REVIEW 35NNpdf

In the name of Allah The Most Gracious The Most Merciful Ath-Thaqwa ‘Review’ on Emergent & Contingent Aspects of Muslims The Abdul Azeez Foundation 27, Admiral Clancy Fernando Mawathe, Katubedde, Ratmalana T 0776138268 E [email protected] [A Non-Profit Non-Governmental Muslim Organization (Trust) – Insha Allah – for Economic, Educational and Spiritual Enrichment of People’s Lives] Review No.35 [1445 A.H 2024 C.E] Dhul Qahda / June 2024 Date of Issue: 05th June 2024 Assalaamu Allaikum wa Rahmathullahi wa Barakaathuhu Eid-ul Adha Mubarak EARNINGS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA ARE HARAM FOR MUSLIMS AS THEIR SOURCES OF INCOME ARE MIXED WITH OR DERIVED FROM MOSTLY HARAM ACTIVITIES [May Allah (swt) Bless those performing Hajj with Hajj Mabroor] ABSTRACT Human history throughout its journey did bring in drastic changes to and distinctive developments in the lifestyles of mankind some of which were beneficial while some others turned to be disastrous and in the latter category we know today the unexpected side-effects of Covid-19 vaccine. In today’s digitized world, social media take primacy in the lives of people including Muslims that have both positive and negative consequences in their use. Even in making use of the positive aspects of social media, Muslims must be cautious not to contravene Islamic Guidance. Muslims can neither invest in nor deal (trading; renting out) with goods, services, processes that Islam has prohibited as Haram. While the Muslims are always attentive to and concerned with the food they consume to be Halal, they are indifferent in adhering to the Halal criterion in their earnings, spending and trading activities among many other involvements. Indifference to Islamic Commands, earnings from opportunities without considering the Halal status, populist mindsets and possibly greediness could be cited as the main factors if any of the Islamic scholars and preachers resort to receipts of payment from social media which this write-up has opined with justifications as Haram. The existence of social media as the high-tech devices presently available for mass communication purposes may be taken as a blessing in disguise and could be used by Muslims for communicating to wider audience without receipts of payment (which is Haram) on the basis of Mubah (permissibility based on necessity), and public interest (Maslaha) without contravening Islamic Guidance. Muslims must not be complacent in using the social media relying on public interest (Maslaha), permissibility (Mubah), or to certain commands of the Qur’an that give exceptions in certain situations. Muslims must seek alternative ways of mass communication through longitudinal researches to develop – Insha Allah – ‘Islam Based Social Media’ platforms in conforming to Islamic Guidance. Islamic Scholars and other Muslim speakers must declare as to whether they are in receipts of payments from social media (which is Haram) and if they resort to silence on this issue then they are definitely resorting to hypocrisy which is a great sin in Islam. Partaking in social media to earn towards one’s household/family expenditures or for greedy ambitions is Haram whatever the defense Muslims may use to justify their use based on easy accessibility/availability of the social media. The main criterion for Muslims in any transactions is upholding to Halal – how the goods have been acquired/produced as to the legitimacy of their (goods) production, as to any harmful effects inherent in the goods, and finally whether bribery was involved in the buying and/or the selling processes of the goods. ‘Earnings based on Haram transactions cannot be used in Halal activities’ – Hadith. Almost all of the Islamic scholars and speakers making use of social media do contribute to the enhancement of Islamic knowledge towards the Muslim Ummah and that must be appreciated although every scholar/speaker had been prone to certain errors may be due to inherent personal factors, personal biases and may also be to psychological weaknesses and not entirely due to deficiency in their Islamic knowledge. Islamic scholars in the past did speak against all sorts of Shirk (polytheism) and Bidah (innovation in Ibadah) upholding to Thawhid (Islamic monotheism) but their silence (or even covert participation) in the present context as to what may be called the Haram aspects of modern technologies, social media in particular, remains a mystery. Some Islamic scholars/speakers covertly earn through 1 the use of social media; mesmerize the Muslim public through their convincing speeches to apparently prevent the Muslim public not to be inquisitive of their (scholars) personal behaviours /manipulations; and lastly, some of the well planned and effectively executed Dahwah programmes are essentially smokescreens to hide the speakers un-Islamic earnings from social media that have vicariously led these scholars/speakers towards greedy ambitions. Answers to the issues of receipt of payments from and Muslim women appearing without Niqab (facecover) in social media are of paramount importance that this write-up calls upon the Islamic scholars to give their pronouncements on these two issues. Let us pray to Allah (swt) to help the Muslims in general and the Islamic Scholars in particular to opine on these two issues basing their pronouncements based on the Qur’an, authentic Hadiths and