Islam, Internet and Da'wah.
May Peace, Mercy and Blessings of ALLAH (SWT) be on all of you.
Unfortunately we muslims are divided into two sects on a whole. Those who are modern muslims (as we call them) and those who are traditional muslims. Those who study from masdrassas etc. can be reffered to as 'Traditionalist' and those studying from schools and colleges can be called as 'Modernists'. Those studying in school do get good scientific education but they are unaware of the Islamic teachings and because of their ignorance they start judging by their own logic that they have acquired. On the other hand those studying in madrassas do have the religious education but they are totally ignorant of science and logic. This discrimination has resulted in a 'Silent War' which is going on amongst the muslims themselves for a century now. The modernists think themselves to be on the right path so they keep a critical eye on the traditionalist and always blame them for the downfall of muslims. Similarly, the traditionalist have been criticizing the modernists for their ignorance in field of religion. These silent fights and wars have led to extreme behaviour in both these sects. The religious sect started declaring those things as prohibited which were used by the modernists without any real claim, without any sound basis of its prohibition from Shariah. Like they declared pant-shirts as haram and Salaah in pant-shirts as makruh. How much extremism can be there more than saying that Salaah is not accepted behind a microphone? Photography is prohibited and amazingly comparing it to drawing pictures which was a fatal mistake. These useless prohibitions made the other party go stronger on their claim and more they were stopped the more they adhered to those things. One more reason for these useless restrictions is that the Ulemas we have now, are not aware at all with the science and working of TV, internet and radio etc. Few of them make a false claim that these are used for bad purposes so they are haraam. Can u say that a knife is haraam because it is used to kill people?? Wasn’t the Holy Ka'bah place where 360 idols were placed didn’t the Prophet (PBUH) use the same place as a platform to spread Islam?? TOOLS are not to be blamed when we don’t know there proper implementation. Nevertheless these false claims didn’t impress one party at all and it became a hadith for the other. They started taking out those “useless” faults from each and every thing and this Rahbaniat sort of attitude they thought to be a good religion. We often see the people discussing “Oh he is such a religious person he doesn’t even have TV at home!” I ask a simple question : What does TV has to do with his Piety? Had he used TV to watch Islamic programmes and see different parts of the worlds, would have that increased his piety or decreased his piety? If we use speakers to spread the right message… then how can it be a sin? We had classified in our ignorance every thing that came from the west as haraam and now although we are aware of the mistake we had done, we are not ready to admit just to save ourselves from insult, worldly insult. What a shameful trade! Implying useless restrictions just to express yourself as a pious person. Bring me a single Ahadith which in any way says that TV is haraam. Bring me a single statement that gives an explanation of pant-shirts being haraam. The traditionalist had full control of the religion and they released the type of Fatwah they wanted. Its only in the near past that few learned people (having the knowledge of science and logic) came to this side and brought the real story before us. These useless restrictions have not only hurt us badly from inside but also has ruined the view of Islam in the global media. We took too long to wake up. Its only in the last decade that we have come to know the great misconceptions being inculcated in the minds of the people through the use of electronic media. Through internet, TV etc. Whose going to stop this? Who is going to counter this if we keep on thinking it as haraam? Didn’t ALLAH (SWT) say: "Invite (all) to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching" [Al-Qur'an 16:125] ? Many or should I say majority of the muslims think of Internet as a cursed thing. And those who do use it, use it for pornography and useless intermingling. Instead of regarding these things as totally haraam we should tell the people what is right and what is wrong. What is the right way of using net and what is the wrong one, living within the rules of Shariah:
* How can we use the net for educational purposes
* How can we use it to spread Islam
* How can we use it to counter the created problem
* How can we fight the challenges we are facing on net
* What are the precautions to be taken
* How should we teach our children the proper usage of net
* What does the muslim governments need to do
* What sort of chatting is allowed and what is not
* What are the rulings of Islam on using net.
These are the questions that I would like to answer.
Internet is a tool which was never ever Haraam in Islam. There might be things in internet that lead to sins but there are good things too. There are things that might be haraam but there are things that are pretty helpful as well. As a general rule Internet is purely HALAL and I don’t think anyone ever said that it is haraam. Our scholars had been highlighting the bad things in the net but they never stressed on the point that it can be used for good things too.
