Innal-Hamdalillah
was-Salaatu was-Salaamu ‘Alaa Rasoolillah
As-Salaamu
‘Alaikum wa-raHmatullahi wa-barakaatuh
The
Third Parent
By
Muhammad ash-Shareef
As
Allah ta’ala states, it is part of our belief that we shall be questioned
and are responsible for the following:
[Verily!
Hearing, Sight, and the heart, all will be questioned (by Allâh).]
(Al-Israa
036)
And
as Rasul Allah - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - said, on the Day of Repayment, no
one will move until they are asked about three things ...
“And his youth - what he exhausted it with?”
A
close friend of mine told me his experience when leaving Canada to go overseas
and study Islam. He said that he went to a person’s
house to say Salaam to the family and as he left he noticed the son - who was
7 years old at the time - slacked out on his stomach, chin locked in his two
hands, staring deathly at the TV. He says, when he
returned after a full 4 years, he entered the same house and found the same
boy slacked out on his stomach, chin locked in his two hands, staring deathly
at the TV - only now he was 4 years older.
Today
- in sha’ Allah - we would like to speak about TV and it’s dark side.
It is not our intention to make you race home to throw the TV off the
balcony - although that would be nice. It is our hope
that you will leave today in sha’ Allah with a better understanding of the
destructive nature the TV has on a persons life and hereafter, not only his
own, but also his family and children.
In
Qawaa’id Fiqhiyyaah there is a principle that says, ‘Al Waasaa’il
ta’khudhu Hukm al-Ghaayaat’ that ‘The means takes the same
ruling as the intention of what is trying to be attained.’ A
Television set, with the wires, screen, box, and plug is nothing more than a
means. It is what is trying to be attained by that box
that makes it Haram or Halal. Similar to a gun,
something that can be used for noble purposes, such as defending one’s land
from aggression, or can be a means of considerable harm - especially when
given to a child.
In
an Arab ESL class, the teacher - as his opening class - would ask the students
what English words were taken from the Arabic. A few
hands would jerk up and say things like, ‘Chemistry from Keemiyaa’,
Algebra from AlGebr, Physics from Feesiyaa’, etc.’ Then
he would interestingly ask them what Arabic words were taken from the English,
the answers come quick, ‘Raadiyo from Radio, Dosh from Satellite Dish, and
of course Tilfaaz from TV.’
What
did the west take from us, and what did we take from them?
Hence
Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in al-Fataawa 3/227: [With
regard to television, it is a dangerous device and its harmful effects are
very great, like those of the cinema, or even worse
We
know from the research that has been written about it and from the words of
experts in Arab countries and elsewhere enough to indicate that it is
dangerous and very harmful to Islamic beliefs (‘aqeedah), morals and the
state of society.
This
is because it includes the presentation of bad morals, tempting scenes,
immoral pictures, semi-nakedness, destructive speech, and Kufr.
It
encourages imitation of their conduct and ways of dressing, respect for their
leaders, neglect of Islamic conduct and ways of dressing, and looking down on
the scholars and heroes of Islam. It damages their image by portraying them in
an off-putting manner that makes people despise them and ignore them.
It
shows people how to cheat, steal, hatch plots and commit acts of violence
against others.
Without
doubt, anything that produces so many bad results should be stopped and
shunned, and we have to close all the doors that could lead to it. If some of
our brothers denounce it and speak out against it, we cannot blame them,
because this is a part of sincerity towards Allaah and towards other people.]
In
Sahih Al-Bukhaari, when Guraayj was praying and his mother called him, he said
to himself, “O Allah, my Salah or my mother?” He
did not know whether to continue his prayer or discontinue it and reply the
wishes of his Mother. She cursed him.
And her curse was one that we may inadvertently be doing to our
children the day we sanctioned the introduction of the third parent called TV.
She said, “May you see a prostitute!” She
did not say, may there be any relationship between you and a prostitute, no
she just said may you see one HOW many times has the
main theme of prime time TV revolved around prostitutes? HOW
MANY TIMES have our children witnessed it? How many
times have they been cursed to be in such a situation?
Abdullaah
ibn ‘Umar - radi Allahu ‘anhu - once passed by some people killing time by
playing chess. He became shocked at what was happening
and angrily said to them - quoting the verse of Qur’an, “What
are these IDOLS that you are standing in vigilance over?” What
would he think if he saw the Ummah and it’s welcomed hug in most Muslim
homes.
