I’ve come to a point where I am wondering to myself, is all this effort worth it? Is it actually a good idea to try and use social network sites like Twitter to spread Islam, connect with Muslims and encourage unity? I started out online for a variety of reasons but the main things were this: I wanted to express myself and In Sha Allah start to help guide Muslims towards practising Islam that is rooted firmly in Qur’an and authentic sunnah. I wanted to help unite Muslims and somehow bring them together, move them away from non-Islamic practises and help build the ummah.
So after a year of being on twitter, I’m looking at myself and wondering, am I putting in effort in a good way, or am I actually wasting effort on twitter? Have I gotten anywhere with uniting Muslims and helping to spread knowledge and bring Muslims into practising authentically, rather than culturally or following blindly? Am I actually carrying out deeds and actions that would please Allah, or am I displeasing him because I am wasting my time and energy? This might sound silly but I can give you an example.
Some Muslims are of the opinion that democracy (in the Western sense) is good and that they should take part in the political system, in a non-Muslim country, to try and influence it towards Islam. They go into this with the best of intentions – to promote Islam and try and do something good. However, history and experience tells us that this will not work and is an unrealistic goal. There have been many cases where Muslims have won elections but then that power was taken from them or the rules have been changed to prevent Muslims from taking office (eg. Algeria, Turkey). There have been Muslim MPs in UK for decades but the system doesn’t allow them to change anything unless it’s a majority vote and they have achieved little in those decades – should these Muslims have spent their efforts to promote Islam in other ways?
So here I am wondering whether my efforts are being channelled correctly.
Add to that the issue of the fitna on twitter, and the fitna I’m talking about is from Muslims only, because I try to keep my following to Muslims. There is a lot of free-mixing between Muslim brothers and sisters and it’s all too easy to get drawn into that. There are a lot of comments that are unbecoming of a Muslim’s character. And when I try to explain things in Islam in a simple way and according to Qur’an and authentic sunnah, I get challenged, I get drawn into arguments and I face people who seem to have opinions on Islam as though they are scholars! I don’t want to get angry and cause upset and I don’t want my Eemaan to be wrongly affected by twitter or that I should be the cause of affecting other Muslims’ Eemaan in a bad way.
On the positive side, I do run a Qur’an Quiz and that has been masha’Allah great! Muslims seem to benefit from it, Alhamdulillah, and I wouldn’t want to lose any Blessings here for myself and for others. But is this enough? Or does the bad side of twitter outweigh the good side of twitter?
So here I am, asking for advice. What do you, the reader, think?
I’m not looking for compliments and I don’t want to feel ‘bigged up’ and that I’m special in any way whatsoever – this is not what I’m looking for. I’m not seeking attention from others. I’m just trying to assess whether it’s worthwhile spending time on twitter for Islam and Muslims, or whether there is a better way to achieve unity, brotherhood and a return to authentic Islam.
I really would appreciate your comments.
Jazak’Allah khayr.
Stand Up 4 Islam!
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