Impact of Social Media in Our Lives | Imam Nadim Bashir | Jumuah Khutbah | EPIC Masjid

Opening Du'a and Community Announcements

One of our senior community members, brother Samur Hussain, is in the ICU due to complications of pneumonia. We ask Allah to grant him shifa.

We ask Allah that all those who are sick in the community, may Allah give all of them shifa. Ameen.

And all those who may have passed away, may Allah have mercy on all of them.

Ameen. رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ. السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ.

اللهُ أَكْبَرُ، اللهُ أَكْبَرُ، اللهُ أَكْبَرُ، اللهُ أَكْبَرُ، أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ، أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ. May Allah accept our Ramadan, may Allah accept our du'as that we made in the month of Ramadan, and may Allah keep the spirit of Ramadan alive in our lives. Ameen, يَا رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ.

Introduction: Your Phone as a Witness

Brothers and sisters, there is a concept in the Qur'an that on the day of judgment Allah will bring us forward and He will ask our limbs, our hands, our body parts to testify either for us or against us. This is something that we have seen in the Qur'an, we have heard from many lecturers and khatibs. But I want to ask you another question. What if your phone was brought on the day of judgment? What if your phone is brought on the day of judgment? Will that phone testify for you or will it testify against you on the day of judgment?

Because one of the things that we have seen today is that every scroll on social media, every click on social media, every message that we receive, every single message that we send on social media, we might think that it is a far-gone conclusion. It's gone. But in the eyes of Allah, it is truly recorded.

In this khutbah today, I want to talk about social media and the impact of social media and how we need to use social media. And the reason why I'm talking about this is because this topic is not a small topic anymore. Social media no longer is something that we use occasionally. It is something that has become such an entity that shapes our way of life. It shapes how we think about things. It shapes how we spend our time. It shapes how we see things in this dunya and a lot of times it shapes the way how we understand religion.

Today a person can spend two to five to six hours a day on social media and on their phone without even them realizing it. And slowly and gradually without even them noticing, it starts to have an impact on their character. It has an impact on their heart and it has an impact on their relationship with Allah.

There was a time where this distraction was outside our homes. But today this distraction lives within our own pocket and lives within our own lives. There was a time when knowledge required effort and humility. But today a person feels like they can watch a few clips and hence they understand Islam.

So with that in mind inshallah, there are five important points that I want to share with you when it comes to social media.

Point One: Everything is Recorded with Allah

The very first thing is that every single thing, as I said earlier, every single message that we read, every single message we receive, every single message that we send, anything that we write, it is all recorded in the eyes of Allah. It is all recorded in our books. Allah in the Quran, He says:

That we do not utter a word except it is observed and it is prepared in the eyes of Allah.

When we talk about social media, we have a very narrow understanding of what social media is. Sometimes we think that Instagram only is social media, Facebook alone is social media, or whether it's TikTok that is only social media. Even WhatsApp also falls under social media. YouTube falls under social media. Every single thing that is considered as a platform where you can send messages or you can send a message to someone else, it is all considered as social media. YouTube is a platform that people use to disseminate their knowledge upon others. It is a form of social media.

So therefore, anything that we do, anything that we say, we have to be very careful that it is no different than when I say something verbally and the كِرَامَ الْكَاتِبِينَ, they are writing every single thing down. So that is why Allah reminds us in the Qur'an that everything that we say, مَا يَلْفِظُ مِنْ قَوْلٍ, anything that comes from our mouth or anything that comes from our hands or we're texting anything to anyone, sometimes we feel like it is gone, no one knows about it, but it is recorded with Allah.

That is why the Prophet ﷺ has also taught us a very important principle of life. He says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6018)

Anyone who believes in Allah and in the last day - what that means is that anyone who believes in Allah, that He is the judge, He is jury, He is executioner, and they believe in the hereafter, meaning that they believe that they have to stand before Allah, and they have to give an account of every single thing that they say and they do. The Prophet ﷺ says, either say something that is good, say something that is beneficial, or stay quiet, ignore the situation, do not say something that is going to be interpreted the wrong way, or something that you say wrong that can hurt and offend someone else.

And so that is why one of the most important things when it comes to social media is to have this awareness of Allah, that whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever we post online, if I'm doing something that even is considered as a rumor, I may believe in something, but if I don't have the facts, and I say something online, or I spread a rumor online, or I say something about someone else without my due diligence, then that burden, I may make tawbah to Allah as a person, but if I have destroyed someone else's reputation, I've hurt someone in the long run, we will suffer the repercussions, if not in this dunya, we will most certainly suffer the repercussions in the akhira.