Good uses of net :
* For Educational Purposes
* For learning Religion
* For Spreading Islam
* For Da'wah Purposes
* For Research work
* For Downloading useful information
Bad uses of net :
* Pornoraphy
* Useless chatting
Can net be used for getting knowledge? Net is a great source of getting education. Thousand of libraries are just away a single click. Unfortunately we muslims have given up the research these days. We accept the views of a single person we like or we accept the views inculcated into us from childhood. We need to reform our thinking. The attitude we are adopting is a biased attitude. We accept the views of one side and have prejudice for all others. We need to rethink and develop a new attitude. A person born in a family of traditionalists will always think photography to be haraam without thinking that the other side should have their proofs too. Net can be a great source to get the information from both sides. If you get information from net it will
* Enhance your debating qualities
* Teach you how to judge the authenticity
* We muslims nowadays know what the Islam says but we don’t know how to present it in front of the non-muslims because we don’t have the references and because the non-muslims use the net more effieciently then we do they can present better references from the Qur'an even better than us
* Internet is a great source to learn comparative religion
Precautions while using net as a source of information
* Net contains right and wrong both types of information, one should have the power to judge
* Remember before going into detail of a topic develop a neutral thinking in your mind and then go on with the topic that now I’m going to decide what is right and what is wrong
* While deciding something remember the first criteria to judge is Qur'an and authentic Ahadith
* Science is a method to prove the religion right
Using net to spread Islam
Few people criticize that net cannot be used to spread islam. This is a very conservative and wrong approach I’m afraid. There is nothing in Islam that prohibits the use of net for spreading ISLAM. Islam encourages us to do DA'WAH by all possible methods that we can adopt. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) went on the mountain and called the people. Wasn’t it the strongest media at that time? Tell me, will a one-to-one meeting be more effective or Sir Zakir Naik’s lecture on Television? This is a useless discussion that which Da'wah is real and which is not. All the methods of Da'wah are real. Everyone knows his qualities best. Instead of pulling each others legs, we should encourage anyone who does Da'wah in anyway. If we muslims don’t do Da'wah on net at all, then many muslims would have converted to Christianity by net because of the active work of the Christian missionaries on net. We need to counter them as well. And we need to revert those who are thirsty and want to know the truth.
Ok let me take this topic in detail.
Da'wah to Non-Muslims.
We can do Da'wah to non-muslims on the internet by the following methods:
* Chat rooms
* Orkut
* We can spread message to all our msn, yahoo, gmail etc. contacts
* Creating Islamic websites
* Creating Islamic softwares and then uploading them on net (How great a job it would be if some Muslim makes a software in which when a hadith is searched it gives its reference and authenticity!)
When doing Da'wah we should be careful of the following things:
Dawah consists of many things…
* Start from the basics (concept of ALLAH and AAKHIRAT etc)
* Remove all miconceptions from their mind about Islam giving refrences wherever needed
When doing Da'wah to non-muslims on net remember to use LOGIC… "Invite (all) to the way of your Lord with wisdom (logic) and beautiful preaching" [Al-Qur'an 16:125]. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) said: "Whoever from you sees a bad deed should stop it by his hand and if he cannot then by his tongue and if he cannot then he should atleast think it bad in his heart and that’s the lowest state of iman." So it becomes and obligation on us to try and stop (if we have Imaan) whether it be net or any other place. Remember staying away from net, I don’t consider it as any piety. We must use net and use it in an efficient manner. This is a much better option then ignoring net fully. When the cat reaches close to a bird, the bird closes its eyes. Does this mean that that the cat has disspeared?
Useless criticism on using net for Da'wah :
Some people bring up strange things by saying that the Da'wah on net is not the real Da'wah. And they say that the method the Prophet (PBUH) used is the best method. Surely it is the best method but we cannot say that the Prophet (PBUH) never used TV and internet for Da'wah so we cannot use too. I find it the most illogical criticism. Didn’t the Holy Prophet (PBUH) go up on the mountain and gathered the people. Wasn’t it the strongest possible media at that time?
The propaganda against muslims on net :
A lot of propaganda is going against muslims on net. Non-Muslims haven’t left any way to harm Islam. We muslims should have used net to spread Islam before the Christians started propagating against. The non-muslims do the following things
* Try and take out mistakes from the Holy Qur'an http://www.answering-islam.de/Main/index.html (Seeing the name it seems an Islamic site)
* Take out strange faults from the Prophet’s Life (Like NauzubiLLAH they say that Prophet was a Hypersexual because he married a seven year old girl Aisha…NAUZUBILLAH)http://www.answering-islam.de/Main//Hadith/aisha.html which is not at all true
* Present Islam as a Brutal religion
* Islam was spread by sword
There are many sites which present such views and BEWARE they might have an Islamic label from the outlook. These sites claim to have taken out mistakes from the HOLY QUR'AN http://www.iidb.org/vbb/archive/index.php/t-63145.htmlhttp://www.animal-cruelty.com/faults_on_earth.htm
There are hundreds of such sites and they present the information in such an authentic manner that its enough to prove the fallacy of Islam to the non-muslims. How will such non-muslims accept The Truth-Islam? If we keep on closing our eyes from such things who is going to reply to that??