where needed the ways of the Salafs too – Ameen. Each epoch in human history usually brings in critical changes and distinctive developments in all spheres of human life, singly or in many combinations, either to be beneficial or disastrous to human life. Mankind in the first instant perceives any changes as beneficial whereas such changes may not be so as time progresses and could lead mankind towards unexpected consequences – humans have witnessed in the past as well as seeing such things in the present too. Thus no one can say that technological progresses, in physical or virtual forms, that emerge in different eras in terms of inventions, innovations, conceptions (concepts) or even dogmas will always be helpful to mankind toward their progress. New changes could emerge in spiritual, societal, social, cultural, political and also in the nature of thinking which would put mankind to new ways of essentially treating of physical, mental and emotional ‘sicknesses’ in new or innovative ways which may have either beneficial or adverse results of the application of the new inventions or innovations to be determined or assessed in the long term. One such example that has been admitted recently is the unexpected side-effects of Covid-19 vaccine Thus one cannot say definitely that inventions and innovations in whatever ways they emerge will be towards the forward march of mankind in their ultimate objective of peaceful worldly life. From the first Industrial Revolution (1760) of the 18th century in Britain, the second industrial revolution from mid-19th century till the early 20th century (1870 – 1914) in Britain, continental Europe, North America and Japan, the world has moved through various stages of technological progressions bestowing on mankind benefits and advantages to enjoy lifestyles in better ways than before. At present mankind is in a world that are labelled variously as Information & Communication (ICT) age, Internet age, service economy and finally as digitized world. This write-up takes the present Internet-based Social Media issues in their adoption by Muslims for various aspects of their life and the ways how Muslims should learn to be complying with the Islamic Guidance in the use of social media, if at all deemed necessary. Generally almost all Muslims are fully aware of the Islamic commands as to the categorization of food, their sources and the related processing involved therein for the food to be accepted as Halal. Unfortunately, some Muslims are indifferent to stick to Islamic Guidance in their dealing in goods, processes used in their acquirements (buying), and also the ways adopted in the disposal (mainly selling) of any goods – not bothered whether the items/goods they are buying for personal use or trading and the methods used in buying these items are Halal. It is Haram for Muslims to deal in trading or to give as gifts any goods that Islam has declared Haram such as alcohol and in today’s world narcotics; selling of meat of animals that are Haram for consumption; carcasses of animals that are otherwise Halal for consumption; animals that are Halal but not slaughtered in the name of Allah (swt); smuggled goods depriving the State/Government its due revenue; stolen goods; giving or accepting bribes in any transactional activities to make ‘wealth’; and using trickery in transactions and/or exploitations of the buyers in business / trading activities. Further, Muslims cannot earn from the following: (1) Renting out their properties to illegal (Haram) activities such as night clubs, gambling businesses, massage parlours/SPAS; brothel houses;; conventional banks operating on Usury (Riba); pawning centres; sale of Haram items such as alcoholic drinks, poke and any other businesses that are Haram in Islam. (2) Fraudulent and/or fake programmes / projects that are made or projected to appear as helping activities for the underprivileged or the deserving while in reality they are ‘donation seekers’ where the larger part of the donation received are made use of by the project organizers for their personal / family use – a great sin. 2 Many of the activities mentioned above are known to Muslims as Haram, some activities may not be that clear as to Halal or Haram statuses due to lack of Islamic Guidance or to total indifference to Islamic commands – the last is the behaviour of namesake and not the righteous Muslims . Whatever that have been stated above as Haram to goods / services or interventions belong to traditional era existing for long periods of time and therefore there are no controversies as to their acceptability or otherwise in Islam. But today’s world has various technological inventions / innovations etc. that have made some Muslims to blindly make use of the new applications / appliances / Internet sites (social media) without pondering as to the acceptability of such ‘devices’ to the commands of Islam. One such new technology that this write-up speaks about is the use of social media by Muslims, both males and females, in ways that are un-Islamic. The use of social media becomes un-Islamic when Muslims try to earn their living or even simply earn by the notion ‘earnings based on availability (of avenues)’. For Muslims, all available avenues cannot be made use of indiscriminately to earn – only Halal ways of earning are permissible in Islam. Social media have multiple uses of which the main one is