Overcoming Digital Distractions For True Closeness To Allah

Jumu'ah Khutbah — Mawlana Zimraan Ghazi

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the most honored of prophets and messengers. And upon his family and all his companions. And upon those who follow them with goodness until the Day of Judgment.

After that, Allah Almighty said in His perfect revelation — I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan:

"O people, We have created you from male and female, and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Aware."

My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, we begin by thanking Allah for the many blessings He has given us — starting with the blessing of attending the Jumu'ah prayer in the masjid. Allah has blessed us throughout our life, from its inception till our last breath.

The True Goal: Closeness to Allah

Now, you hear many people speak about different topics — about Salah, about Zakah, about Saum, Sadaqah. All of these things are amazing things that all of us can inculcate into our lives. But these are not the maqsood. This is not the end goal. These are just the ways to achieve our end goal. These are the paths we take to achieve the end goal — which is to attain closeness to Allah. What is called qurb in our deen.

And Allah praises these people in the Qur'an. He tells us that we should make du'a, we should want to be from the muqarrabin — from the close slaves of Allah. And while all the topics that were mentioned before are amazing things that all of us need to do and should be doing in our lives, we have to remember that the main purpose, the main maqsood, the main goal is this qurb, this closeness to Allah. There are many ways to achieve it, and there are many obstacles to it as well.

A Modern Obstacle: Social Media and Cell Phone Addiction

Now, one of the obstacles that I wanted to speak about today is something that is fairly new in our day and age — something that didn't exist 20 years ago, 30 years ago. And that is the usage and the addiction towards social media and cell phones.

Now, obviously as we all know, these devices, these cell phones, all the social media — everything around us — all these things have a purpose. All of these things have their benefits. But Allah tells us in the Qur'an, in that ayah I mentioned in the beginning:

"O people, O mankind — indeed We have created you from man and from woman. And We have made you into tribes so that you may know one another, understand one another, recognize one another." This is what Allah says in the Qur'an. And these devices, this social media — this is a way for us to do that.

Back in the day, it was more face-to-face conversations, face-to-face transactions — everything was done face-to-face. Or if it was done by letters, it would take time to reach that person. But now, at our fingertips, we have access to anything and everything around us. We have access to the entire world around us. I can find out at this moment what's happening in South Africa, what's happening in Pakistan, what's happening everywhere around the world — immediately, in a span of seconds.

And with this technology comes its harms. Now, all of us can attest to the fact that there are benefits to all these devices. There are good things about it. But all of us also understand that the harms of these devices outweigh any benefit we can receive from them. Every single benefit is outweighed by the harm.

This Is Not Just a Children's Problem

Many people assume that this topic — addiction to social media, addiction to cell phones — is meant for children. "I'll tell my son this, he should know these things. Or my daughter." But that's not what it is anymore. Maybe 10, 15 years ago, that's what it was — children were the ones addicted to these things. But in this day and age, every single adult, man or woman, has a cell phone, has social media, has Instagram, has Snapchat, all of these things. Everyone around us has these things. And everyone around us is addicted to these things whether they may admit it or not — including myself.

So we assume that this is just a topic for children. But children at least have some sort of protection from this — because they have parents. They have people around them that are older than them, telling them what to do, watching them, making sure they're safe. Parents will take away their children's phones if they're using it too much. They'll monitor what they're doing on social media. All of these things — they're good things.

But who is there to watch over and hold accountable the adults? Us. People who have no one above them. This is the issue. Because the children have someone watching them. But we — we have no one. No one that we can see around us that can hold us accountable. That can tell us that what you're doing is not okay. You being on your phone all day long is not okay.

We always have our phones with us. Have a laptop with us. Everything around us is technology, and we're always connected. And we have no one to tell us that it's wrong. But my dear respected brothers and sisters — what's telling us that it's wrong is not someone that's in front of us. Rather, it is Allah. Allah is always watching. Everything we do is being seen. And because that's not something apparent, we tend to forget that there's always someone watching us. There's always someone above us. There's always someone there that's going to hold us accountable.

We will be held accountable for every action, every second of our lives that we spend on these things, that we waste on these things. We might not even be doing anything that's inappropriate, that's haram. But whatever it is, if it's not something good, if it's not something productive — it is a waste of time. And that in itself Allah forbids against.

