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Recently, I’ve been thinking about the first few ayahs of surah Al-Mu’minun in relation to this blog.
Particularly: وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ ٱللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ
One of my biggest fears is that this blog turns into one of idle talk. I’m deathly afraid of turning into one of those people who say and write a lot of words that mean nothing, words that are both useless and inconsequential. I never want my speech or my writing to turn into that. Likewise, I never want to attract readers that are attracted to that kind of content. I think there might be a link between what a person consumes and the content of their character.
The reason why I loathe short-form content (and social media in general) is because it fits the exact description of what the successful Mu’min who is also a servant of the Most Merciful completely avoids. Participating in idle talk takes two forms. One is active, the other is passive. When one chats for the sake of chatting and talks about a whole lot of nothing that benefits neither their dunya nor their akhirah, I like to think of that as active participation in idle talk. It becomes passive when a person isn’t doing the talking, but is on the receiving end of it. They’re the consumers of idle talk. So, there are producers of idle talk, and there are consumers. I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from forever occupying either category. However minuscule it may be, I pray that we all gain something beneficial from my writing. From all these words, I pray that only the discernible truth remains in our hearts. Ameen.
I’m not new to the consumption sector. I’ve lived a little, and I’ve known what it feels to be sucked into something that is not beneficial for my dunya or my akhirah. I think I mentioned a while back that I’ve been obsessed with eating too much sugar and watching too many k-dramas. I still am, but in a disillusioned way. After all, what are k-dramas if not the epitome of idle talk? I started to lose interest in the genre a couple of years ago. When it comes to sugar, the only successful tactic that has worked for me thus far is brute force. A complete dry spell. Not only did I not consume it, I also put it out of my mind completely by reflecting on my lived experiences.
There’s a successful formula for k-dramas that producers have been implementing for a while now and it’s gotten too predictable, and thus, boring. I’m not shocked at this. Everything I ever watched has had an acceptable level of predictability. I’ve always found it a bit fun to watch movies and tv shows unfold almost exactly as I predicted they would. K-dramas, however, have now passed the acceptable threshold of predictability. They keep bombarding us with the same cliches. Every. Single. Time. It’s just plain annoying now. Whenever I see a trailer advertised for a new drama on YouTube nowadays, it feels painful to watch them. These big shot producers know what brings in the big money, and now, what we’re left with is sixteen episodes of regurgitations of regurgitations. Yes, Netflix, I’m talking about you and how you bastardized k-dramas. SUE ME! I HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE!!!
You know what? Maybe I should sue them. Every OG k-drama lover deserves reparations for the flaming garbage they’ve been putting out these days. Actually, never you mind the last few sentences. I retract them. I’m trying to exit this industry peacefully, in one-piece. I’m now attempting to shift my big consumer energy into spending more time with Allah and meditating and reflecting upon the creation of the universe. What’s more disappointing is how I keep returning to consuming harmful things with my eyes and mouth, all while fully knowing how horrible they are. If I didn’t know any better, I’d call myself a mean word right about now, but that doesn’t help or change things for the better. Insulting your mind never helps, dear reader. Do not allow yourself to bully yourself.
I also believe that social media has normalized the muslims of this era to participate in idle talk. The conventional muslim of our times knows what the major sins are and tries their best to not commit them, but they can also quite easily ignore the concept of makruh deeds, which makes it easy for the angel on their left to rack up small sins this person commits on a day-to-day basis. And of course, numbers wise, when it comes to social media, it makes sense. There’s a lot of money to be made from feeding people useless content. It’s actually quite horrifying to think about why certain apps call their homepage a “personal feed.” Like we’re a bunch of cattle being fattened for the knife. Pretty scary. Against your will, you’re getting fed something that will eventually lead you to your moral demise.
And yes I fully stand by that last sentence. You think you have a choice in what you consume on those apps because the “algorithm” (whatever that means) is perfectly tailored to you when in reality, it’s all playing against you. All of it. Instead of refining your “personal” feed to consume more islamic content, you should be questioning the entire framework instead. Who made these apps? How did they make it? How did they develop it? Is it different from what it used to be? Why should I even be present on these apps? These are the kind of questions one needs to ask and research.
It’s a bit early in the morning. Earlier than when I typically sit down to write my articles. This piece is very important to me, and I want to get the message 110% right. Not that other articles are any less important. Anything I write that mentions Allah and His Messenger and His book and the deen is incredibly important to me.
Today is the first of the month of Shawwal, which means that it’s Eid al-Fitr. Eid Mubarak, dear reader! May serenity, peace and contentment continue to flow in you after the blessed end of Ramadan, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala accept our fasts and our duaa’s. Ameen. I’m looking forward to seeing people at Eid prayer. Then I’ll probably take a nap, as I have been doing for the past couple of years. I think the post-Eid prayer nap is the longest tradition I have followed in my house. I’m not usually one to take naps, but I don’t know, it works. Feels refreshing. Something in the Eid air, probably. I love it. Alhamdulilah.
Now, what am I supposed to do when it comes to this blog and avoiding idle talk? I sometimes used to joke that we humans would thrive if we came with an Instructions Manual at birth, one that told us exactly what we are down to our last eon. I genuinely used to wish for such a thing because it’d show us how we’re supposed to live life. When I was younger, I often felt like an alien that was dropped into a human body within a human family within a human planet. The crazy thing is: I grew up with the Qur’an, but I never viewed it in that manner. As an Instructions Manual, I mean. Obviously, the word of Allah is far beyond being only an Instructions Manual, and we should revere it in the manner it deserves to be revered.
The manner in which I was introduced to the glorious book that we’re lucky and blessed to have was quite… discourteous, to say the least. My Quran instructor employed this top-down hierarchy in his pedagogy, and he never failed to remind his students about it. I hated him. I resented him. And sometimes, my hate and resentment of his teaching methods would end up misdirected at my family, specifically at my mother because she was the one who signed me up for Quran school. There’s no reason an eleven year old child should be whipped for not having correctly memorized assigned pages of the Qur’an. Children should never be forced into loving Allah and His words. The brutality I’ve experienced at the hands of my Quran instructor didn’t make me love Allah more. I’m ashamed to admit that at the time, I was more afraid of my teacher than I was of Allah. I didn’t know Allah. My determination to correctly memorize the Qur’an stemmed from a place of fear, not of love. Quite frankly, I was scared and didn’t want to get beat up.
I want to end this article on a positive note. There’s an ayah my eyes constantly glossed over whenever I opened the mus’haf. While I always understood the general meaning of the ayah, I have recently unlocked a layer of meaning that is quite instructive and useful. Alhamdulilah. I’m referring to the second ayah of surah Al-Baqarah. Here’s a translation of it from quran.com: “This is the Book! There is no double about it–a guide for those mindful of Allah,” (2:2).
Here’s one thing I’d like to leave you with: the Qur’an, dear reader, is meant to be a guide for us. It’s a guidebook. Now, what is a guide? It is some one or some thing that aids and directs you to something. Meaning… it instructs you!!!! All my life, I’ve been searching for an Instructions Manual that told me what to do and how to be. Yet all my life, the Qur’an has been there, except I didn’t think to reach for it as an Instructions Manual the way I was supposed to do whenever I got lost. My view of it was clouded and tampered with by the hate I’ve harboured in my heart for the torture I’ve experienced in my adolescence because of it.
I’ve been trying to find a way to convince myself that what I’m doing here isn’t trivial and is not part of what the Most Merciful decries in surah Al-Mu’minun as idle talk. Part of me remains unconvinced of the value my writing brings to the ummah. I don’t know what else to say except that time will tell all.