The use of social media, such as Twitter, by a student of knowledge
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: You have expressed disinterest in modern social media platforms like Twitter. Does this mean that a student of knowledge should abandon them entirely, or that he may use them for beneficial matters such as da'wah (calling others to Islam) and seeking knowledge?
Answer:
By Allah, it is better and safer for him to avoid them. The da'wah to Allah has paths, and praise be to Allah, it was prescribed before these things existed. The da'wah to Allah is to the Book of Allah, to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), teaching people beneficial knowledge, explaining the rulings of the Shari'ah to them, enjoining good and forbidding evil with wisdom and good instruction, jihad, and da'wah. So what is the need for these? They distract you, and they may bring you something you think is good but in which you fall into error. There is no doubt that staying away from them is more purifying for one's conscience, and you have what suffices you without them, praise be to Allah. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: You have expressed disinterest in modern social media platforms like Twitter. Does this mean that a student of knowledge should abandon them entirely, or that he may use them for beneficial matters such as da'wah (calling others to Islam) and seeking knowledge?
Answer:
By Allah, it is better and safer for him to avoid them. The da'wah to Allah has paths, and praise be to Allah, it was prescribed before these things existed. The da'wah to Allah is to the Book of Allah, to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), teaching people beneficial knowledge, explaining the rulings of the Shari'ah to them, enjoining good and forbidding evil with wisdom and good instruction, jihad, and da'wah. So what is the need for these? They distract you, and they may bring you something you think is good but in which you fall into error. There is no doubt that staying away from them is more purifying for one's conscience, and you have what suffices you without them, praise be to Allah. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، تتمة فصل ومن كيده الذي بلغ به من الجهال ما بلغ : الوسواس — islamhouse.com (47:51)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.