Its nothing new! At the end of the day what’s behind it is the same which humans have been dealing with since the beginning of civilisation.

Mufti Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf provides guidance on the modern day means of communication like facebook, twitter, messenger and the latest craze, the WhatsApp!

It all comes down to the fact that how much time are you willing to waste, how much focus do you want to give to unnecessary things in your life, how much do you wish to indulge in things that are not really going to benefit you in the future? Are you even willing to think about how your present actions will affect your future? These are basic questions that man has been dealing with since the beginning. Wasting of time is as old as man himself.

Before we had to go out to talk to people, then phones made it easier but it cost money. Then came the free minutes and now because WhatsApp is free (or has been so far) people are going crazy over it like the “Butter is cheap in Sainsbury,” so we must stock up. In the same way it’s “Speak as much as you can before they start charging”!

Mufti Abdur Rahman explains how this craze has affected people at every level be they the youth, women at home or men at work.

For the youth this paves the way to talk to friends (through facebook, twitter and WhatsApp) even while being grounded at home or at the dinner table or even sitting next to the parents doing homework with the parents thinking they’re looking up work. For the women they can be on it as much as they want. So they can be stirring the pot while being on WhatsApp messaging away...and the worst thing is the more friends you have the worse it becomes. “I cooked this today and this is how it looks”, “My husband is telling me to get off my WhatsApp”. Its innocent but so much time is wasted and you’re finding out things about other people’s lives which is not necessary for you to know. Many women are on it all the time, checking messages and responding. For men it is a cause of being less productive.

Even the TV is not an issue any more and lives are being wasted and relationships affected. At the end of the day it does not matter what the means of communication is because they are constantly going to evolve. Let us not blame these things. They want to make money so they’re going to make communication as easy as possible but do we have to be stupid enough to tow the line, to look “cool” or to look “bad” or to look “sick” (whatever the words are nowadays to describe “good”)?

These are means of communication which can be used positively or negatively. Use them positively, in a way to ease communication, not to abuse communication and abuse relationship. Ask yourself, do I have to be on it all the time, do I have to respond to everything that comes my way?

May Allah allow us to think about this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QC7mUr1wwY