لا تَصحَبُ المَلائِكةُ رُفْقَةً فيها جِلْدُ نَمِرٍ

ʾAbū Hurayrah (may Allāh be pleased with him) narrated that Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said, “Angels do not accompany such travellers who have tiger-hide amongst them.”

ʾAbū Dāwūd

This post is an appeal to the reader to ponder over the effects of the technology that we use. I do not intend throwing away the laptop I am using to type this, nor encourage you to do anything of the sort. However, pretence that whatever comes from the West is neutral and has no effect on our minds, souls and culture is a clear delusion. A discussion on these issues and addressing them within our capacities is long overdue.

ʾAhādīth

There are several narrations such as the one I quoted, prohibiting the use of hides of predators, whether as mats, saddles or clothing. What the ruling might be according to your specific school of jurisprudence is for you to investigate. This is not a discussion of jurisprudence.

That being said, the ʾAhādīth are clear, that both the human company we keep, as well as the inanimate items we use, affect our spirituality. Thus the savagery innate to predators is transferable to the user thereof. What then of the gadgets that we use day in day out? Are they neutral? How can they have no effect on us when hides can?

It depends on my intention?

The worn-out argument is that inanimate objects are neutral and it depends on what the user does with it. Yes, your deed might be recorded as good or bad, depending on what you do with it. That however does not detract from the effect it has on the mind and soul.

A comparison with humans might make clarify the issue. I might have a permissible, even commendable reason to meet a thief, liar, murderer, prostitute, Saʿūdī tyrant or interfaith scholar. (Although these are of course not mutually exclusive categories). That meeting is not a sin per se. However, the permissibility and sinlessness of the meeting does not detract from the darkness my soul experiences, and which needs to be cleansed.

What Allāh loves is now despised

قال له النبي (صلى الله عليه و سلم): إن فيك خصلتين يحبهما الله: الحلم، والأناة

ʾAshajj (may Allāh be pleased with him) narrated that Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said, “There are in your two characteristics which Allāh loves – forbearance and pausing [to think] before acting.”

Muslim

The Ḥadīth is self-explanatory. Now consider when we receive an email or text message. Allāh loves that we ponder before we reply. Western technology loves that we click a reply within seconds. Muslims now prefer such behaviour which Allāh does not prefer. The practical consequences of hasty replies (and broadcasting without verification) should be clear to anyone. But also consider how your behaviour is no longer in line with the teachings of Allāh’s Messenger صلى الله عليه و سلم. Consider that what Allāh loves is now deemed a deficiency. Consider that your personal mindset and the culture of Muslims have been drastically altered.

This is but one example. Cumulatively does it never occur to you how your relationship with Allāh is being challenged?

Sūratun Nūr forgotten

While others point to accomplishments in medicine, architecture, Muslim Iberia etc as the pinnacles of Islāmic civilisation, for me the spirituality, culture, etiquette and ethos which flowed from Sūratun Nūr are the hallmarks of the grandeur of Islāmic civilisation. Sadly, these are disappearing through blind idolatry of technology.

Consider that when two people are speaking, a third party should not butt in without permission. How then is it acceptable that if the third party butts in by means of calling you through the cell phone, that you turn away from your companion to answer the call? Worse yet, if the companion is your parent. When Sūratun Nūr respects your privacy to not admit one knocking at your door physically, how is the ring of the cell phone more sacred? Remember that let alone neighbours, the Qurʾān specifies the category of a momentary companion (Ṣāḥib bil jamb) about whose rights we shall be questionable.

A simple example, but consider how much of Islāmic etiquette we have allowed technology to demolish in our lives.

