Josephine William“So high (above all) is Allah, the Sovereign, the Truth. And, (O Muhammad) do not hasten with (recitation) of the Quran before its revelation is completed to you, and say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge. ”. (Taha: 114)
From the above verse, Muslims need to escalate their knowledge, and science and technology are part of knowledge. Thus, social media should be embraced by all Muslims as a product of knowledge, utilize it as best, and use it wisely.
Islam has been living since the universe came into existence and it is going to remain till the Day of Judgment and even after that. Many trends for the promotion of Islam have been introduced in every era. Preachers of religion use different measures to reach more people. These measures are defined according to the need of the age. If we talk about the early times, before television, there were newspapers and religious invitations were sent through the papers. After Television, the broadcasting system helped millions of Muslims around the world to stay updated about Islamic information. Now that we are living in Social Media, we have been witnessing the huge benefits of Social Media in Islam, its transformation, and its spreading. People are getting more information about Islam and more websites/applications are being designed. Everything has a positive and a negative impact. But when it comes to Islam, we should make the best use of social media and use it for the sake of knowledge and preaching of Islam.
We have seen so many people making applications and websites to help people in staying connecting with Islam and this is one of the very beautiful things about social media. We are presenting some benefits of Social Media to Islam in detail below.
Daily Updates about Azan, Dua, and Quran recitation
One of the biggest benefits of Social media for the promotion of Islam is providing daily updates about Azan, Duaa, and Quran recitation. Many applications give you notifications whenever it is the namaz time according to your area. These applications are designed to fetch your location for accurate reminders. You can download applications in your native language and set the notification according to your needs. Such applications also help in offering prayers with punctuality and more consistency. There are applications that also help you in offering your Qaza prayers. You have to put your date of birth and it will calculate the entire span since when the namaz became obligatory on you. These applications are extremely useful for working people and students. They get so busy with their schedule that they almost forget to pray and then an alarm recalling the namaz time helps them to take a break and pray. Prayer is not only an escape from hell but also from a busy routine. No matter how busy you are, you always have to leave everything you are doing and you start praying. Download an application today and start praying with punctuality
READ: Negative Effects of Technology on Society
Online Consultation
Social media has covered distances in many ways. We can find solutions to multiple problems in a matter of few clicks. From online shopping to the online consultation, everything is possible when you have the right resource. One of the biggest contributions of social media for Islam is online consultation. There are many web channels, pages on a social media platform like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. all these resources are designed to provide you with online and instant consultation about your issue. If we talk about the websites that are serving authentic information and rapid consultation, Imamia Jantri stands at the top of the list. This website has multiple means to contact the consultants. The best part is that your school of thought does not matter for an appointment with the consultant. Online consultation is open for every school of thought. No matter if you are a Shia or a Sunni, you can always get the fastest consultation services, using any mode of social media.
Another form of online consultation is educating yourself. You will find wide information on the internet, submitted by the scholars. This information also comes with references and citations so you know that you are going through the valid information. This is another kind of online consultation and you can get access to this kind of online consultation whenever you want.
Supporting every school of thought
Another biggest value of social media for Islam is that it welcomes all schools of thought. No matter if you are a Sunni, Shia, Ahl-e-Hadith, or a wahabi, internet and social media welcome you with all of your thoughts and perceptions. You will find infinite information about every school of thought on the social media and much more if you dig deeper. There are devoted channels and platforms for every sect and categories for different sects on the prominent websites and social platforms of social media. The freedom of expressing views about your or others school of thought has also increased knowledge for many people. Social media has enable people to study different sects so that you can decide what to follow.
Read more: 5 Benefits of Technology to Islam
Highly useful for people living in Non-Muslim Countries
People living in non-Muslim countries know the real contributions of social media to Islam. Social media promoting Islam in a non-Muslim country is the real contribution. Islam has been facing hatred in many countries yet people never stop preaching. Social media is always highlighting issues faced by Muslims living in non-Muslim countries. Social media spread awareness about Islam that helps many people in clearing their misconceptions about this peaceful religion. Most of the people in different countries are facing issues that we do not know about. Showing strength for our Muslim brothers and sisters helps them live a good life across the borders. Such people need more spiritual connection than the ones living in a Muslim Republic Country. Those people are not allowed to offer their daily prayers with freedom. They cannot celebrate their Islamic events with complete openness.
Charity through Social Media
Social media gives us resources to pay for charity. In the modern world where you hardly find time to stay fit, it is hard to find deserving charity centers for donations. But with social media, you will easily find welfare organizations that work for human wellbeing. These welfares give proof of their social activities. There are NGOs that serve the old aged people and work as “Old Age Home”. Many old-aged people live here and NGOs accept donations for the functioning. The same is the case with children’s welfare organizations. These organizations take care of orphan children, their education, curricular activities, and much more. By donating to all these welfare we can give charity in complete secrecy as mentioned in a Hadith:
Hazrat Abu Huraira R.A Narrated that Hazrat Muhammad peace be upon him said
“There are seven such people those will be under Allah’s rehmat at the day of resurrection; just leader, that young man who grew up worshiping Allah, that man whose heart belonged to the mosque, two people who loved each other for the sake of Allah, joined their ways for Allah and separated their ways for Allah, that man who was called by a young beautiful woman but he refused saying “I fear my lord”, that man who gave secretly in charity that he gave from one hand and the other hand does not know, and that man who remembered Allah in isolation and he began to cry” ( Bab ul sadqa alyameen, 138/2)
Mentioned above are the benefits of Social Media to Islam. Social media has many aspects and you can use it in the most beneficial way. If you have the access to social media use it for a good cause and make sure that there is no misconception when it comes to Islam. Social media and the internet have allowed you to access whatever information whenever you want.
Social media has also offered many opportunities, more specifically for the young Muslim girls and boys, to participate with their faith and their partners in a way their parents could never have thought of. Where once the ummah was a nonphysical concept, with Muslim communities stand far from each other on the basis of different languages, schools of thought, and geography, social media has taken down the barriers and make young Muslims capable to connect regardless of where their current physical location. It allows people from different schools of thought and countries to discuss what it means to be Muslim for them in the twenty-first century, especially for those who are living in non-Muslim countries.
For some digital campaigners, social media offers the fastest, most convenient, and rapidly spreading means for re-uniting the ummah in a form of E-ummah. They think that the digital social platforms can donate to the formation of virtual communities that may be helpful in paving the path for physical communities of these E-Ummah. Social media can for sure support the worldwide consistency of Muslim followers by interlacing links between community followers worldwide. In some built-up centers in North America and Western Europe, Islamic social media websites, web channels, applications, and social platforms have promoted the spread of Islamic concepts among the members of the Muslim dispersion.
Julia