So that is why brothers and sisters, when we sit down on social media, we have to understand, أَلَمْ يَعْلَمْ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ يَرَىٰ, don't we have this awareness that Allah is watching us, so that is why having this awareness is extremely important.

Point Two: Time Wasting and Its Effects

Point number two, when it comes to social media, is that social media takes up so much of our time, that over time, if you accumulate all the hours that we are spending on social media, this easily falls into a wastage of time, and I've talked about this before, the average American in this day and age, spends around five to six hours a day, five to six hours a day, even if you cut it down, and you spend two hours or three hours a day, and you do that, you do the simple math, on a weekly basis, the average American is spending a day and a half, think about that, a day and a half, simply on social media, what a complete waste of time.

This is a problem that we have within all of us, this is not a moment that we point fingers at others, but a time that we do our own مُحَاسَبَة, this was something that we learned from our عُلَمَاء, every single day they would sit down, and they would do their own مُحَاسَبَة, how much time are they spending on things that are beneficial.

In Ramadan I was talking about Surah Al-Mu'minoon, things that are not beneficial in this dunya, we try to stay away from that. I'm not saying that social media is not beneficial, and this is one of the other points I will cover, but for the most part for many of us, it is a wastage of time. Allah, the Prophet ﷺ in fact he says in a hadith:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6412)

There are two blessings, and most people are deceived about them - what are those things? The Prophet ﷺ is telling us that there are two blessings that Allah has given you and I, but we end up wasting these two blessings from Allah. What are those two blessings? الصِّحَّةُ وَالْفَرَاغُ - health and free time.

So the free time that we have from Allah, it is absolutely important that we try to spend as much, if we need to spend time with social media, we need to know what's going on in the world, there's no problem, but we have to be very clear about how much time we're spending.

The Psychological Impact of Constant Stimulation

Another major issue, part of this point is that when it comes to social media, we have this habit of scrolling endlessly on social media, we have this habit of spending hours and hours as I said, and what happens is that psychologically, our mind is being stimulated again and again, there's a constant stimulation of the brain that is taking place.

Why is it that people who are spending so much time on social media, children who are spending so much time and hours and hours on video games, what does it do to the mind? It stimulates the mind over and over again. Why is that these same people cannot find any peace in reading the Qur'an? Why is that these kind of people cannot find any peace in reading and praying Salat? Why can they not find any peace when making the dhikr of Allah? Because when you're praying Salat, because when you're reading the Qur'an, because when you are making the dhikr of Allah, it requires you, it requires a person to slow everything down.

But when your mind is constantly being stimulated again and again, you feel restless when you're trying to calm yourself down, when you are praying Salat, these same people they will rush to the Salat, why? Because their minds are not being stimulated. When you are actually praying Salat the correct way, then it requires you to slow everything down, your standing should be slow, your Surah Al-Fatiha should be slow, you should take time in your ruku and your sujud, but they're not able to do so, because they need a constant stimulation.

So that is why brothers and sisters, there are so many psychological impacts on our brain, that that is why we have so much problems within our own community, when you talk about ADHD and all these other issues that do take place, it is many times you'll find many psychologists talking about the link of ADHD and all these other issues to constant stimulation of the brain.

That is why there are times of the day, where we stay away from all these kind of things, and we try to slow everything down, try to slow our mind down, and we try to find pleasure in our Salat, we try to find pleasure in reciting the Qur'an, we try to find pleasure in the dhikr of Allah, otherwise we will come to these kind of things, and we will just quickly go through them, and so that because for us it becomes a burden, our mind is not being stimulated, that is why it is very important that we cut down on these kind of things, because it has psychological harms, at the same time it can take away from our time.

Point Three: The Illusion of Knowledge through Social Media

Point number three, when it comes to social media, there are a lot of people who feel like, that I can go and become a learned person simply by sitting on social media, and one thing that happens on social media, is that you could be watching Islamic content for hours, but I can guarantee you, if you were to watch Islamic content for one entire hour, one entire hour, and if I were to ask you, what did you learn? I can guarantee you, someone will say, most people will say, I don't remember anything from that one hour.

Because when it comes to knowledge, especially knowledge of our deen, in our sharia, it has not come through clicking, through scrolling, it comes by sitting down, learning from the ulama, sitting down with teachers, sitting down with our shuyukh.

