Fitnaah-Book or Facebook? - Your Decision

Is Facebook that big a topic to be even discussed? 

Oh yes, because it is not a teenage scrapbooking syndrome anymore. It has transformed into the most powerful and the most effective medium for mass communication. Professionals seek Facebooking as a clever marketing strategy for their products. Public figures connect with their fan bases and promote their activity updates - without any help from the spicy news headlines - and there is so much of Daawah, subhanAllah, that is now taking place via Facebook.

Non-Facebookers are missing out!

It is very convenient to not have a Facebook account. I could have chosen to do the same in order to keep myself Fitnaah-free. But there's so much productivity there, mashAllah, being contributed by Muslim brothers and sisters, that I cannot choose to be willingly blind. 

• There are informative blogs and websites for the Muslim youth that communicate messages and updates via their Facebook Pages.
• All the influential Shuyookhs e.g. Sh. Navaid Aziz, Sh. Yasir Birjas, and Imams e.g. Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Imam Safi Khan, and etc. are all there to connect with the youth online. 
• There's a whole new world of Islamic merchandising such as clothing, Hijabs and Jilbabs, books, and etc. made available via Facebook by young entrepreneurs like Sr. Amena of Pearl Daisy, and others behind a couple of more Hijab initiatives like LaDecence Hijabs and Accessories.

SHAYTAAN is on Facebook! The Fitnaah comes in!

I won't be surprised if you run a Facebook search for "Shaytan" and you actually find something. But even if it isn't a Profile yet on Facebook, with all the Fitnaah that penetrates our daily lives via the social network - Shaytan most definitely is a Facebooker. 

'Brother-Sister' Friendships: Even if Muslims call each other brothers and sisters, it doesn't imply blood relationships does it? So I believe it definitely is an issue when girls are adding the brothers and the guys are adding the sisters to their Friends Lists for the sake of 'chatting'. Male-Female conversations in Islamic have really wholesome and strict etiquette. 

Free Eye Candy: This is about those photos that brothers and sisters upload to their Facebook Albums. There is so much work going on to inculcate the concept of purification of one's gaze and the Facebook Albums are kind of counteracting the cause. Sisters, at times, are of the opinion that it is okay to share photos as long as they're in their proper Hijab code. But how can you guarantee that the brother watching even a Hijabifiied version of you is not compelled to admire your features for a good number of minutes. The last thing I would want to hear is that brothers are sharing my photos; even to admire my beauty, with others. There's also the bit about having a "sisters only" Facebook Album - I had it as well, initially. But it was until I realized that those too are not completely restricted to females. You never know who views your photos and in what environment. It could be on some public computer, a family gathering full of non-mehrams and the like

Facebook is NOT for matrimonies:I keep hearing the bit about how sisters seeking to get married choose to socialize with potential bachelors or social "aunties" via Facebook. Marriages are made in heaven not on Facebook, so stop doing that. The Halal matrimonial websites are another thing. They support mediated interactions in presence of the girl's mehram Wali. Joining Facebook Pages of these Halal matrimonial sites is alright but commenting on these Pages as if you are advertising yourself for marriage is not appropriate. It leads to safety issues as well as indecency.

Candid Camera or Devil's Eye?There's the Videos upload function that too in contributing to a whole lot of fitnaah. Video uploads; whether on Facebook or YouTube, are reviewed by technical team members for offences and violation of video uploads codes. Who are these team members? Right! Non-mehrams. So even if you run a very private video - restricted for females viewing only - either on Facebook or YouTube, it's viewed by males anyway. What really is the matter with video uploads if you're in your Hijab? It's permissible for women to be courteous to the gentlemen and to greet them because there are accounts mentioned in the Hadiths that women used to say "assalamoalekum" to men when they crossed by each other. However, the cheery, chirpy, laughter and the sweet, alluring bits of a woman's voice are part of Awraah i.e. the prescribed features and traits that are to be hidden under the Hijab code. So the candid camera is pretty much the Devil's eye.