making use of the social media as the presently available advanced technology-based devices for communication needs/purposes and in this sense Muslims could make use of social media without contravening Islamic Guidance provided the Muslim users do not seek any payments whatsoever from the social media they are making use of for their communication purposes only. In some instances presenters/up-loaders have to do payments to social media to make their presentations reachable to social media users all over the world. The other main use of social media by certain Muslims is to earn money by uploading presentations to reach the threshold of viewers determined by the social media and this type of earning is Haram for Muslims as the sources of income from which the social media (say, You Tube) pay their patrons are derived through legitimate advertisements plus promoting pornography, prostitution, sexually oriented adult entertainments, living together family partnerships without marriage, LGBTQ+ sexual orientations, advocacy of abortions and many more – all of these go against Islam. In this context, Muslims must take into consideration what the Qur’an has commanded in Surah Maidah, Ch 05, V 02: ‘Help you one another in Al-Birr (virtue) and At-Taqwa (righteousness and piety); but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is severe in punishment’. This Verse (Ayah) by itself is enough for Muslims to avoid participating and thus receiving payments from social media on the basis of the following factors: (1) receiving payments are Haram as per reasons given in the previous paragraph, (2) patronizing social media for the sake of earning, dissemination of one’s views foregoing receipts of payments (this option is available in social media), or using social media as indispensable high-tech communication devices – all boil down to helping the social media to be in that part of their sinful and aggressive activities which the above Qur’an Verse wants Muslims to avoid. Then how would Muslims justify the use of social media as indispensable high-tech devices available in today’s context for the dissipation of the views of social media presenters? This writeup presents a narration and also gives a fictitious example in family life vis-à-vis the use of social media as high-tech communication devices in the present technological world. Muslims desirous of sharing their thoughts/ideas/research through presentations accessible to worldwide audiences have to make use of the best available communication devices that happen to be, in today’s context, nothing but social media platforms. Thus using social media platforms, with the above mentioned evils/transgressions inherent therein, could be justified based on Public Interests (Maslaha) and Permissibility (Mubah), permissibility based on necessity provided Muslim presenters forego receipts of payments. The alternative, to be in compliance with Islamic Guidance, is for the Muslim presenters to have their own Internet / Web Sites. Unfortunately, owning, operating and maintaining personal websites are very costly and many of the Muslims will be unable to have personal websites and thereby are compelled to use the available social media platforms out of public interest and permissibility due to necessity and thereby in such situations the Muslims making use of social media as the high-tech communicating device in no way would be contravening Islamic Guidance. Example: Assume that Contraceptives (such as birth control pills/implants; morning-after-pills; condoms etc.) are controlled by, say, Mafia Gangs, are available only through prostitutes in Red-Light areas. Out of necessity, Muslims (and others too) will be ‘forced’ to buy the required contraceptives, if 3 needed, from the Red Light areas and this will not constitute as sin due to permissibly based on necessity. This is analogous to using social media platforms as high-tech devices for mass communication. This way of inference though suitable to certain situations will become dangerous if Muslims were to deduce all situations on the basis of permissibility, public interests and also based on Musthahab meaning recommended. Maslahah (Maslahah Mursalah) is a form of benefit that is considered to be good in a reasonable sense when applied with utmost care when considering Public Interest. Muslims must realize the dangers in the widespread phenomenon of taking to social media without seeking for alternative ways to mass communication. Longitudinal In-depth research studies based on Islamic foundations seeking alternative ways to the presently available social media usage could yield better forms of mass communication applications to be in compliance with Islamic Guidance – Insha Allah – and hope that Islam based such applications would emerge in the near future. The traditional ways of concluding from Sharia, from the viewpoint of welfare and benefits only, for issues arising due to the present day technological advancement may lead to flawed results that could have drastic effects on the implementations of Islamic Guidance and thus Muslims, both the ordinary and the Islamic scholars, must think many times and in many different ways (strategic) before applying the concepts Public Interest (Maslaha), permissibility due to necessity (Mubah) and also Musthahab (recommended) in case the last is applicable. Muslims must embrace new approaches or