The Proper Way to Learn Our Deen

This is how Islam has been passed on for generations. Now you have people who will sit on social media, watch one video, two videos, three videos, and because of course, it studies your scrolling habits, there's an algorithm on the back end, now you start watching so many videos, and you automatically feel that you become an authority on the Qur'an and the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. You cannot be sitting on social media, even if you watch video after video on YouTube. This is not the way to learn your deen. You learn your deen by going and studying with those who have learned from other shuyukh. This is why our ulama, go and study our ulama, they have a sanad, they have a sanad from their shuyukh all the way back to Rasulullah ﷺ. I have a sanad all the way back to Rasulullah ﷺ when it comes to my teachers and when I learn hadith from them. This is how knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next generation. Sitting on YouTube, sitting on Instagram, sitting on TikTok, and watching a plethora of videos does not make you an Islamic authority.

The Problem of Misleading Content

Now at the same time, when it comes to social media, we have another problem. And let me explain this problem. You see, this is something that I have seen in many occasions now. In fact, I received phone calls from many young people about the same problem. And let me explain. You see, there are a lot of people outside, out of our deen. You have Christian apologetics. All they're trying to do is, they don't understand the Qur'an, they don't understand the sunnah, yet they think they understand the Qur'an better than us when they don't even know a single word in the Arabic language. You cannot understand the Qur'an without understanding the Arabic language. Because the Arabic of the Qur'an is extremely deep. Because these are not my words, these are not the words of Rasulullah ﷺ. These are the words of Allah عز و جل. So now, the Qur'an is extremely deep. Wallahi, every single day, if you dedicate yourself to the Qur'an, you're learning something every single day.

Now, when it comes to these Christian apologetics, what will happen is, that they may be debating, first of all, a person, a Muslim online. This Muslim person probably does not know their deen very well. And so they will ask a question, a trick question. And this is what they do. They always twist everything and they will ask a question. And so when they ask a question, and the Muslim does not know how to respond to that question, and what they do is that they will take that one minute clip and they will post it online. That you see, we ask a question to a Muslim, and Islam is false, because this person was not able to answer this question. Well, you ask a guy who's a random guy online, who probably doesn't know anything about their deen, of course they're not gonna know the answer to that kind of question. So what they do is that they keep on putting up these kind of clips online. Not only that, but they may even ask a question to another Muslim, and the Muslim is responding. But when they edit these videos, they cut off the response to the Muslim, and they just post it online saying, you see, we ask a question, but they don't have an answer to it.

Now, our Muslim youth, our Muslim youth are sitting on social media, and they're like, you know what, this guy, he's a Christian guy, he asked a very difficult question, why wasn't this guy able to answer that question? Well, because you have not seen the whole picture. And the question I have to many of our Muslim youth is, why are you even watching things of this type? Your responsibility is to learn your deen. And you learn your deen by going to the right people and sitting with them and learning from them. You are not supposed to be taking your deen from social media. I get it that there might be a good du'a on social media, there might be a good anecdote that you find on social media, and you save it for yourself. But going and sitting on all these websites, and not these websites, but these pages, and it comes up on your feed, just show that you're not interested in these kind of posts. But yet we find so many of our Muslim youth. Just yesterday, I had a young man call me because he was struggling with this problem. He has been coming across all these different posts, and he's saying that why don't these Muslims have a response to these kind of questions to these Christians? It's because there's a story on the back end, and first of all, this person is not able to respond, does not mean that there's not a response to that kind of a question.

So that is why brothers and sisters, when it comes to your deen, when it comes to your deen, you are not to learn your deen or take knowledge from there. Once again, you can learn something from there. You want to sit on social media, you can learn something from social media, as long as it's coming from someone who is authentic, someone who is reliable, someone who has authority within the deen, you can take from them. Someone wants to go and learn the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, there are different sources online to learn the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, from reliable shuyukh, you can do that, there's nothing wrong with that. But to sit there and say, I'm gonna learn on my own, and then you're coming across all these different videos, and it's confusing your mind, who told you to stay on these pages to begin with, delete these pages from your follows, and do not even follow these kind of pages, so that you can protect your deen.

The Danger of Haram Content

The next important thing when it comes to social media, is that it is absolutely important that we understand that when it comes to social media, there's a lot of different platforms where there is so much haram content. There was a time where you had to go to the haram. Today we're living a time where the haram is trying to present itself again and again, especially when they know when there is a young brother or a young sister, and they're trying to present all these kind of things on social media, we have to be very careful, brothers and sisters, of what is coming up on our feed. These kind of things will again come up. And what we sometimes may not understand, is that even if you search something on Google, you will see the same thing again on your social media feed. You could be searching something on Google, and then you will see the same kind of, you will see a similar thing for on Google, you will see on your Instagram feed, you will see in your TikTok account, because everything is internally connected. That is why if you search for something that is haram, it's gonna appear everywhere else.

