Advice on Using Social Media
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you and bless you. The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, from the southern region, we hope that the Honorable Shaykh will direct a word to our brothers and sisters, as the means of communication have multiplied in our time. These people spend long hours on the internet, thereby neglecting the obligatory acts, and perhaps they use it in a wrong way. We ask for your guidance in this matter, may Allah reward you.
Answer:
There is no doubt that these new means of communication, broadcasting, and audio, visual, and written media contain both good and evil, and their evil is greater than their good, because the wicked and callers to misguidance exploit them, so their danger is great. Therefore, the Muslim should beware of them and not waste his time following them, and he should beware of the evil and what is broadcast in them, for they are mostly means of trial and destruction. If there is good in some of them, the Muslim should seek out the good and benefit from it, but he should avoid the evil in them, as well as the malicious and bad programs; he should avoid them and not consume his time following them, for he has obligations and responsibilities. So he should not consume his time following this broadcast or these channels. First, because of the evil in them that affects his mind, heart, and faith. Second, because of the waste of time regarding the other obligations, the greatest of which are the five daily prayers. So the Muslim should not waste his time in them, for he has obligations and responsibilities, the greatest of which are the five daily prayers at their appointed times. Whoever stays up late following these means will be unable to pray the dawn prayer, so he will either neglect it or delay it past its time, and he will abandon the congregational prayer. This is a great deficiency in his religion, a loss of an obligatory act. So the Muslim should be sensible in his affairs and preserve his time for what benefits him and is useful to him, in his religion and his worldly life. Yes.
May Allah reward you and bless you. The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, from the southern region, we hope that the Honorable Shaykh will direct a word to our brothers and sisters, as the means of communication have multiplied in our time. These people spend long hours on the internet, thereby neglecting the obligatory acts, and perhaps they use it in a wrong way. We ask for your guidance in this matter, may Allah reward you.
Answer:
There is no doubt that these new means of communication, broadcasting, and audio, visual, and written media contain both good and evil, and their evil is greater than their good, because the wicked and callers to misguidance exploit them, so their danger is great. Therefore, the Muslim should beware of them and not waste his time following them, and he should beware of the evil and what is broadcast in them, for they are mostly means of trial and destruction. If there is good in some of them, the Muslim should seek out the good and benefit from it, but he should avoid the evil in them, as well as the malicious and bad programs; he should avoid them and not consume his time following them, for he has obligations and responsibilities. So he should not consume his time following this broadcast or these channels. First, because of the evil in them that affects his mind, heart, and faith. Second, because of the waste of time regarding the other obligations, the greatest of which are the five daily prayers. So the Muslim should not waste his time in them, for he has obligations and responsibilities, the greatest of which are the five daily prayers at their appointed times. Whoever stays up late following these means will be unable to pray the dawn prayer, so he will either neglect it or delay it past its time, and he will abandon the congregational prayer. This is a great deficiency in his religion, a loss of an obligatory act. So the Muslim should be sensible in his affairs and preserve his time for what benefits him and is useful to him, in his religion and his worldly life. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 6139- نصيحة عند استخدام وسائل التواصل - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.