Relationship with the Qurʾān

I have recited the Qurʾān using my Kindle and made Khatm. There are conveniences in such gadgets which cannot be denied. Yet when I had no need for the Kindle and recited from the “paper” muṣhaf during Covid lockdown, I felt a distinct difference. I am now uncomfortable seeing the prevalence of recitation from cell phone applications and the like. While I do not question the permissibility, I would ask that we consider if some of these factors, amongst others, might subconsciously affect us in our relationship with Allāh:

• A muṣhaf is kept for years, if not a lifetime. Cell phones are designed to be redundant within two years. Does a solid vs flimsy medium in respect of time relationship have an affect on the mind, on how we perceive the content and receive the message?
• Does the subconscious register the Qurʾān as something less significant when it is turned off at the flick of a switch, versus respectfully closing the Muṣḥaf and putting it away?
• Light from gadgets fatigues the eye. Besides the obvious that one might recite less due to eye fatigue, might it be possible that one subconsciously references the fatigue, not to the gadget, but to the Qurʾān itself?
• Is there the same reverence when using a gadget you carry with you to the toilet?
• Is there the same reverence when using a gadget used for sundry other acts, permissible or otherwise?

 

Speech Vs Imagery

It does not take much cognitive power to consider that Allāh chose to convey His Speech. For 13 centuries it was words which formed the fabric of Islāmic knowledge and thought patterns. We lived without images and had no need for pictures of our heroes.

Conversely the Hollywood infected Muslim cannot divorce his supposed religion from images. Good equates to the aesthetic dictates of Allāh’s enemies, not the words of truth. The Hollywood Muslim can no longer listen, but must see his glitzy preacher who must not have a crease on his clothing or a hair out of place. That males are forbidden from daily brushing the hair [ʾAbū Dāwūd] is secondary. In fact instead of us conforming, it is Allāh’s Messenger صلى الله عليه و سلم who must confirm to our perceptions and desires which are in turn moulded by the silver screen.

We can no longer love the friends of Allāh with sincerity. How many scholars will mention that the Ḥadīth explicitly calls Zāhir bin Hārām ugly and ʿAbdullāh bin Masʿūd and Ṣafiyyah short? (Allāh be pleased with them all). If it is mentioned, then the words must be sugar coated as if Allāh must now judge as per looks as we do.

Let alone the other issues of the absolutely fictional Ertugrul series, I wonder how many delusional fans it would attract if the hero was portrayed in a manner more accurate for the time and place – Mongoloid-looking, more like Genghis Khān than some Hollywood Caucasian.

Some Gems from my Teacher

If you have benefited from my writings or talks in anyway, you should pray for my teacher, Mawlānā Sulaymān Chocksī. Of all my teachers, he has been the most instrumental in forming my outlook, thoughts and style. In regards technology, he commented on two such basic items which we cannot do without, yet the pious are not blind to spiritual effects. They consider these, even in regard to necessities.

His teacher never performed Wuḍūʾ from a tap. He always used a jug. He felt that using the tap would make him heedless and wasteful and create a sense of opulence and lack of need. One just has to see the rivers flowing these days in the Masājid to understand his perspective.

In the old days the poor would knock on our doors daily, and receive our excess cooking. If it was not given to them the food would spoil. With the advent of refrigeration this avenue of charity was closed. Food is now kept for later. If given at all , it is donated long after, because it will spoil. There are even such small hearted people who only give it once it spoils, as if the poor are not human. Consider how our culture and hearts have changed.

Sundry Issues – Children, Jinn & Sorcery

The old problems of parents dumping their children to be babysat by the television now seems so quaint. They have a host of gadgets to abdicate parental responsibility to. Yet some think the collapsed state of society and its prevalent mental health issues to be mysterious and unexplainable?

It is a historical fact that many of the inventors were confirmed Satanists who dabbled in sorcery. Do we really believe that using their products will not tinge our hearts in the least, and “it depends on the intention with what you use it for”?

I shall not dabble further on this subject. One is for fear of this post becoming too long, and the other is that I have not researched the topic adequately to comment on it. There are others who have done research on the sorcery of the inventors and electronics being possible conduits for the Jinn to enter human minds.

I do not expect you to agree with me. I do expect you to be a responsible slave of Allāh who exercises intelligence.

سليمان الكندي

TWITTER: @Sulayman_Kindi