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Stranger in the Dark - mahosha - 12-03-2003
(Written by a Muslim brother, for a nationwide essay competition in Canada. Needless to say, he took the first prize.)
Stranger in the Dark
A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later.
As I grew up, I never questioned his place in our family. In my young mind, each member had a special niche. My brother, Bilal, five years my senior, was my example. Fatimah, my younger sister, gave me an opportunity to play big brother’ and develop the art of teasing. My parents were complementary instructors- Mom taught me to love the word of Allah, and Dad taught me to obey it.
But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries, and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spell-bound for hours each evening. If I wanted to know about politics, history, or science, he knew it.
He knew about the past, understood the present, and seemingly could predict the future. The pictures he could draw were so life like that I would often laugh or cry as I watched. He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bilal, and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars.
The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn’t seem to mind but sometimes Mom would quietly get up while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places, go to her room, and read her Qur’an and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave.
You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our house-not for some of us, from our friends, or adults.
Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four letter words that turned my ears and made Dad squirm. To my knowledge, the stranger was never confronted. My dad was a teetotaler who didn’t permit alcohol in his home, as good Muslims should. But the stranger felt like we needed exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages often.
He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (probably too much, too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I know now that the stranger influenced my early concepts of the man-woman relationship.
As I look back, I believe it was the grace of Allah that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents.
Yet, he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave. More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Wangee Road. He is not nearly so intriguing to my Dad as he was in those early years. But if I were to walk into my parents’ den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures…
His name you ask?
We called him TV....
Our Lord! Forgive us our sins
and expiate from us our evil deeds,
and make us die in the state of righteousness.
(Surah Al- Imran Ayat 193)
O Allah, let our last days be the best days of our life
and our last deeds be the best deeds,
and let the best day be the day we meet You.
Stranger in the Dark - Dan - 12-03-2003
Bismillah
As salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu
Do you want to know how our ummah can take a major step in waking up? Rid ourselves of this stranger! The amount of free time that one gets from eliminating televion is amazing. Some may argue that they recieve the news and other information from this tainting box. Go to the library. It is free here and they have all kinds of books and free newspapers and magazines to catch up on current events. Time how long the television is on a day in your house. It should frighten you.
The majority of haram temptations and sins flow from this device. Everything has music to it. Every show and commercial exudes sexuality. It mocks religion. It encourages the mindless pursuit of sports and celebrities. These have become the new idols. I get sick hearing my brothers discuss this football team or this basketball player. "But brother, sports help us train for jihad." Yeah? How much activity did you get watching someone else exercise? I have never heard of anyone benefitting from others' exercise. Which jihad were you going to participate in anyway? The pious ones are the ones who go forth. Do you think they got pious by memorizing all of this year's baseball stats?
I personally have cut my watching WAY down with the intention of eliminating it. Try to only watch programs that you want and turn of the TV when they are over. Whittle this time down gradually. Know that you are doing this for Allah for He said, "I have not created jinn and mankind except that they should worship me."
Also remember that the people in television shows and in movies are adults playing children's game. They are playing greater versions of dress-up and house. These events and troubles are not really happening to them, yet they play. Are not our own worries great enough that we do not need some people pretending some for us?
When I went for Umrah, I went to the top of a roof and saw a sea of satellite dishes pumping unIslamic ideals into the minds of hundreds of thousands of muslim minds. Save yourselves and your families. What good is it to raise your children with certain values to have them all undone hours a day by the babysitter box?
May Allah free us from the grip of Shaytan' influence. May we become free thinking once again. May we worship Allah as we are made to worship. Allah Forgive me. Allah Save me from the Hellfire. Astaghfirullah. Alhamdulillah
As salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu
Stranger in the Dark - SisterJennifer - 12-03-2003
Lots of good points for the both of you. I wanted to add another fact:
Your brain has more activity while sleeping than it does while watching the television.
Also, lets be careful of the internet, as this seems to consume a person as much as, if not even more than the television.
Stranger in the Dark - Shereen - 12-28-2003
Quote:<i>Originally posted by SisterJennifer </i>Lots of good points for the both of you. I wanted to add another fact:
Your brain has more activity while sleeping than it does while watching the television.
I agree with Dan.........but sis Jennifer, while ur sleeping the mind is more efficient because this time the 'sub concious' also strarts to work & as the body is sleeping to it needs MORE assistance from the brain. But this have NO effect on the mind of a person AS compared to the watching of Adult tv shows....or even some of the family programmes..........that Literally 'programmes' the young & adult minds alike.
But TV itself is not bad.............although it's use DOES make a difference
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Stranger in the Dark - Dan - 12-29-2003
Bismillah
All these things have lead to an epidemic of obesity in our children. Push them out the door and turn off the babysitter.
As Salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu