Give up something forbidden for Allah’s sake

Okay, my dear Muslim brothers and sisters, I’m going to write about a topic that many of you will feel conflicted about.  It’s TV.  Ah, the television, that miracle window into a wider world.  Most homes in the US have more than one TV, and oftentimes we have it on from daybreak until bedtime.

Muslims watch TV.  Okay, no problem.  There’s news (though usually biased against Muslims, it can be useful sometimes).  There’s sports, there’s food television, there are nature programs.  There are actually a few educational programs to be found if you look hard enough. (Hint, don’t look on TLC or the “History” Channel.) But boys and girls, a lot of you aren’t watching those channels, are you?

You are watching Game of Thrones.  You are watching Scandal.  You are watching Hannibal.  You are watching Real Housewives of Atlanta.  You are watching sex-saturated, violent, exploitative television and you aren’t just doing it quietly, you’re blogging and tweeting and Facebook-status-updating and bragging about it.

Have you not read the following hadith?:

Abu Hurayrah said: I heard Allah’s Messenger saying. “All the sins of my followers will be forgiven except those of the Mujahirin (those who commit a sin openly or disclose their sins to the people). An example of such disclosure is that a person commits a sin at night and though Allah screens it from the public, then he comes in the morning, and says, ‘O so-and-so, I did such-and-such (evil) deed yesterday,’ though he spent his night screened by his Lord (none knowing about his sin) and in the morning he removes Allah’s screen from himself.” (Reported by Muslim)

Now, you might think that this hadith does not apply to you.  You think it is only about some person who commits fornication and then brags about it the next day, or someone who steals and brags about it, or someone who abuses another and brags about it.  But when you are watching a show that is rife with sexual situations (such as Game of Thrones and its incestuous siblings, just to name one example), you are committing a form of fornication.  You are forcing your eyes to have a part of the sin of fornication.

When you watch Scandal, you are watching a show about a woman who is a “side chick” to a powerful man. I’m doubly shocked when I see my sisters who are women of color breathlessly posting updates about the show.  Didn’t Islam save us women from having to be in adulterous relationships? If your kid sees you watching the show, are you going to tell her it’s okay to be a mistress?

When you proclaim yourself to be a “Fannibal”, are you saying that you are rooting for a man who dines on human flesh?  How have we come this, when a brutal anti-hero has legions of fans who consider him to be someone they admire?

Oh, Nancy, stop.  You are being overly dramatic.  It’s acting, it’s fake, it’s just an escape from my day, which, by the way, really sucked because the toilet overflowed and I really need my evening of getting away from it all.  You just don’t know how I need to wind down!

I say, if you have to do something that is haraam to wind down, then you don’t know how to wind down.  I mean, many people wind down with a glass of wine, or a hit of weed, but you as a Muslim wouldn’t do that even if it worked, right?  You have to choose a better way.

I am not sitting on my high horse judging – last season I started watching the new show “The Blacklist” and I was caught up in the storyline and even one character’s uttering of surat al Ikhlaas during one episode.  But then I realized that I was getting hooked on a show that was of no benefit, and I stopped watching cold turkey.  I used to watch Law & Order and CSI and Criminal Minds and The Mentalist and a host of other shows.  I was a slave of “must see TV” and I can’t get back those hours I have wasted.  But I can resolve to do better going forward, and I am now weaning myself off of most TV and spending more time doing beneficial things.  I love to read, and I am watching more Islamic lectures online so I can benefit, and I am unplugging and making sure I spend time with my family away from electronics.  I haven’t gone Amish in regards to technology, and I’m a work in progress – a Muslimah in progress, as it were – but I am not going to let the TV suck my soul out one hour at a time – or forty-seven minutes without commercials.

You have the chance to start anew every day when Allah returns your soul to you after sleep.  You have a chance to decide today to not watch shows that glorify meaningless sex, violence, drug use, atheism, satanism, and every immoral act that can be beamed into your home.  You have a duty to fill your days with useful things.  Bake a cake, crochet a hat, go over the times tables with your kids, walk in the park, read something beneficial – and I am NOT talking about Fifty Shades of Grey.  You have twenty-four hours in the day, and I know you and I both are always complaining about there not being enough hours in the day to get stuff done, but if you eliminate this bad programming and substitute something better, then Allah will expand your time so that you get more done.

I remind myself before I remind anyone else.  As I said, I have not cut the TV cord.  I do watch news, I love football and Nascar, I enjoy food and travel programs, and I will occasionally watch an episode of Psych when it comes one.  But I am really reducing my chances to take on the sin of witnessing nakedness and debauched manners and surely Allah will be pleased with my progress and help me to do even better.

I love you all for the sake of Allah and I pray that we all achieve the benefits of these first ten days of Dhul Hijjah, and that Allah favors those making Hajj and accepts their sincere efforts, that those of us who haven’t gone have the opportunity to do so, and I pray that my brothers and sisters in Islam and all people of goodwill take my advice in the manner it is meant, Ameen.