When
a Muslim nation watches their country play in the world cup, over 3 million
Muslims from that one country tune in. Times that by
the duration of the match, 3 hours, and you’ll have 9 million hours of the
Ummah’s time wasted on a football game. In one
sweeping night. If Karl Marx said in 1844 that ‘Religion is the opium of
people’, then what about TV?
Dear
brothers and sisters, Rasul Allah - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - said, “The
person shall be (on the day of Judgement) with those that they love.”
Tell that to a Muslim child, that on the Day of judgement, if they love
Michael Jordan sooo much they’ll get to be with him on that horrific day.
It’s sad, but most Muslim children would get happy and excited about
the prospect - isn’t that enough to strike fear into our hearts?
Who are the Muslim children really going to be with on the Day of
Repayment? Most of them cannot tell you the names,
just the names, of those people that we hope them to be with!
Let’s
ask ourselves, if we gave a chance for our sons or daughters to put up a
poster of their hero, the one whom they think is the ‘coolest’ - would it
be their father or mother? Would it be the Prophet or
his Companions? OR would it be a basketball player
that he saw on TV? Or an actor (even cartoon) that he saw on TV?
Or a model that she saw on TV? Or a musician
that he/she saw on TV? Who would it be?
Ok,
the TV is monitered in the house by the parent, correct? (95%
of parents with children 8 and up don’t monitor). Now
what happens if the parent dies on the way to work one day and the children
inherit the TV? Rasul Allah - sal Allahu alayhi wa
sallam - said, “There is not
a single shepherd (Ameer) that Allah entrusted with a flock - who dies and in
a state where he cheated them - except that Allah shall forbid him from
entering paradise!”
The ‘Ulumaa would quote this hadith in light of the father in a
Muslim country that would allow a Satellite Dish to enter his family which
Allah entrusted him with.
Dear
brothers and sisters, we are not here on earth to entertain ourselves to
death. We are an Ummah with a Risaalah! When Rib’ee
ibn ‘Aamir - radi Allahu ‘anhu - stood in the hands of the king of Persia,
he announced the message as clear and as proud as every Muslim should, “Allah
sent us to rescue humanity from slavery to slaves - to the slavery of the Lord
of all slaves; And to rescue them from the choke of the material life to the
expanse of this life and the next, and from the corruption of the cults to the
justice of Islam!”
If
we don’t know how to read Qur’an, why aren’t we registering for the
Qur’an institute here at Al-Huda. If we don’t know
the language of the Qur’an and Sunnah, why aren’t we registering for the
Arabic institute? If we don’t know about the life of
Rasul Allah - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - and his companions - radi Allahu
‘anhum - why aren’t we coming to the Seerah and Fiqh classes on Fridays
and Saturdays.
Doesn’t
Allah ta’ala tell us in the Qur’an:
(An-Nur
030)
Tell
the believing men to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and
protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts). That is purer for them.
Verily, Allâh is All-Aware of what they do.
How do reconcile those verses with the television that assaults our eyes with
Haram almost every second that it is on? How do we reconcile it?
Have
you heard of Cupid? Of course we have. They portray Cupid in
cartoons and comedies as a chubby child with wings who is supposed to be the
Angel of Love, shooting arrows of ‘love’ when the male looks at the female.
Rather dear brothers and sisters, it is Iblees! For Rasul Allah - sal
Allahu alayhi wa sallam - told us, ‘Verily the ‘look’ is a poisoned arrow
from the arrows of Iblees!”
Shaykh
At-Tahhaan once told his students, “It was late at night when our phone rang
one day. This Muslimah whispered into the phone, ‘Is this Shaykh At-Tahhaan?’
I said, ‘Yes it is me.’ She kept saying is it really you? And he
said, ‘Yes, what is wrong?’ At that she just started sobbing and
sobbing into the phone. After some time, she explained, ‘The
children’s father bought a TV and video 2 days ago. Tonight I found my
young son practicing the Haraam that he saw on his younger sister!’ Then
she collapsed sobbing again.”
Everything
starts with a look / and big fires start from a little spark
Turn
OFF TV, Turn ON Life
After
a grueling first year in the Faculty of Shari’ah, I came home to Canada where
I spoke to a friend whom I hadn’t spoken to for over a year. In the
conversation he said, “last night on TV Seinfeld said...” I was
puzzled and realized that for an entire year I had not heard anything other than
Imam Shaafi’ee said, and Imam Abu Hanifa said. It was an ignorance that
as Shaykh Abdul Muhsin ‘Al-Abbaad would say ‘that we ask Allah ta’ala to
increase us in it’s ignorance.’