patterns in their use of the present-day technological inventions and/or innovations as to the technology’s acceptability or otherwise in terms of Halal and Haram as per Islamic Guidance. While the goal of the Islamic Sharia is to preserve the five things whose preservation is agreed to be obligatory viz. life, sanity, property, progeny and honour that invariably does not mean haphazard Fatawas are to be delivered by irresponsible Muslim personalities, based on the five categories, who may not be farsighted to take into consideration the long term consequences of their Fatawas and thereby leading the Muslim Ummah to irreversible un-Islamic behaviour and that is what Muslims are witnessing in various aspects of the lifestyles of Muslims in the present context. It must be noted that social media have weaponized the masses to make use of them (social media) whatever the masses wish to say irrespective of whether the contents are helpful, unnecessary, immoral or dangerous - weaponized to justify manipulative behaviours – manipulative behavior of the presenters and their audiences too. Be that as it may, the focus of this write-up is to create awareness among the Muslims that getting financial gains/payments from social media is totally Haram because the sources of income of these social media are derived mostly from Haram activities such as pornography, adult sexual episodes through popups / movies, promotion of prostitution, LGBTQ+ sexual orientation, immoral behaviour in intimate relationships and few others as posited in above paragraphs. The word Fa’he’sha has been repeatedly used in Qur’an which refers to mean vulgarity, obscenity, indecency and shamelessness and these are what social media get involved in to earn their income. Participation by Muslims in social media which operationalizes Fa’he’sha as the foundational aspect of their earnings is helping the social media in their sins and related aggressions which Surah Maidah, Ch 05, V 02 commands Muslims to avoid. Yet commands in the Qur’an that prohibit certain actions or activities had been made legitimate under certain circumstances in terms of dire needs, due to non-availability of alternatives, and due to the availability of any particular ‘source’ or ‘mechanism’ the use of which will be helpful to the Muslims in effective ways without contravening Islamic Guidance. Certain guidance in the Qur’an giving exceptions to certain instances could be used, through thoughtful extrapolations, to other cases if the need so arises without contravening Islamic Guidance - Qur’an Ch 02 V 173: “He has only forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah. But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit], there is no sin upon him. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” Thus the use of social media as the available high-tech communication devices fall under this exceptional clause of the Qur’an – not directly but by inference. Whatever that may be, this write-up holds that those who are making use of the social media (in ways against the Command of Allah) in order to temporarily enjoy the pleasures of this world are definitely losers in this world and the Hereafter too. It is always better to avoid the use of social media even if such social media platforms are the only sources available for the purpose of effective mass communication and seek alternative ways of communicating worldwide in compliance with Islamic Guidance and 4 that will be the righteous (Thaqwa-Based) ways for Muslims in their desire / passion to make their writings/speeches/research reach worldwide audience. Islamic Scholars/Speakers from different regions or countries, who speak on Islam, give Dawah, do Question & Answer sessions, conduct counselling programmes and various other related Islamic issues, could be watched through social media sites – the contents of their uploading do get saved in these sites. The question is whether these Islamic Scholars receive and accept payments for uploading of their speeches/contents to the social media sites and if they are accepting payments then these Islamic Scholars are in Haram earnings. Products, services, processes that are freely available either physically or digitally which would fall as Haram in terms of Islamic Guidance cannot be used by Muslims in any ways or for any reasons for earning purposes even if such products, services, and/or processes that are easily accessible or may be easy to use without difficulties. Easiness, hardship or easy availability are not the criteria for Muslims to earn for household expenses or business earnings – the main criterion is Halal and Muslims must look into the nature of the goods (how acquired/produced), characteristics of the goods (the benefits and harm inherent in them), and the processes that had been used in the acquisition of the goods (legitimate or illegitimate ways of buying) – these are all essential elements Muslims must pursue in their transactional activities. Partaking in social media for the sake of earning, either for making ends meet or to lavishly earning based on greediness, is totally against Islam because social media earn mostly through Haram activities. ‘Earnings based on Haram indulgences cannot be used to foster/help Halal activities’ – Hadith. Islamic scholars, Muslim intellectuals and even other ordinary Muslims who upload their speeches and other contents to social