talk was talking to us too about fornication and adultery and zina and these horrible things. And that same principle applies here. Would you like it if somebody did that to your mother? Would you like it if somebody did that to your wife, to your sister, to your daughter? Would you like it? No, you wouldn't. Then how dare you go do that to somebody else's mother, daughter, wife, sister? It's unacceptable behavior. And so we have to be cognizant of these things. Alright?
Practical Advice and Encouragement
Wrapping Up the Serious Issues
Before my moderator freaks out, alright, kicks me off the stage, alright, I wanted to kind of wrap things up here. And I wanted to talk, after, I wanted to take the serious issues first. These principles in place, please hold on to these principles firmly. Alright? Now I wanted to talk to you about a couple of pieces of advice and then some encouragement. I'll probably borrow an extra five minutes of your time. Alright?
Advice #1: Real Communication Over Online Comments
The extra couple of pieces of advice that I had for you was the purpose of Facebook was to facilitate communication. It's destroyed communication. I want you to take out the time to have a meaningful conversation. I do not want you, please, I do not want you to comment on somebody's status who is here with you at the conference. Please don't do that. Alright? That just wasted an hour with you people. Alright?
What I want you to do is I want you to go talk to that person. I want you to communicate with people. I want you to talk. I want you to interact. I want you to converse. Have communication. It's healthy for you. Be a real life human being. Alright? Communicate.
Advice #2: Live Life for the Experience, Not for Social Media
The second thing is, and this is something actually my friend, Brother Moise, he... I was talking to him about this subject when I gave the first talk I gave a few months ago about Facebook. And I asked him, you know, what's one real key point you could tell me about? And he told me this and subhanAllah it's amazing.
He said sometimes we get so involved with just making our presence felt on Facebook that even when we do really cool things and amazing things and we have great experiences in real life, it's only for the purpose of putting it on Facebook. So the whole purpose of going out on the lake was, we gotta get the right picture. Right here guys. Come on. Profile picture. Right? It's like no, no, no, no, no.
You're out there witnessing Allah's magnificence as a creator. Go enjoy yourself. Who gives a crap about Facebook? Right? Go enjoy yourself, man. Go live it up. Go have an experience. Go experience something. You're young people. You don't live anymore. You don't live anymore. Go live. Go have fun. Go do something cool. Right? And don't worry about whether you ended up posting it on Facebook or not. Don't worry if you got the perfect picture. Who cares? Nobody cares. They're laughing. It's a little inside joke. Nobody cares. Alright? So remember that.
The Positive Potential of Social Media
Social Media as a Tool, Not Inherently Evil
Those are a couple of practical pieces of advice I wanted to give you here leaving this. And then finally here comes the motivation. Notice for this entire hour that I've been ranting and screaming and yelling, I have not once said that Facebook is haram, wrong, impermissible, bad, evil. No, no. I pointed out actions that people commit on Facebook that are wrong.
Driving a car is permissible. Driving drunk? Horrible. It's that same car, it's the same road, it's the same hands, it's the same feet, the same eyes, but something wrong was interjected into it. It's a tool. It's how you use it.
Amazing Things Done Through Facebook
Amazing things have been done through Facebook. You know how many millions, hundreds of millions of dollars over these last few natural disasters, these catastrophes? How many hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised on Facebook to help people in those situations? You know how much knowledge of Islam? You know, subhanallah, there's a group of brothers we know personally. They run a Facebook page and a YouTube channel called Quran Weekly. Yeah, mashallah.
And they make lots of videos and alhamdulillah I've had the opportunity to work with them and make a few videos for them. The brother who actually shoots the videos, edits the videos and uploads them, there's about three or four brothers in the project, but the brother that does that part of it and kind of manages the online part of it, he sent me a text message yesterday. I recorded a video about forgiveness. How forgiving Allah is. And he said he was contacted by a person recently who was pretty sure he was going to be lived near, not too far from, he was going to be coming to the masjid to meet him in person and learn more. He was contacted by a person recently who said he watched a video of forgiveness on Facebook and then ended up accepting Islam because of it.
Success Stories
That happened. And that's just one little tiny story. There are millions of such stories. People have learned, people have benefited. Immensely. You know, we do all types of these activities. This event was marketed on Facebook. And all these other academic or Islamic or educational programs that we do are marketed on Facebook. We had a local event, local event in Dallas. One of y'all's Chicago natives, brother Abdurrahman Murphy, he runs a youth department out there. So he did a youth event talking about relationships and dating and all of these things. And there was not a single flyer or poster that was printed for the event. It was only and only and only on Facebook. A thousand people showed up physically at the event. Four hundred people watched that event online. That was Facebook. So a lot of great things happened through Facebook as well. It's just how you utilize that tool.
Conclusion and Final Advice
Using Social Media Responsibly
So I want you to... I'm not asking you to give it up. But I am asking you to practice a level of responsibility with it. Be productive with it. Go and do something amazing with it. Go and show people that what an amazing thing. Like the guy who probably, you know, started the... Like if a Muslim went and started some fundraising campaign to help the earthquake victims, the tsunami victims on Facebook and then they're raising millions of dollars. Think about how much... How much reward that person just earned. Amazing. Remarkable. So go and do something amazing. You can utilize this tool for that as well. InshaAllah.
Final Du'a and Closing
I really, really want to thank you for your patience and for you guys paying attention and sitting here and listening. I really honestly do appreciate it very, very much. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala give us all the ability to be responsible and to be dignified. That's what matters. Respect yourself. May Allah give us all the ability to respect ourselves when conducting ourselves not just in person or physically but even online.
"May Allah reward you [with] goodness. Peace be upon you."