A few days ago, I stumbled upon Aiman Azlan Couple Talk Show on Youtube. He invited Fynn Jamal and her spouse Tri Hadzir for the show. There was something that Tri said made me wonder so much. I have never thought about this before, but he said that the social media now is the reality.
It was such a powerful statement that it is something huge for us to ponder. Are we now depending on the social media so much that we tend to neglect what around us? Often, we see that while people need help, recording the video comes first before the helping hands. The video would go viral and you can see further discussion on the comment section. The comments would be either bad or good but the bad one is sometimes so heart wrenching to read.
I notice the trend nowadays is people would upload every single thing in the social media. Be it your everyday food or even your daily shopping list. The generation today has been growing up with social interaction that includes screens; unless you live in a pre-internet life then you’ll know how it was like. Having said that, this is where all the challenges begun since we could always retrieve updates from our friends.
At the first glance, it is a good and it should be a good thing. As time goes by, we tend to compare the best of their own and the worse of ourselves. In the end, it turns up to be that social media looks like a symbol of social status of a person.
Therefore, it is important to tackle this issue by purifying back our intention. This is the time for us, both uploaders and readers to sit and turn to the 1st hadith. If beauty lies in the eyes of the beholders, social media lies in the hand of the users. Depending on the intention and the purpose of that post or photo, it is nowhere for us to judge.
The best we can do is to extract benefits and positive vibes from the uploads. As a Muslim, social media could always be the platform for us to spread goodness and dakwah. It is the best method to practise what Rasulullah S.A.W said, “Ballighu ‘Anni walau Ayah.” (بلغوا عني ولو آية) Narrated by Bukhari from Ibn ‘Amr (Hadith no. 2838). It is translated as, ‘deliver from me even if it is one verse’. What do you think we need to deliver? Of course, they are knowledge, good words and advices. If social media is used in a positive way, society could be benefited with a lot of tips; financial, relationship, motivational quotes or even recipes.
However, some people take advantages on how accessible the social media could be. People begin to upload false and controversial stories to seek attention and number of ‘likes’. Social media is accessible over millions of users per time; hence people must understand that information need to be filtered accordingly. For example, while people are fighting over Covid-19, there are so many misinterpretation statements which caused panic to many people. In fact, there are also false reports on things like hand sanitizer is not safe to use or even conspiracy theory that is funny to hear.
False reports will always spreads faster and may contain useless and incorrect information. There are many false allegations and accusations among people. Things are getting worse when there is bunch of people who use it as their profit and gain popularity. This is when practising ‘tabayyun’ is very important. ‘Tabayyun’ is originally an Arab word which means to validate the truthfulness of something. Therefore, we are advised not to rush on making conclusions and assumptions to avoid fitnah.
I could possibly say that social media is a platform that connects people all around the world. I believe 90% of human being on earth is on social media as long as they are connected to the internet. However, as a Muslim, conveying the truth is very crucial since Allah S.W.T prohibit hurting people and promise heavy punishment for those people who spread fitnah. Hence, let us choose wisely and use the social media as an avenue in attaining nearness to Allah. Be a smart user and choose to spread love and kindness instead.
Wan Syafiqa Meor Hissan
Isma Seberang Perai (Utara)