Some
people argue that TV is just a harmless avenue of entertainment and that there
should not be a big deal made about it. It is interesting however that we
see in Shari’ah that what is more deadly than Haram is Bid’ah. Why you
ask? Because when someone does Haram like eating pork, he knows it is
Haram and that one day it is hoped that knowledge will lead him to fear Allah
and refrain. Bid’ah - on the other hand - is something a person does
with the hope of reward from Allah, something that the person considers to be
‘harmless’. It is deadlier because the chances of this person
correcting the situation are less due to the ignorance which causes lack of
motivation
Other
people will say that we have a TV for the news and Islamic or educational
programs? Dear brothers and sisters, is there no other avenue to get the
news? Is there no other means by which a child can be educated and
stimulated to learning?
Didn’t
anyone ask why we get all this ‘FREE’ TV? What does the TV sell?
No it doesn’t sell Coke or Nike or McDonalds burgers, it sells the AUDIENCE TO
ADVERTISING COMPANIES! Why do you think they charge $1 million for 30 seconds of
advertising in a Superbowl game?
Consider
these facts:
Brand
loyalty starts at age 2 - they can snatch a child into a lifetime of allegiance
to their product from that tender age. How old were you when you started
loving Coke or Pepsi?
On
average, a viewer watches 20,000 commercials each year. If we repeated a
page of Qur’an to you that many times, do you think you would memorize it?
This
is just for the products, what about the ‘Aqeedah that they are being taught,
a whole stack of beliefs that gets fed to them every time they sit to listen to
their third parent. Where are the horrific stats for that?
To
give just a simple example that we all know, go to a lecture where the Imam is
talking about women’s rights in Islam. Listen to the Muslim males and
females debate with the Imam. Where did they get their points? Where
did they become so hostile to anything that contradicts the Western view of
women’s rights? Why is there no hostility to the Western view?
Most
of it was learnt on TV, the rest was learnt in the public school curriculum.
If
this is the programming, the brain washing of our youth, then where shall they
be reprogrammed when they prefer the TV over anyone else. Dear brothers
and sisters, it is a fact that more than half of American children would rather
watch TV than spend time with their mother or father.
After
surveying a lot of young children and asking them what is the one thing that
they would sacrifice their favorite TV shows for, many replied that if there
were some sort of outside activity they would give preference to that.
Meaning, if someone took them by the hand and organized some after school
activities they would embrace the idea.
Here
are some other things that you can do instead of being shackled to the TV, the
option is yours:
-
Play outdoor games
-
Build extra curricular skills, such as martial arts or calligraphy or sewing or
-
Visit the library.
-
Take on a job where they one can become serious about life and work.
-
Do acts of worship such as reciting dhikr and wird, salaah, reading Qur’aan,
fasting, and thinking about the signs of Allaah in His creation.
-
Adopt an Islamic cause in the place where you live, and take part in it, such as
teaching Muslim girls.
-
Support an Islamic magazine by sending articles, statistics and useful
information of interest concerning Muslims in the West.
-
Take part in charitable projects to help Muslim orphans, widows, divorcees and
elderly, or joining a committee to help organize social programs and
celebrations for Muslims on Eid.
-
Find righteous friends to meet with and good neighbors to visit.
-
Read Islamic books in particular and useful stories in general.
-
Take part in da’wah activities, men or women’s activities and preschool
programs in Islamic centers.
-
Listen to tapes and lectures, write summaries of them, and distribute the
summaries to anyone who could benefit from them.
-
Do arts and crafts
-
Cook items to be sold to raise funds for the Islamic center.
-
Take an interest in computers and computer programs. This is a vast field that
can fill a lot of time, and the computer can be used to do a lot of good things
as well as providing entertainment in the form of permissible games.
-
Spinning, weaving, cutting out and sewing.
-
Gardening
-
Exercising outside or at home.
In
conclusion dear brothers and sisters, today is the beginning of a new day. Allah
gave us this day to use as we will. We can waste it or use it for
something good and beneficial.
But
let us know that what we do today is important because we are exchanging a day
of our life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; and in
it's place shall be something that we left behind ... lets let it be something
good and something beneficial.
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