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Why to abandon things like facebook?

I
have successfully abandoned sites like facebook and God knows I am not tempted to activate my account again. Horrible images pop up in my mind when I think of these. I feel as I would become thirsty if I go back there. I feel I will be left behind. I feel as if I will burn out and exhaust all of my energies. What's important here is to analyze and judge whether it is really a useful tool or not? And, secondly, even if I am unclear about its real worth, what am I doing on these places? My only premise in relation to the second point is that if I am wasting my time there, then I have no other option than to abandon such sites. Therefore, responding the second question first, what I did: I spent half of the day through internet and mobile - playing Mafia Wars, 'a delusion of grandeur', as they happily call it, updating my status as to 'what was on my mind', even if it were to be ":)"; checking all kind of notifications with a hunger/lust; interacting with people I know, especially with those living far away from me (after having some conversations with them all spirits and emotions part of human relations seem to slow down); and indulging in hundred other, most of which were utterly rubbish sort of activities that consumed my time like a hard acid consumes flesh.

Such sites (as our champion facebook) are built to engage its users in activities most of which are purely useless, filled with all sorts of illusions, and are seriously meant for 'fun' just to increase the number of visitors and members on their sites. The term 'fun' is important here. Muslims are not people of fun, nor any serious person who is true his human nature. 'Fun means activity of fools'. How can a Muslim be like the people of fun, who are non-serious and have no desire to dominate their self (nafs), and 'be like great people', the God-conscious people? Nonetheless, I found that only an iota of this social networking website (facebook, I was heavily addicted to), everything else I did was rubbish, addiction. And they openly say that this is addictive, inviting us to have fun with their services, openly fooling everyone. How can a serious person fall victim to something that is proclaiming "I am dangerous for you"? A serious person is one who spends his whole life to discern between the Illusion and the Real and to assimilate the Real consequently. In an effort to imitate such people, i decided to leave it for some good. Notice their users' reactions: So you've left facebook? As if it was not to be!

But what about its usefulness? Isn't that immensely useful? Yes, it is for its core feature which is 'connecting with people'. But if I really need to contact people far off, I need to limit its use. When I couldn't help myself abstain from its overwhelming useless features, what best should I have done? I did that and left it. I admit the matter is somewhat complex. A paradox that has been recognized by an able and reflective blogger is being quoted here, which is to make us stop and think, and be not afraid of self-examination:
We are the generation of communication, we network busily like bees setting up profile pages on websites which gather a little too much information, we tweet our daily, habitual routines and make idle chatter with our cult followers. We blog of anecdotes, obsessions and random news articles which perk our interests for the day. We text, email, chat on instant messenger and still wonder why we're so out of touch with our loved ones. ("Todays's Generation," Drinking Raindrops.)
As for Muslims, what we have to do is 'to look at what prophet SAW said and did'. Prophet said that he who would disconnect his relations would not enter in jannah (paradise). (Bukhari, Muslim). Therefore, such sites as Orkut or Facebook may only be used for connecting with others, and not a single second may be spent on useless, rubbish things it is right now filled with. I know a good deal of my friends who miss fajr prayer owing to their duties towards such places facebook. Nevertheless, many verses of Quran and traditions prove that our top priority should be our parents and relatives, and then other people. Prophet said: Father's brother is like father for a person (son) (Bukhari, Muslim). We don't need such sites to serve our parents. We don't need it to fulfill our obligations towards our relatives. They need us with our physical and mental presence with them. And I have felt that nothing is more healthier emotionally and spiritually than meeting people in person, and this was the sunnah of our Prophet. 'Let's enrich our lives a little by interacting with others'. People who make board games like Monopoly know the worth of humans interactions that is why board games have an edge over highly addictive and rubbish electronic/computer games. So why should we deprive ourselves of interaction with people that matter so much to us? Tell me, how would you express a smile to your dear one virtually, and how would he or she catch the spirit? And we are depriving our beloved ones of such inestimable and infinitely cheap human gifts, even to those who live in the very room adjacent to our highly exclusive, private, secluded dwellings.

2 did criticisms:

Haris Gulzar said...

Thats a great post. I totally agree with the two points you have mentioned. All the facebook apps are NOTHING but a waste of time. They only make you addicted towards wasting your own time. Recently I thought about writing a post about how useful facebook and orkut are when it comes to connecting people. I found a couple of very good friends on facebook, and the last time we met was about more than 10 years back. It felt great, but thats what facebook and orkut should be all about.

Just can't agree more with this post.

Rhodora Online said...

Your comments are certainly true. Facebook is more time wasting than edifying. One needs a tight self-control if one has a genuine and valid need to go on it occasionally. May ALlah give all of us (especially those who happily waste hours upon hours at the expense of more genuine ways of relating with humans) the wisdom to recognize the faults of such system. I'm reminded of that ayah in Sura Mo'minoon: Wa hum un-il-laghvi mo'ridhoon: And they keep away from all futile/fruitless activities.

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