Here we go again. I’m getting the stare-at-your-blank-document scaries again.

I don’t know if I have anything useful to share today. Which makes me wonder: how do people consistently put out new work online? I don’t just mean essays, but videos, and podcasts, and other stuff as well.

I know some creators who milk their content exist. Sometimes, when I scroll through people’s pages on TikTok, I see this one video that made the person essentially blow up. What happens with their content is interesting: they start creating videos that basically regurgitate what they did or said in that one “successful” TikTok they made. I’m not calling anyone out. I’m just stating what I’ve observed over the years.

That person’s entire TikTok persona revolves around that one specific thing. And the thing is, for some of these creators, you visibly notice how the value of their content decreases over time, and with that, the numbers that dictate how successful their TikToks are. Numbers meaning the amount of followers, as well as the amount of likes, comments, and shares they get. Every new video they put out feels too rehearsed and unoriginal. Like they’re plagiarizing a video they made eons ago thinking that it would resonate if they just repeated it over and over and over again. It’s like they’re almost chasing the high they got from that one video that blew up a long time ago. I think when they reach that point, they’re just trying to lure in new eyes to their page so they could maintain the sense of glory they received from being noticed by so many people.

I don’t know if this applies to other social media platforms and the “successful” people those apps digitally house. I just find it really weird that people start losing their personality, in a way, when they start boxing their entire content around one thing. I don’t know; maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way.

Either way, I know I don’t want that for myself. I don’t want to feel an urge to create content to rake in the numbers that prove I’m “doing well” online. I never want that to be my drive. I want my sole motivator to be Allah. I think that doing everything for His sake is what Ihsan is all about, which is what I’m trying to do and will keep doing until my last dying breath. This sounds rude, but I don’t really care about people’s opinion about my online presence and the written works I share on social media. I don’t feel the need to prove anything to anyone anymore.

Caring about how people receive my work opens up the door to unnecessary worrying. Why should I put myself through that? Basing my intrinsic worth over what anonymous online people have to say about me is only going to hurt me in the end. No matter what anyone says, I know they can’t hurt me because I’m genuinely more concerned about what Allah thinks of me. This reminds me of the letter Imam Al-Ghazali rahimahullah wrote to a disciple. He says:

_{You questioned me about sincerity. It is that all your deeds be for God the Exalted, and that your heart be not gladdened by men’s praises nor that you care about their censure. Know that insincerity is produced by overestimating mankind. The cure for it is for you to see them as subject to omnipotence, and for you to reckon them as though inanimate objects, powerless to bestow ease or hardship, so you become free of insincerity towards them. As long as you reckon them as having control and free-will, insincerity will not keep away from you.}

Al Ghazali, Letter to a Disciple. Islamic Texts Society, page 40.

When I ruminated over this passage when I first read it, I found it quite weird. I thought what he meant by what he wrote is that we should treat people as though they were like knives or spoons. Sort of like tools. Well, I was obviously wrong. I don’t believe he was encouraging people to adopt the inhuman traits that fall under antisocial personality disorder. Rather, I think he was reducing the matter of people pleasing down to its last component, which is that we humans perform for other humans because we think that other humans can give us something in return, when really, it’s all coming from Allah.

Everything comes from Allah. There’s an ayah in the Qur’an that comes to mind about this:

مَّآ أَصَابَكَ مِنْ حَسَنَةٍۢ فَمِنَ ٱللَّهِ ۖ وَمَآ أَصَابَكَ مِن سَيِّئَةٍۢ فَمِن نَّفْسِكَ ۚ وَأَرْسَلْنَـٰكَ لِلنَّاسِ رَسُولًۭا ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِٱللَّهِ شَهِيدًۭا (4:79)

Whatever good befalls you is from Allah and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself.¹ We have sent you ˹O Prophet˺ as a messenger to ˹all˺ people. And Allah is sufficient as a Witness.

When one reads this ayah, they think it’s contradictory to the fact that everything comes from Allah. So, there are seemingly contradictory ideas posed here, which in fact actually make sense to the Muslim. Know, dear reader, that Islam is not a religion of contradiction. So, obviously, everything comes from Allah. We know that. Allah is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He created us, and He created all the beasts that roam on this beautiful planet. Excluding Allah, everything is a mere contingency that rests upon Him, the Necessary One.

Allah swt gave us the ability to decide whether we would be grateful to Him or whether we would abandon Him and deny that it is He alone who has bestowed us with many ni’am. I’m not making this up. This is what the first few ayahs of Surah Al-Insan talks about. So, with that being said, it makes absolute sense that even though everything comes from Allah, all the “bad” calamities and misfortunes that befall someone come from the person themselves. Either the person is being tested by Allah in order to elevate their position, or the person has denied the numerous mercies and blessings that Allah showered them with. A person could do the latter through different forms. The form that seems most pertinent to talk about, and is also what Imam Al Ghazali is talking about, is when a person assigns value to humans instead of Allah.

It’s so disappointing to see people attribute all their fears and worries onto people. One should be concerned and fear Allah more than they fear humans. Humans are not omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent beings. That is what Allah swt is. So it’s disrespectful to Allah for a person to be so sad or afraid or even assume that their source of wealth comes from the views that people give them. Likewise, it is disrespectful to the Creator of the heavens and the earth for someone to be happy because of other people. There’s an ayah in Surah An-Najm that says: and it is He who makes one laugh and weep.

So, yeah! It is my sincere belief that we should stop putting mere humans on pedestals. Let us never normalize disrespecting the Most Merciful in this manner.

فِي أَمَانِ اللَّهِ