Dangers and Risks of Careless Facebooking

• Stolen photographs
• Fake Profiles and identity theft
• Offensive or perverted commenting and spamming on Facebook Pages
• Stalking and invasion of privacy
• Social Fitnaah: gossiping, backbiting, and etc.

Public Figures & Creative Artists

A lot many of the Facebookers are not using Facebook for the sake of personal socializing but to promote their ideas, merchandise, artwork, and to maintain connectivity with their fans base for feedback. Usually these Profiles have thousands of Friends on their lists. Until these artists know their Halal code they are good to go, alhamdulillah. The concerns are the same however. 

• Are they engaging in personal and informal friendships other than maintaining moderate bonds of association? This is male-female friendship we are talking about here. Female artists and professionals can certainly communicate freely with the females. Allah knows best.
• Are they promoting Halal products and services? 
• Are their promotional means Halal?
• What is their content i.e. the means of messaging they are using. Photography, videography or blogging. Is that following the Halal limitations?

Fitnaah-Free Facebook Tips

Over the years, as a creative writer, I have learnt how to customize my Facebook profile so as to maintain a distinction between my audience - the males and the females, and the Muslims and the non Muslims, and also keep control on who gets to see what and what do I NOT share at all. Facebook features and interface have undergone frequent changes over the years and each time a new and important safety feature is definitely added. The decision depends upon how concerned are you for your privacy and the safeguarding of your modesty as well as others. The tips have been divided into 2 categories for 2 kinds of Facebookers i.e. the 'Individual' and 'The Professional or Creative Expressionist'.

The Individual

• Make sure your personal information is not available for public viewing and that your Profile Info is for Friends Only.
• Your Friends should not be Tom, Dick and Harry but people you know personally or reliable Friends of Friends.
• Do NOT upload personal photographs because you never now who watches them and where. Even a females or males only viewing setting doesn't guarantee viewer discretion from non-mehrams.
• Do not upload personal home videos. At the end of the day a bunch of non-Mehrams sitting to screen videos and photos for Facebook would definitely be looking at you.
• Be modest in your conversation with the brothers i.e. the male Friends, it should be formal and non-personal. Allah knows best.
• Also, to protect the modesty of your language with other sisters, secure privacy settings for your Facebook Wall so the male Friends can see only the non-personal and formal conversations. For personal messaging and commenting use the Facebook Inbox.
• Facebook allows forming Groups with added privacy features. These could be used to communicate more personally with sisters.
• If you cannot take such extreme privacy measures, either do not add brothers at all OR keep a separate profile for them altogether.

The Professional/Artist/Public Figure

• Maintain your Hijab code if you are a sister. A pretty logo of your project, or initials of your names, or an icon would do instead of placing a hoarding of your own photograph on your Page or Profile.
• If you have a project or merchandise pertaining to sisters only then try going for a Group instead of a Page because Page settings do not allow member discretion - even brothers could click 'Like' and join a Page. A Closed group however, gives you the discretion to allow or disallow membership.
• Your project, merchandise or ideas should be Halal. 
• Photographs and video feeds by sister artists should be promoted via email to preserve their modesty; of their adornments and their speech, inshAllah.
• If your Profile or Page is a combined environment for brothers and sisters both then moderate the Wall from time to time to discourage indecent or immodest conversation and also your own communication as a sister should be well customized. 
• For sisters - a Profile version works better because you can always disable the brothers from viewing an informal and fun Status you choose to share with the sisters.

Personally, I am acquainted with a couple of creative individuals who are Muslim artists and expressionists with a beautifully large fans base, mashAllah, and they are very skillful in maintaining their Facebook presence without promoting immodesty or being immodest themselves. InshAllah I shall approach them soon to find out if they could write up some Fitnaah-free Facebook tips for me. 

Till then ... happy Fitnaah-free Facebooking.

Sisterly Yours,

@num @.