The Research: Real Harm to Our Dunya

Social media addiction is not something that only Muslim scholars talk about. It is something that is studied in research centers. The effects of social media on children and adults, and how it impacts their lives. The BBC has done many articles — and one article in particular talks about this social media addiction that some people had and what the impacts of it are: that it led to depressive episodes, symptoms of depression, increased anxiety, and many sleep disorders.

There was a study done on — I believe it was over 10,000 young adults — and they noticed that around 40–50% of these people had sleep disorders, had trouble sleeping at night, increased anxiety, and many of them also had signs of depression. So it's not just our akhira that's being impacted — it's our dunya as well. This anxiety, this increased stress — what is this because of? This is because of these devices.

Because we see everything happening around us. We open the news and you see someone is dead here, there was this shooting, there was this bombing. Obviously that's going to have an effect on a person. Back in the day, that was not the case. If something was happening 10 miles away, 20 miles away, you had no idea — maybe until you read the next morning's newspaper. Something happened on the other side of the world, you had no clue. But now, you open your phone and you see children are dying, people are being shot. And obviously, that will increase a person's stress levels, increase a person's anxiety.

And not just that — it desensitizes us to these things. Because we see so much death that now if someone dies, it's like, "Oh, it already happened — it happened yesterday, it's happening today, it's going to happen tomorrow. It's not that big of a deal anymore." But it is a big deal. And because we see it constantly, it becomes like it's no big deal. It has no effect on us anymore. Our hearts have become hardened to these things. When rather our hearts should be soft — we should feel for each and every single one of these people. But we don't anymore, because we see it all the time.

Admitting the Addiction

Now, many people are afraid or won't admit their addiction or their usage of their cell phones and social media. Because, "I'm an adult, I can do what I want. Nobody should be telling me what to do about these things. I can control my cell phone usage. It's not a problem." But that's not the case.

The first step to solving an issue is to admit that we have that issue. The first step to redemption is to admit a fault. And that fault is in all of us, whether we want to admit it or not. All of us are addicted. We are dependent on these devices. The first thing in the morning we open it. The last thing we do at night is this. How is that not dependence? How is that not an addiction? If the first thing we do in the morning is we look at this — "Oh, who's texted me? Who messaged me? Who called me? What emails do I have?" — and the last thing we do at night is we look at this thing, just endless scrolling, endless posts, YouTube videos, shorts, all of these things.

It's just that dopamine that it gives us. It makes us happy for a few seconds. We see something new and it makes us happy for a few seconds. But what is that? That's what it is — an addiction. What is the impact of drugs on a person? It increases their dopamine, it makes them happy. That's the exact same thing this device is doing. It's the exact same effect. There's no difference. It's just that this is more socially acceptable.

If I say "I've been doing drugs," nobody's going to accept me, nobody's going to look at me the right way. But if I say "I spend 10 hours a day on my phone," everyone's like, "Oh yeah, me too." It's something that's socially acceptable. We see it as something normal. But this is not normal. This is a problem that we need to address.

The Solution: Detoxing From the Addiction

There are so many ways to detox from this addiction. And the best way is just to put it away completely. Only use it when needed. Remove everything that is not necessary in our daily life — meaning any and all social media. All of these things have no impact on our lives. All of these things have no effect on our lives. I wake up in the morning, I go to work, I do everything I need to do throughout the day, I come home, I go to sleep. Nowhere in that day is there a need for me to be on social media. Nowhere in that day is there a need for me to see what other people are saying around me — what this celebrity said, what he's posting, what pictures he's posting. There is no need for me to see these things.

And on the opposite side — that dopamine it gives us also has an opposite effect. We see these people's lives — people who have curated their lives to show only the best on social media. The best of their lives, the best of their cars, the best of their houses. That's all they show us. And in turn, that makes us feel bad about our own life. "Why don't I have what he has?" Because he doesn't have it either. That's all a farce. He's just showing you these things. You don't see that person's entire life. You don't see what he goes through in his day. You don't see the problems he faces. All you see is the happy moments, the best moments of a person's life. And that in turn makes you feel inferior, makes you feel bad about your own self.

The No Tech Retreat

That's why Darussalam has started this event of the No Tech Retreat. Started this retreat for one day — started a few years ago — and it has been so successful in helping people. It is a way for us to detox from our cell phones, just for one day. From Saturday Maghrib till Sunday. That's all it is. And it's happening next week.