Guide line to counter the points brought up by the non-muslims
* Those websites which are propagating wrong information about Islam reply to them in form of websites as well
* In the discussion forums use the politest possible language which our religion teaches us
* Try to discriminate between logical and illogical people and start debates only with those who are dealing with knowledge. Some non-muslims try to waste our time in such debates.
* Where the non-muslims abuse our Prophet and Sahaba don’t reply to that at all because that way that thing will spread even more. Just ignore it
* Learn science and Qur'an and integrate to the best of your knowledge
* When you debate with a person try to prove the things to him from the thing he agrees. Atleast every one agrees with science these days.
* Try to be logical in your reasoning and to the point
* Seek help from ALLAH (SWT) throughout
The following Ayat will explain all how to behave when having a discussion with the non-muslims: Surah Nahl, Chapter #16 Verse #125 "Invite (all) to the way of your Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and have disputations with them in the best manner; surely your Lord best knows those who go astray from His path, and He knows best those who follow the right way."
What does this ayat tell us?
1
2
3>You can argue but in the polite manner
An important point
We see the muslims answering to the Christians and Jews out there in a strange manner. They are abusing them like the non-muslims are abusing us. Then whats the difference between us and them. Islam is a religion which spread due to its beautiful preaching and the logical practical systems of Islam. Argue in the nicest possible manner. Remember we are peace loving people. If somebody is trying to arouse your anger calm down this will have a good effect on him and InshALLAH ALLAH will open his heart.
The Question of authenticity :
When we have debates with non muslims, we find them giving the references from our Holy Qur'an and Ahadith and they give the complete reference. They are more logical people than us in one regard, but unfortunately they have not got the most important logic… "What is the reality of Life". When we discuss and converse with them we should present the correct reference to support our arguments. Without references there will be no weight in our arguments. Use the research softwares to find the exact references of verses of Qur'an and Ahadith.
Precautions to be taken while using net
* Don’t sit idle on net. When you connect, connect with a purpose. Remember and empty mind is a Satan’s workplace and the Satan can draw you into all sorts of bad things if you are not aware.
* Don’t open any site which might lead you to addiction of pornography
* Don’t waste time in useless chatting. Whenever you chat with someone, be it a member of same sex or the opposite, chat with a purpose
* Don’t take information from one site and take it to be true for granted. There is all sort of true and false information on net like in the real world. But on net all the information is available at the distance of a click. And to avail the net properly you must have the ability to judge and decide or you can always discuss with others.
* Remember when you use net you will find people adopting different logics. Whenever you read something related to religion first judge it in light of Qur'an and authentic Hadith and then in light of views of scholars and then in light of science. Inappropriate approach can harm the religion and your thinking too much.
* Net should not be a hindrance in your prayer timings. Men should pray and go to the masjid on time and women should pray at homes as early as possible.
* Remember don’t try to cheat people on net. Like it’s a wrong thing to tell lies in real life, similarly cheating people through fake profiles and other things on net is also a wrong thing.
Islamic Rulings on different net issues :
1-Displaying the Picture
First of all I would like to tell you that there is nothing in Islam that prohibits photography. It is perfectly allowed as long it remains in the scope of shariah.
* Girls can take photos too but those should not be open to other na mehram (strangers)Similarly on net…
i- Girls should not keep their display pictures as their own photographs. They can keep any other picture but according to the rules of Islam she can not keep her own picture.Some girls argue here that if we are not allowed to keep our photos then why are the boys allowed they should not be allowed to. The point is that as you cannot stop the boys walking in the streets. You cannot tell them to start doing hijab similarly you cannot tell them to do stop keeping their photos in their display pictures. The logic which I find here is that like boys have attraction for girls similarly girls do have attraction for boys but boys have the ability (or should I say weakness) to take initiative as well.
ii- Some girls or boys keep the picture of actresses. That is perfectly haram. Because you are forcing others to do a sin by looking at those pictures. You are causing a sin so you will get a sin as a credit too.
iii- Some boys keep the pictures of wrestlers in which the ‘satar’ (the coverable part according to shariah) of them is not covered. Keeping such picture is not allowed. The satar of men is from naval to knee.
iv- When boys keep their picture it should not be with an intention to attract the opposite sex. ALLAH (SWT) is aware of the intentions. No one might be able to give a general ruling to you in this world but you will be harmed in the next
2-Rules on Chatting
i- Chatting should not be a hindrance in your prayers timings.
