From our Muslim chaplain – archive #1
2nd June 2020
My Dear Brothers and sisters,
I want to start by stating that we have all been receiving, and to some extent sending messages that may or may not have been helpful to others. It is big news locally, and in the world and it has affected nearly every single one of us even if not directly. But rest assured, I will not be talking about the pandemic. More to the point, I want to talk to you about the pandemonium and the unhealthy behaviour of such highly educated individuals like ourselves, to resort to hoarding and stockpiling, and fighting over essentials. What I would like us all to reflect on as I speak, is why…it is important for us not to panic and how this can affect my family, my community and of course everyone else, as a result. My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, we live in a society of plenty. Whereby, no matter what happens we will not starve or be left to fend for ourselves, if our fridges and freezers suddenly became empty. Yet we are seeing empty shelves in the shops, flights being cancelled. How worse can it get- even if we don’t get the virus? Well we may have no fuel for our cars. Deliveries to the shops may not happen? The ensuing chaos can be disastrous. Without reiterating what you all know about, I want to dwell on one of the biggest causes of this chaos. Misinformation.
The speed at which news travels is unprecedented. I receive a message and share it within a few seconds. I put it on my status, I share to my story, and I like it. You know, when I send a message to someone, and I click thumbs up on a post- I am actually giving the green light, I am agreeing with the contents, and I am endorsing everything in that message. So, when someone sees my ‘endorsement’ they trust my judgement, they may act upon advice that I send them. Now that’s fine if the information is correct, but how many times do I stop to check the validity of message. Only this morning, I fell fowl of this, and do you know what I
was thinking in my mind. People should know this, this is really helpful info. I put it on my status immediately. It was only after half an hour or so, I got a message from another friend to say that the advice was incorrect. Brothers and sisters, I am not playing the blame game here- I am just reminding us all that it is our reputations on the line. It is the same reason why- when we look a hadith, we check for the isnad- the chain of narration to ensure that every single thing is correct right down to the letter. 12 people had already seen my status in that half hour. One of those was the friend who corrected me. That’s 11 people I may have misled, even before I came into work this morning. Now even if one of these people does the same status update thing, imagine the reach! It doesn’t bear thinking about! May Allah SWT provide us the opportunities to deliberate on the information we receive before we pass it on- “for deliberation is from Allah while haste is from Shaytaan”
So my dear brothers and sisters, be careful with the information you get, and if you have sent messages unknowingly, as I have done this morning, remove it immediately and tell the original sender that it is incorrect. Moving on, in the resulting chaos of the pandemic- there has been talk of isolating ourselves for a number of days. Imagine brothers and sisters, what are you going to do if we have to stay indoors for a week or two? I was listening to the radio
and people were talking about how they would catch-up on the box-sets that they hadn’t yet seen, and probably finally getting round to reading those books that have been sitting on the shelf. I thought to myself, will I also be doing the same?
Or should I take this extra time- as an opportunity to improve my life in some way by learning a new skill, or practicing the surahs I learnt when I was little, or by reading the meaning of the qur’an and reflecting on that, or trying to improve concentration and khushu in my prayers? Brothers and sisters, your time- is your time. Don’t think I stand here telling you what to do with your time.
I just think back to the last time I had a few days off, and how I spent that. The movies I watched, and the box-set I completed, didn’t enhance my life significantly. But the lessons I learnt from reading stories of the prophets- will be with me for ever. So, I am going to make the intention that at the nearest opportunity, I will sit with the Qur’an in Arabic and in English and try to learn the gist of some of the things I am reading in salah- starting with the last ten surahs. TIME is probably one of the biggest and most-underestimated commodities of our present-day life. May Allah SWT give us the tawfeeq and hidayat to get closer to Him, and I pray that He becomes pleased with us, and in whatever we do with our free time. Aameen.