The Effects of Social Media - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ أَرْسَلَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَى النَّاسِ كَافَّةً بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا فَبَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ وَتَرَكَنَا عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ فَصَلَوَاتُ اللَّهِ وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ وَمَنْ يَهْتَدِي بِهَدْيِهِ وَاسْتَنَّ بِسُنَّتِهِ وَدَعَا بِدَعْوَتِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

My beloved brothers and sisters, I start by praising Allah for He is worthy of our constant gratitude and praise, and I send blessings and salutations upon our beloved messenger Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam.

Our Purpose in This Life

A point that we should often remind ourselves of is our purpose in this life — and this is something that you may already know the answer to. In fact, I know you already know the answer to it. Our purpose in life is to single out Allah in worship and to know our Creator and our Lord.

"I have not created jinn or mankind except to worship Me." And Ibn Abbas, radiallahu anhu, said: "liyabudoon" — except to know Me.

We want to worship Allah — this is our goal. Your goal isn't to have many children. Your goal isn't to amass wealth. Your goal isn't to get many degrees. Your goal isn't this, that, or the other. It is to worship Allah. And there are certain things in this life that can either help you do that or distract you from that. You should gravitate and go towards the things that will aid you in worshipping Allah, and put yourself far away from the things that will distract you from this great and noble purpose.

Today I want to speak about such things — something Allah has blessed us with and tested us with. This is something that perhaps you have often heard being talked about; you've probably spoken to your children about it, or maybe friends and family. And this is the ill effects of social media.

The Reality of Social Media Today

Each one of us is probably, in one way or another, using social media. You have either a Facebook account, or a Twitter account, or Instagram, or even TikTok, or this, that, or the other. And you have to ask yourself, brothers and sisters — the function of these applications and these social media websites — their main purpose is for communication, or at least it used to be. Now their main purpose is to advertise things to you and keep you distracted and entertained.

The objective of social media moved from one where we are connected with each other and communicating, to you being constantly entertained. And this is everyone. One might assume that I'm speaking to the younger folks only — but all of us are constantly seeking gratification and entertainment through social media. It is right here beside you, distracting you. One might even be tempted to get it out or check it while we are listening to the khutbah. This is how connected — or even addicted — we are to these devices and these social media websites.

The Angels Are Always Recording

Brothers and sisters, I want to highlight a very important point. We all know that angels are recording our deeds and our misdeeds. Your sins are being recorded. Your statements are being recorded. Your ibadah is also being recorded. Now we live in a very interesting time where one can take a snapshot of their own deeds — because you have been recording it yourself. All you have to do is check your web history, or your social media comments, or that which you have liked, that which you have shared. All of this you can go back and check, and you can see — are you proud of it or are you not?

And it seems that the rules that we live by when we are on the streets, in our business and our homes, and the rules we live by when we are using social media are very, very different. You will find sisters that will dress more appropriately on the streets and going out and about, but then they are dressing extremely inappropriately when they are utilizing social media and posting their images. You will see brothers and sisters commenting and writing the most vicious of statements — insulting each other — things that they would never dare to do when they are face to face.

It is as if when you are commenting on something, you are allowed to speak in ways that you wouldn't otherwise. Where did this license come from? Are the angels not recording you when you comment? Are you exempt from the commandments of Allah when you are using social media?

Spreading the Fahisha

We are told to not backbite, to not share the sins of others — yet we share the most horrible things that we see on social media as if we are allowed to do that. You will come across a video of someone engaged in the worst of things, and rather than — first of all, you shouldn't be looking at that, you shouldn't be exposed to that — but now that you are, you have this instinct to share it: "Look what this person is doing!" And now you are telling other people. You are spreading that sin. You are spreading the fahisha.

Allah speaks about it in the Quran — those who love and share the fahisha for the sins to become widespread. We have to fear Allah and control our impulses. It is extremely dangerous. Our usage of social media should not be a means by which we enter the Hellfire, or by which Allah's wrath comes upon us.

What We Are Consuming

We are constantly sinning in ways we don't even realize we are sinning. Your feed and what you are watching — subhanAllah — some of these are worse than others. Certain apps, I'll give you an example: TikTok. This is something that especially the younger generation are obsessed with. I swear by Allah, the kind of filth that will come into your screen without you looking for it — you just open it and you will see the most extreme filth.

How much are we checking on our children? What are they exposed to? We are suffering. Our hearts are dying for what we are consuming. Imagine a child — an 8-year-old, a 9-year-old, a 10-year-old. We are meant to protect them, to teach them about connecting to Allah — and they are exposed to this. Monitor the phones of your children. Monitor their usage. They are not smart enough, they are not mature enough to realize how much danger they are in. It is our responsibility as parents and as leaders to ensure that we are protecting them. But how can we do that when we ourselves are victims of this problem — constantly checking, constantly sharing filth, constantly consuming?