media have not said anything about either receiving or foregoing payments from social media for uploading their contents – and this remains a mystery to date. If any Muslim social media speakers covertly accept payments without making such receipts of payment get known to the Muslim public then they are in a hypocritical state while being within the Muslim community – hypocrisy is a great sin in Islam. This write-up gives the names of few Muslim speakers whose speeches and other contents are available either through their personal Websites or the general social media. The popular speakers (in English) are: Dr. Zakir Naik; Assim al Hakeem, Mufthi Ismail Menk, Dr. Muhammad Salah, Nouman Ali Khan, Dr. Bilal Phillips, Abdulrahman Hassan, Omar Sulaiman, Khalid Yasin, Yusuf Estes, Abu Kajeeda Abdul Wahid, Abu Thaimiyah, Osman Farook, and few more. In case some of the speakers have and make use of their Websites for their mass communication purposes, they need financial support that could either be from their own income sources or through Muslim philanthropist sponsors or any other Muslim funding sources – and this would be acceptable from Islamic point of view provided, in the case of outside funding, the speakers may take reasonable payments from the funds, if in dire need, for the amount of effort expended in the preparation and subsequent dissemination of their speeches. Most of the speeches are helpful in terms of Islamic knowledge / issues and that should be appreciated though every speaker had been prone to certain errors in their contents/explanations etc. may be due to inherent personal factors and personal biases and not entirely due to lack of Islamic knowledge. Here too there arises a few pertinent questions: (a) Are these Islamic Scholars and other Muslim speakers make use of social media for personal earnings based on the easy availability or accessibility of social media without pondering on their earnings as Haram or Halal? – This indifference in their behavioural aspect is un-Islamic; (b) Do these Muslim speakers covertly wish to hide their Haram earnings, in case they earn from social media, and also in a way mesmerize the Muslim public never to be bothered about or inquisitive of their (speakers’) personal behaviour in being very effective in propagating the essence of Islam correctly? – This is hypocrisy which is a great sin in Islam; (c) has greediness overtaken these Muslim speakers to earn as much 5 as possible to exhibit extravagance in their personal lifestyles and also to lavishly design their delivery rooms / platforms without resorting to simplicity? This write-up remains steadfast in stating that earnings from social media are Haram whatever may be the defense that may come from Muslim personalities of any statuses even if they have the highest earned qualifications in Islamic theology. Some of the well planned and effectively executed preaching (Dahwah) programmes of certain Islamic scholars happen to be smokescreens to hide their covert unIslamic earnings from social media that vicariously have led them towards greedy ambitions. Islamic Scholars who are (were) strict followers of the Qur’an, authentic Hadiths and the ways of the Salafs have spoken against celebrating birthdays, recital of Moulouds, celebrating the prophet’s (pbuh) birthday, recital of Kathamul Quran for the dead, visiting graveyards of those supposed to be Awliyas [erroneously/wrongfully called friends of Allah (swt)], and various other Shirk (polytheistic) and Bidah (innovations in Ibadah) activities – all these un-Islamic activities belonged to the past traditional / modern / postmodern eras although such activities are also prevailing in the present too but in a low scale and promoted by deviant Islamic groups. And now the present digital world has brought in its journey the Internet, new inventions, new innovations, machine thinking (AI), robotics etc. by which the Islamic scholars of today may be nonplussed as to how to distinguish Halal and Haram in the emergence of new phenomena in the present world. Rather than getting confused, the Islamic Scholars should diligently follow the Qur’an, authentic Hadiths and the ways of the Salaf to give their pronouncements or verdicts to usage of social media by Muslims, in particular to the issues of receiving monetary payments from social media and also Muslim women appearing without face-cover (Niqab) in their presentations through social media. The last two write-ups along with this issue have stated, with justification, that the above issues are Haram. Yet the Muslim Ummah needs answers for these two issues from the Islamic scholars too – their silence, as at present, to these two issues will be counted as irresponsible behaviour and disservice to Islam. Answers to the issues of receipt of payments from and Muslim women appearing without Niqab (face-cover) in social media are of paramount importance and thus consensus must be reached without any delay. Let us pray to Allah (swt) to help the Muslims in general and the Islamic scholars in particular to opine on these two issues based on the Qur’an, the authentic Hadiths and the ways of the Salafs – Ameen. May Allah (swt) shower His Blessings in this Blessed month of Dhul Qahdah on all of us for peace and stability in Sri Lanka and the whole world – Ameen. Jazzak Allah Khairan Yours Brother-in-Islam Mohamad R.M. Farook / Editorial Lead 6