i hope noone reading takes this personally as it's something which has been bugging me for years and years, and not related to recent examples, although i did receive a text today which prompted me to write this post. it reads:
"laa ilahha illallaho mauhammadur rasulullah. ye msg 9 logo ko bhejo to aaj raat 1 good news milegi. ye madina se shuru hua hai isko nazar andaaz mat karna"
roughly translated: "there is no God but Allah and Muhammad peace be upon him is His Messenger. send this message to 9 people and tonight you will receive one piece of good news. this has started in madina so do not ignore it"
i'm sure you can think of your own variation of this, but the basic message is that you don't pass the message on you will be rewarded or punished in some way.
i am asking this as a serious question, so please do not be shy in responding. if you're someone who sends these messages on, please explain to me why?? there are too many examples of people that do send them on, so there must be some good reason that i'm missing.
chain emails/ texts are huge problems for everyone, but when it comes to Islamic stuff i don't think people should be sending these things on under the misguided belief that they are obligated to do so. or maybe i'm the one that is misguided ? maybe the reasoning is that it is better to send them on just in case. after all, it's not doing anyone any harm. but actually i think that that it is, as the only way these things survive is if people pass them on.
i sometimes read the most beautiful and thought provoking stuff, only to have my mood dampened at the end by a message like- send this on to all your contacts or you will be struck by lightening/ be unhappy for the rest of your life/ will lose your favourite brooch (or you know whatever).
if i want to send it on, i always remove this part of the message. someone must have a very inflated ego to want to create something like this just to see it be passed around.
but i'm wondering, do people really send this stuff out because they're scared of Allah's punishment? do we feel the same fear when we read a hadith like this one:
The Prophet Muhammad (Sal-allahu-alleihi-wasallam) said, "That which distinguishes us from the disbelievers and hypocrites is our commitment to Prayer. He who gives it up falls into disbelief."
or this one:
The Prophet Muhammad (Sal-allahu-alleihi-wasallam) said, "The worst among people is one who commits theft in prayer. They said: Allah's Messenger, how does one commit theft in one's prayer? He said: When he does not observe ruku' and sujud perfectly well."
just something to ponder on, that's all. it's easy to click forward and then breath a huge sigh of relief and your conscience is eased.
this is a general message to all readers, so please treat is as such and not a personal attack on anyone who sends these messages on. only Allah knows what's on each person's heart. that's one of the reasons i'm asking. is it something you feel strongly about either way, and if so why?
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4 comments:
Argh!!! I know exactly what you mean! When I get these chain messages I just feel so annoyed because you're right, there's usually a beautiful message right above it and then you scroll down to see that if you don't pass it on you'll let Islam down, or go to hell, or something along those lines.
Before I used to feel guilty if I didn't pass the chain messages on, so I'd forward them to a bunch of people but it was always with a heavy heart because I knew they would be received in the same way I received them - and that doesn't do anything for the message, so I stopped. Now when I get these forwards I read them, I enjoy them, I take what I can from them and then simply save it if I really like it or delete it but never pass it on anymore. Instead of getting the message in the chain email across to everyone, I now think it gets lost.
+ it's superstitious
did you know that this sheikh Ahmad from Madina letter is about a 100 years old? Its totally ficticious and originates from India.
Further, Allah Ta'la has promised us in the Qur'an the rewards and harms of actions. Is that not enough?? How many of us take heed??
liya, hhm it's interesting you said you used to feel guilty about not passing them on. do you think that's the main reason people do it? i've never felt guilty because i know there is nothing to feel guilty about!
annoymous- exactly, that was the point i was trying to get accross- everything should be about the Quran and sunnah, not these crazy innovations.
it's so strange, as i went into work today and somone had sent a change email to all users. somone else replied with:
"DON’T BE STUPID, THIS EMAIL IS A LOAD OF NONSENSE AND IF YOU TYPE THE FIRST LINE INTO GOOGLE IT TELLS YOU THAT THIS EMAIL HAS BEEN CIRCULATING SINCE 1999!!! NEXT TIME, DO A BIT OF RESEARCH!!!
P.S IF YOU DON’T FORWARD THIS TO 10 PEOPLE, YOU’LL FALL DOWN A MANHOLE TOMORROW AND BE EATEN BY BADGERS"
i mean he didn't have to shout but i can see his point- research it!
it seems this is a universal problem.
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