But it is absolutely important that a Muslim understands that if this is taking you away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if social media is taking you away from Allah, is building up within you the ability to be ungrateful to Allah, to land into the haram, then for you, social media is something that you need to stay completely away from.

Protecting Our Children

So that is why we have to always understand that we are living in a time, and especially to those parents, especially to those parents who feel like, you know what, let me go and give my son, my daughter, who are so young, let me give them a phone. Thinking that I'm gonna give them a phone, I'm such a great parent, because I have given them access to the entire world. Whereas you don't realize as a parent that you have given the entire world access to your child. You don't see it that way. Because today online, there are so many people, dangerous people, that you would not want your child to be around. But yet you don't realize that these people, they disguise themselves as other people, and now they're trying to connect with your child. And because in many Muslim families, we don't have time for our children, we don't give them the attention that they need, when they get attention from other strangers online, they're always gonna start going in that direction.

That is why, brothers and sisters, if you really want to give your child a phone, then make sure you teach them how to be disciplined. How to use a phone the correct way. The Qur'an says in Surah An-Nisa, this is about those orphans. Allah is talking about orphans, that when should you give them their money? The money left behind by their guardians or anyone who may have passed away, when do you give them the responsibility of their money and their wealth that was left behind for them? The Qur'an says:

The Qur'an says it very clear, when they have an internal discipline, then give them their money at that time because they are disciplined. Likewise, use it in the same understanding for the phones. You give your children the phone when they show discipline. When it comes at night, you make sure you tell them, your phone is gonna be here on my nightstand after 10 o'clock. You're not allowed to take your phone upstairs and be alone with your phone. You as a parent, you know what, especially if your children say, this is my phone, my privacy, I don't believe in that nonsense. I don't believe in that nonsense. You as a parent need to put your foot down and tell your children that I'm gonna keep an eye on your phone. And I'm gonna keep an eye on who are you associating yourself with. Yes, after 18, after 20, once you're out of the house, it's you, your dunya, your akhirah, you are responsible for the benefit and the harm of your life, you can make decisions then. But as a parent, as long as you live under my roof, then I will do this.

Now you as a parent also need to be understanding of how do you play that balance between being a parent, protecting them, and violating their privacy at times. You have to be smart about that. Because a lot of times our parents don't do a good job about that too. So there has to be a balance. Not that you give your children the phone and let them do whatever they want. And not that you keep on going to their phone and checking out every single small message. There has to be some kind of a balance. But at the same time, if your child says, Well, this is my property, and this is my accounts, and so forth, that's a load of nonsense. So that is why we as parents, we have to be very careful, and we have to keep an eye on them.

At the end of the day, the Qur'an tells us, I don't care what our children say. I don't care what our children say. The Qur'an, I care what Allah told me. And Allah told me that:

Protect yourself and protect your family from the fire of Jahannam. This is how I'm protecting my family. I don't care what they have to say.

The Balanced Approach

And the last thing which is very important also when it comes to social media, which is something that I left to the end because it has to be said the right way. I know some of you may say that, Well, not all of social media is bad. I get it. There are some aspects of social media that are very beneficial. You could sit on YouTube and listen to the right people and learn something from them. And you learn something not because you want to give fatwas, or you feel like you become an authority. You can sit down on YouTube, learn something from an authoritative figure, and you can learn about your deen also. Priority is to go and learn under shuyukh. That is the right way. But if you sit on social media, for example, you sit on YouTube, you're listening to the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, it is absolutely fine. But at the same time, it really comes down to how you use it. That is why I start off the khutbah by saying what? If the phone was brought before you on the Day of Judgment, will it be a witness for you?

Or will it be a witness against you on the Day of Judgment? Because there are some people who scroll on social media and they do it the right way. They do it with discipline. They only visit those places on social media that is going to benefit them to a certain degree. And there are some people who misuse social media. There are people who use social media and they go away from Allah. So this phone, and I want you to understand, don't understand this literally, but understand this figuratively. This phone that we have will either be a witness for us on the Day of Judgment, or will be a witness against us on the Day of Judgment. Now we have to decide, what do you want? You want this phone to be a witness for you or against you? That depends on how you end up using the phone. I ask Allah that He grants us the ability to use these blessings of Allah the right way, the correct way, in a way that we remain disciplined, we remain grounded within our deen.

فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ - "So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me."

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