And all it is, is just one day — 24 hours — where we have nothing, no connections to the world around us. Just ourselves and Allah in front of us. That's the only thing. We have ourselves and a way to gain that closeness, to gain that qurb with Allah that I mentioned in the beginning — the thing that is the maqsood, the goal of our entire life. And this addiction is an obstacle to that — in our dunya and our akhirah.

So this is a way for us to achieve that closeness to Allah. A practical environment in a masjid with scholars all around us, to show us how to live our lives according to the Sunnah of Nabi ﷺ. And how to achieve that closeness to Allah. Different talks, different lectures on the practicalities of Salah, of Zakah, of Sawm, of Wudu — every aspect of our lives that we need help with is there in the masjid. And it just requires 24 hours of us being completely distanced from any device, any social media, any phone, any contact with the outside world. Just us in the masjid and Allah in front of us.

Allah Comes Closer When We Take a Step Toward Him

Allah wants that closeness from us. He wants us to take that step. Nabi ﷺ mentions in a Hadith Qudsi that Allah says:

"If a slave comes close to Me by a hand span, I come close to him by an arm span." Allah wants us to show Him that we are here, that we want to attain closeness, that we want that qurb to Allah. We want that connection with Him. And if we take that first step, Allah tells us that He will take an even bigger step towards us.

Closing: Making the Niyyah

We all make du'a that we are amongst the muqarrabin, amongst the close slaves of Allah. So I'm not going to ask everyone to raise their hands or anything — but we should all make niyyah, every single one of us, to attend this event. And it's not just this event — this is just a way for us to achieve a goal. That's all it is. But throughout our life, we should make niyyah that we want this closeness to Allah. And this addiction is an obstacle to that. So we make niyyah that we will remove ourselves from this addiction. We will try our hardest to take ourselves away from our phones and only use them when needed, and only if there is an actual need for it.

And I pray that Allah gives all of us the tawfiq to distance ourselves from any and all harmful things — any and all obstacles — in our journey of attaining closeness to Allah.

Announcements

Please pass the donation boxes from left to right and donate generously.

There will be no curb parking. Do not park on the curbs behind the seminary or the Swift Highway. We have additional parking spaces in the used car lot. Please do not park in the condo's parking lot as well.

There will be a girls' youth halaqah tomorrow, February 10th, from 1pm to 4pm. And a weekend in-person workshop on the Islamic Perspective on Relationships.

As mentioned, the No Tech Retreat 2024 — a 24-hour escape from technology to connect with Allah and attain qurb of Allah — will be taking place on Saturday, February 17th to Sunday, February 18th, after Maghrib Salah. One night, 24 hours. With Sheikh Zakariya Patel.

The following programs are also coming up:

The Virtues of Salawat — Thursday, February 15th, after Isha Salah.
Psychology of Change — Friday, February 16th, after Isha Salah.

The Tafheem Weekend Islamic Studies Program — Spring 2024 enrollment is open. Classes are online and on-site every weekend. Please enroll at masjidds.org.

Join us for our weekly programs: Team Fajr continues tomorrow, Saturday — Fajr iqamah is at 6am. Tuesday Tafsir continues this coming week after Isha Salah — we will begin Surah Tahrim this week. Weekly Salawat and Khatirah every Thursday after Isha Salah. And for the sisters, there is an online weekly Tafsir in Urdu on Thursdays from 12 to 1pm — you can register at masjidds.org.

We have du'a requests. We always make du'a for the Muslims of Palestine — for them to achieve victory and have sabr on all of their calamities. Ameen. And we make du'a for Dr. Shahid Mumtaz, who is in a coma, for his recovery. And for Hasubai Ajmeri, who is going through a brain tumor surgery. And for Fakhira Begum, who is in the ICU. And please make du'a for an elderly lady who is sick with a lot of weakness and other health issues.

Alhamdulillah, Darussalam is hosting Helping Hand — a wonderful organization running a Ramadan food drive for global refugees, including Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis, Rohingyas, and others. Please visit their respective booths to support sending food containers and cash donations to more than 100 countries throughout Ramadan. Your contribution will provide suhoor and iftar to many struggling individuals throughout the Muslim world. All these donations are zakat eligible.