Our Islam has invited us to work and produce. In the Book of Allah – Almighty –: “And say: ‘Act for God will surely see your actions, and [so will] His Messenger and the believers, and you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the visible, and He will tell you what you used to do’.” [Q. 9:105], and “It is He Who made the earth tractable for you, so walk in its flanks and eat of His provision; and to Him is the resurrection.” [Q. 67:15]. Work is the foundation upon which judgment is based, and from it stems reward and punishment: “Every soul is held to ransom by what it earns.” [Q. 74:38], “So whoever does an atom’s weight of good shall see it.” [Q. 99:7] “And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil shall see it.” [Q. 99:8], “As for those who are damned, they will be in the Fire; their lot therein will be wailing and sighing; abiding therein for as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except what your Lord may will. Truly your Lord is the Doer of what He desires. And as for those who are fortunate they shall be in Paradise, abiding therein for as long as the heavens and the earth endure except what your Lord may will, an endless bounty.” [Q. 11: 106-108]
The work we are called to do is positive and beneficial to the individual and others. At the heart of this work is the responsibility to manage the basic needs of human life. In a noble Hadith, it is stated: “If any Muslim plants something or sows seed from which man, bird, or beast eats, it counts as sadaqa for him.”, Additionally, the Prophet (PBUH) said, “No one has ever eaten better food than what he eats due to the labor of his hands. Allah’s Prophet David used to eat from what he had worked for with his hands.” Recognizing the importance of work in fulfilling basic needs, the Prophet (PBUH) equated caring for widows and the poor with Jihad in the cause of Allah. He said: “The one who looks after a widow or a poor person is like a Mujahid who fights for Allah’s Cause or like him who performs prayers all the night and fasts all the day.” Furthermore, the Prophet (PBUH) emphasized the importance of wisely using our time, health, and abilities stating: “Two blessings which many people squander are Good health and free time.”
Through positive action, societies rise and progress. The diligence and hard work of people contribute to the advancement and prosperity of their nations, leading to stability even in times of limited wealth. Conversely, when people are lazy and prefer comfort to effort, their countries fall behind more developed nations.
Shariah encourages us to engage in productive work across various fields, including education, healthcare, agriculture, trade, industry, and community service, such as mediating disputes and promoting reconciliation among people.
The actions that Shariah guides us to perform benefit both the individual and others, with greater rewards for actions that extend their advantages to more people. Conversely, harmful actions—whether in word or deed—that negatively affect the individual or others are condemned and disliked in our faith. Allah Almighty says, “Or do those who commit evil deeds suppose that they can elude Us? Evil is that which they judge!” [Q. 29:4].
All forms of sin are considered detestable in Shariah, including prevalent acts such as sorcery, charlatanism, envy, injustice, gossip, and lying. It is widely known that these are major sins, and some of these acts can even lead a person to abandon the faith entirely. The severity of these sins is often linked to the harm they cause to others. For instance, scholars have discussed sorcery and its practitioners, with some deeming sorcerers as disbelievers, others calling for their punishment as murderers, and some differentiating between sorcerers based on the outcomes of their actions and the methods they employed.
One of the bad acts that occurred in people’s lives and spread in recent times after the spread of the Internet among people are these harmful paths that many people took; children, young people, and adults, where many of them liked to look for easy gains from the work of some of them similar to gambling, such as buying and selling electronic currencies and participating in paid electronic competitions. The contestant either profits or loses the money they invested; this is a form of gambling that is religiously prohibited and often includes elements of electronic fraud. In addition, it’s not only young people who have strayed from serious work and sought money through these unproductive activities. If the perpetrator initially receives a large return as a lure, they are enticed to invest more money in hopes of doubling it. He finds himself caught in a web of fraud, where the site he invested in eventually shuts down. Out of greed for profit, some young people even borrow money, expecting to repay their debts to lenders and still make a profit. However, they end up losing their money and are left in financial ruin, sometimes even facing imprisonment!
One of these downsides is that some other arrays would take producing clownish, vain, good-for-nothing videos as a profession for making money from these videos’ views. In fact, such practice is not limited to certain ranges who look for profits via cyberspace, even women are not an exception to these ruthless practices. Indeed, many of them, of different age categories, take their followers, via their phone cameras, to their kitchens, bedrooms, and even their bathrooms! Knowing that as much as their practices are downgraded and as much as ethics, morals, and religious values are violated, the higher the views will be. As such, their gains will increase; however, their homes are desecrated, and many of their women are earning their livings by exposing their bodies and figures to their followers through live streaming via TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and other social media.
Surprisingly, these downtrend contents turn into a new anathema named “Trend”, as if the futile content making “The Trend” is better than obtaining a Master’s or PHD degree; well, moneywise, it is. It is even more so that adults do not limit such unfruitful practices to themselves only; however, parents, deliberately, involve their youngsters in such vile processes. Regrettably, the youngsters perform acting scenes to make the videos more thrilling and attractive. The least damage occurring to these children is getting used to lying, easing effortless earnings, and fouling their tongues with obscenities dictated by their parents to repeat them while shooting, which will, rapidly, spread among people. Here, I would like to remind both adults and youngsters of Allah Almighty’s saying: “Not a word he utters, but by him is an observer ready.” [Q. 50:18] and the Prophetic Hadith: “A slave (of Allah) may utter a word which pleases Allah without giving it much importance, and because of that Allah will raise him to degrees (of reward): a slave (of Allah) may utter a word (carelessly) which displeases Allah without thinking of its gravity and because of that he will be thrown into the Hell-Fire”.
Disappointingly, what kind of a child, is raised to gain Dollars just by getting engaged in a video with his/her parents, after growing up, would he/she get engaged in productive works like agriculture, manufacturing, or trade, which do not make profits as much as these vain videos?! It is not expected that such a child will take any other paths rather the easy and amusing ones for him/her, and that may attain wide fame; indeed, a leopard cannot change its spot.
In truth, many depend, in earning their living, on the vain useless content they present on cyberspace that is nothing but a waste of time and an undermining of their abilities to work productively, as they stay up late and sleep all day long. Those must ask themselves why these websites and applications pay them all these Dollars. And why would the payment increase as the views will be? The answer is simple; this is a new kind of targeting our societies and ethics by wicked entities, no matter how much the amounts they pay in cyberspace, they will be far less than what these entities may endure for weakening and destroying us with arms. Notably, those entities were desperate enough to militarily subjugate us; hence, they turned to control us intellectually to take our ethical and behavioral identity. Definitely, the price of a tank or missile or warplane is more than enough to corrupt the youth of a whole country by paying some Dollars in turn of spreading and watching such noxious products.
O people, men, women, adults, and youngsters, behold and return to your discretion and consider productive serious works. O people, protect your boys and girls, as the youth are the nation’s defenders, thwart the enemies’ plans, and save what can be saved before it is too late.
Prof. Abbas Shouman,
President of the World Organization for al-Azhar Graduates
Secretary-General of al-Azhar Council of Senior Scholars
