Is Internet a Benefit or Wasting of Time?
If we open Quran as many times as we open our social network pages during a day, each of us would have become hafiz already.
Just think of this phrase!
Internet means a lot for modern society. It has penetrated into our reality so deeply that we even feel helpless without it.We can say life is impossible without Internet. It is no wonder because we depend on internet in every respect. First of all it is a sourse of information, a unique encyclopaedia. Whatever happens we always go to Internet. If we are sick, we search for online consultation, if we are going to travel then it is very convenient to book tickets and hotels online, if we invited guests then there is not a better source of recipes than Internet; if we want to buy something first we search for it online to compare quality and prices. It is considered that one can find any information he needs online. And hardly a person who has a social network account will be bored.
It seems that Internet brings so many benefits to our life. But is this really true?
Have you ever tried to count the number of hours spent online during a day, a week or a month? Must try. Then analyse what you were doing during these precious hours and what you could do instead of wasting time online. Think how much useless, crack brained information you would have got along with the needed one. Think how it affected your self-development.
Then add the number of hours which you spend near TV and hours when your mobile is in your hands.
How many books you could read during this time!
We could have learned Quran by heart if we had kept reading it during all these hours instead of using the wonders of modern informational technology. Our teacher in the Islamic school used to tell us, “Oh, if only you opened Quran as often as you open you mobile!”
Does internet make us wiser?
This is a good question! On the one hand we have an opportunity to find an answer to any targeted problem. On the other hand we have fair chances to stumble across false information and to take it for gospel.
For example, there are so many sites spreading false information about Prophet Mohammed. There are so many sites which tarnish the image of Revelation of God. There are so many forums where different false sheikhs and any “dunno” spread their radical or misleading ideas. We do not know the number of people who will take such false information as gospel. If you have ever read any forum then you noticed that there are so many arguments and disputes over any problem, especially over religions.
Nevertheless to seek knowledge is the duty of every Muslim.But Internet is not a right place to seek knowledge about religions.
Hardly anybody opens a book to check the information which he had got in Internet. There are far less people who are not lazy to visit a sheikh for getting answers. And only the very few always seek for the truth, those who value right information and visit places where they can learn.
Nowadays the irony is that everyone has access to knowledge, but there is ignorance and fitna all around.
Before there was no Internet, no computers, no e-books, no memory cards, no cars. And, whatever, those who were searching for knowledge traveled big distances and had a rough time only in order to meet a well-known schoolar to learn from him. They used to spend the same time we spend in Internet for praying, learning Quran, reading and doing good deeds. They spent their life to collect knowledge in order to pass it to the future generations, to us.
Brothers and sisters remember a story of Baqiy ibn Makhlad al-Andalusi, who traveled from Andalusia to Baghdad on foot to meet Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal to learn from him. He was only about twenty years old; or remember stories of Imam Abu Sa’d as-Sami’ani or Ibn Miqri etc. This people dedicated their life to knowledge, they did not used to waste their time.
Think what Prophet Mohammad would have said if he had seen that modern youth is spending nights and days in social networks instead of performing night prayers, learning Quran, reading and doing good deeds.
And how do you think if Allah glad with what we do? He presented us time. And time is a unique gift. In the Day of Judgment we will be asked how we managed to use these precious hours, days, years. What will we answer when we are asked? No one of us knows how much time there is at our disposal. Someone has only a day and another one has years. Let’s think about it now till it is late!