ii- Chatting with opposite sex: First note that Islam does not forbid Men and Women totally to talk with each other. I can quote you many examples from the authentic Ahadith and You know very well that ALLAH (SWT) has given the rulings for women to adopt which attitude when they talk to men. If they were totally forbidden then what was the need to give the rules. The rules for talking with girls in general (real life) are : (a) It should be with a veil. The girl should be in hijab or there should be a veil. (b) The talking should not be useless. (c) The talking should not be for lust. Now the important point to note is that when you chat with the members of opposite sex there is no oral or visual contact involved. (I’m talking of text chatting here) So the same rulings apply here…You can chat with girls when it is for a purpose and not or lust. Those who forbid talking totally have no sound basis for it.In the absence of any audio or visual contact (which would place some restriction on the manner of speaking and of modesty in appearance), the kind of information will determine its permissibility or otherwise. If the correspondence entails the exchange of cordial, important or required information then certainly there is no prohibition. If the communication is to find potential employment then there is no harm; if on the other hand it is to find a life partner then due caution should be exercised for this opens the door to probable impropriety.
Video Chatting or Video Conference with the members of the opposite sex is not allowed as a general rule but it can be permitted if there is an extreme case with no substitute but the girl should be in proper hijab then. The extreme might be like giving an interview or some online exams. Although these are not much prevalent these days but they might be in near future.
Audio Conversation or voice chatting with the members of opposite sex is allowed when requires as I explained above if the rules are met. The rule of veil is met automatically on net (If its not video conversation). Remember the chatting should not be for lust or desire it should be for a genuine reason. And Chatting should not waste up a lot of your time as well.
1-Displaying the Picture
First of all I would like to tell you that there is nothing in Islam that prohibits photography. It is perfectly allowed as long it remains in the scope of shariah.
* Girls can take photos too but those should not be open to other na mehram (strangers)Similarly on net…
i- Girls should not keep their display pictures as their own photographs. They can keep any other picture but according to the rules of Islam she can not keep her own picture.Some girls argue here that if we are not allowed to keep our photos then why are the boys allowed they should not be allowed to. The point is that as you cannot stop the boys walking in the streets. You cannot tell them to start doing hijab similarly you cannot tell them to do stop keeping their photos in their display pictures. The logic which I find here is that like boys have attraction for girls similarly girls do have attraction for boys but boys have the ability (or should I say weakness) to take initiative as well.
ii- Some girls or boys keep the picture of actresses. That is perfectly haram. Because you are forcing others to do a sin by looking at those pictures. You are causing a sin so you will get a sin as a credit too.
iii- Some boys keep the pictures of wrestlers in which the ‘satar’ (the coverable part according to shariah) of them is not covered. Keeping such picture is not allowed. The satar of men is from naval to knee.
iv- When boys keep their picture it should not be with an intention to attract the opposite sex. ALLAH (SWT) is aware of the intentions. No one might be able to give a general ruling to you in this world but you will be harmed in the next
2-Rules on Chatting
i- Chatting should not be a hindrance in your prayers timings.
ii- Chatting with opposite sex: First note that Islam does not forbid Men and Women totally to talk with each other. I can quote you many examples from the authentic Ahadith and You know very well that ALLAH (SWT) has given the rulings for women to adopt which attitude when they talk to men. If they were totally forbidden then what was the need to give the rules. The rules for talking with girls in general (real life) are : (a) It should be with a veil. The girl should be in hijab or there should be a veil. (b) The talking should not be useless. (c) The talking should not be for lust. Now the important point to note is that when you chat with the members of opposite sex there is no oral or visual contact involved. (I’m talking of text chatting here) So the same rulings apply here…You can chat with girls when it is for a purpose and not or lust. Those who forbid talking totally have no sound basis for it.In the absence of any audio or visual contact (which would place some restriction on the manner of speaking and of modesty in appearance), the kind of information will determine its permissibility or otherwise. If the correspondence entails the exchange of cordial, important or required information then certainly there is no prohibition. If the communication is to find potential employment then there is no harm; if on the other hand it is to find a life partner then due caution should be exercised for this opens the door to probable impropriety.
Video Chatting or Video Conference with the members of the opposite sex is not allowed as a general rule but it can be permitted if there is an extreme case with no substitute but the girl should be in proper hijab then. The extreme might be like giving an interview or some online exams. Although these are not much prevalent these days but they might be in near future.
Audio Conversation or voice chatting with the members of opposite sex is allowed when requires as I explained above if the rules are met. The rule of veil is met automatically on net (If its not video conversation). Remember the chatting should not be for lust or desire it should be for a genuine reason. And Chatting should not waste up a lot of your time as well.
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- Muhammad Awais Tahir
(May ALLAH Bless him and his loved ones with Jannah - Aameen)