Social Media — a Ni'ma Turned Into Ingratitude

Among the dangers that we face — these social media websites and applications — they are a ni'ma and they are a test, as I said in the beginning. Allah says:

Those whom Allah's blessings they turned into ingratitude and sinfulness. Allah gave us 'inab — grapes — and they turned it into alcohol and intoxicants. Allah gave you a means to share a lot of goodness, to share righteousness, a means for you to benefit and communicate with family members — yet we have turned it into that which we are filling it with: hateful and sinful acts and behaviors. And we are all guilty of that, because in the end of the day, if you're not the person that is dishing it out, you're the person consuming it. And Allah sees every like you give. A sinful individual and his wrong messages are becoming popular — they are becoming popular because the consumers keep on liking, subscribing, sharing, and commenting. We are giving power to this behemoth of sin.

Ikhwani fillah — do we want Allah to ask us about this? I want you to think back: How often did you like something you're not supposed to like? Share something you're not supposed to share? Comment in a way you're not supposed to comment? Insult someone you're not supposed to insult? Nowadays, we cut someone off, take them out of context, and share it everywhere. Lies have become widespread. Sharing things that are not true. Nowadays you can ruin someone's whole reputation by taking things out of context and sharing it, and the people will just consume it and share it.

We behave almost completely differently when we are using social media. So let's fear Allah — this is a reminder for myself and all of you. Fear Allah in your usage of social media. Protect your children from it.

A Principle from the Scholars

If you're not using it for khair, there is a principle that the scholars gave us. The ulama said of everything that you do:

Everything that you do must either be carrying out a commandment of Allah — you're doing something Allah asks you to do — or you are benefiting yourself as it relates to your dunya.

The way we speak to the opposite gender on social media — again, Allah mentions that we have to lower our gaze (ghadul basar) for the believing men and the believing women. You may be lowering your gaze on the street, but it looks like on social media, different rules apply. Let's fear Allah as it relates to this, because Allah will ask us about it. And these apps are not going anywhere — people will continue using them, we will continue using them. So at the very least, what we can do is, as we are utilizing them, utilize them for good and not for evil.

The Obsession With Capturing Every Moment

Brothers and sisters, among the negative effects we have seen from social media is that we are constantly involved in taking images and pictures of everything that we are doing. There are two incidents that I've seen that really bothered me.

One of them — at one point when I was in the Haramain, and people were doing tawaf. As you see people doing tawaf, you see them holding their phones. And I get it — you're at the Ka'bah, you want to share that with your family. But you're engaged in an ibadah. And you look — and as you're walking during the tawaf, all you see is phones everywhere in front of you. People are taking pictures. This is happening not only at the Haramain, not only during tawaf — it's happening when someone is praying in the masajid, everywhere.

The other place — during a janazah. A famous scholar died, and in his janazah — you can find it on YouTube — in his janazah, the body is being carried to an eventuality that should scare all of us. And the people are just getting their phones out and taking pictures of the coffin. What kind of mental state must you be in when you see a deceased person being carried to his grave — when the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa salam, wept and said: "Prepare yourself for that" — but your first instinct is: "Let me take pictures."

Now, it may be innocent. It may be for memory purposes. It may be to tell other people that you were there. It may be that you loved that person who passed away. But you cannot tell me that is normal behavior. And if we were to go back in time and tell the people of the past: "This is what we do at our janazah, at our ibadah, during the tawaf" — they would be surprised at how we are behaving.

Happiness That Needs Approval

People cannot have happy, private moments with their family members — it doesn't count unless you take a picture and put it on social media. You can't take your children out for food unless you put it on social media. It's as if it didn't happen. Our happiness must be approved by others, or else it means it didn't happen. This is a phenomenon that we are suffering from.

The Danger of 'Ayn (Evil Eye)

Our sisters, young mothers, are suffering from it — constantly taking pictures of their children, as if 'ayn is not a thing. It was right here that our brother Abu Usamah was talking about the danger of 'ayn — exposing ourselves so that people can look at us. It is extremely dangerous. Allah said: hide your ni'am, for every blessing has a hasid that is looking at it.

How to Worship Allah Through Social Media

There are many things to discuss as it relates to this topic. Let me finish on a positive note. There are ways that we can worship Allah through social media.

We started our khutbah with what? Our purpose. What's our purpose? To worship Allah. And we need to think: How can we utilize something that can help us in our goal, which is to worship Allah?

Number one: When you come across something good — share it. A recitation of the Quran, a reminder, a good post — share it. Allah will reward you for it if you have good intention. Share that which is good and ignore that which is evil.

Number two: Think and have good intention every time you visit Instagram, every time you go on social media. It could be an opportunity for you to gain reward. This is the mindset that you need to be in.

Number three: Utilize it — as I said earlier — it used to be a means of communication and has now turned into a means of entertainment and constant distraction. Perhaps take it back to communication: communicating with your family members, reaching out to friends, people, and loved ones, and utilizing it as a means to connect with others, which is what it was meant to be to begin with.

Number four: Call towards good and forbid evil. If you see evil happening, then forbid it — say something against it, advise people in private. And these are all ways that, while you are on social media, you can be gaining reward and not sin.

Closing Du'a

I ask Allah to forgive our sins. I ask Allah to protect us and to protect our children from all types of fitna.