As I walked past the shops, I could not help but count the number of home video shops with large posters displaying the latest and hottest films in town. They were quite many, may be one out of every eight shops. I pondered over it and thought of the great influence that facility called television is having upon the minds of the people. I wished there and then that all I was seeing were good things inviting to righteousness and good conduct. Alas! They were not. Instead what I saw were young men and women - youths like you and I naked (or is it half-naked they call it), kissing and hugging. Others were posing as gun - toting criminals. All of them, doing their best to destroy the serenity of the society and make mockery of those with good manners, all in the name of entertaining the public. I also pondered about the television and all that has been said regarding it. Surely, the television has become an evil that this generation and those coming after it have to contend with. It is a box of profit and loss depending upon how it is deployed. It would have been a facility of immense profit and benefit to humanity was it in the hands of good and righteous people. But as it is now, it is a box of greater loss with little profit. And who is that wise businessman who will stake his hard earned capital upon a venture whose yield is certain to be in the negative? Perhaps the foolish! Your hard earned capital is your religion which like the fragile egg must be protected from being broken. Back to these home videos, of what benefits are they? They come with the aim of correcting the ills of the society but they end up ruining it.
Or how can we explain films whose plots revolve round shirk, adultery, rape, murder, stealing, arson and other moral corruptions you can think of (and even those you can’t think of). They end up informing us about the styles and tricks to employ in order to rape a girl or actually kill her for ritual purposes, how to steal without being caught and how to ruin the cordial relationship between neighbour’s and kidnap innocent kids. This is to the extent that while I was in the mosque one day, I became thirsty and desired to send a little boy to fetch me a sachet of water (popularly known as pure water), but I stopped when I remembered all those things shown to us on home videos. I would rather go myself than risk being labelled as a ritual killer in need of body parts! I also recall how imaginary scenes from these home videos have damaged pleasant relationship between otherwise good neighbours out of mutual suspicions regarding their wives and daughters and how people would weep while watching these forgeries and laugh when the Quraan is being read to them! We are not in need of people informing us about the evil that occurred to a person and how it was carried out.
We already have a good example to follow in the mould of our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him). During his lifetime, he was afflicted with magic by Allaah's permission in order for his followers to learn and take heed from it. After Allaah cured him, his wife Aaisha (RA) said to him: O Allaah's Messenger! Did you take those materials with which the magic spell was worked upon you out of the pollen skin (in order to show the people)?" He (peace and blessing be upon him) said: "No! As for me Allaah has healed me and cured me and I was afraid that by showing that to the people I would spread evil among them!" (Bukhaaree)
My parting shot to you is that you should know that todays mass media is in the hands of money worshippers. Those who do not care, whose ox is gored as long as their pay is assured. They do not care a hoot as to the effects of their products on the society. So! Why relax with these obscenities and perverted thoughts. A person who lack something surely cannot give it. Many amongst these actors and actresses are not good models with their personal lives. What else would you get from them except what they have to offer you? There is something better you can do with your time. Remember that: "Verily the hearing, the sight and the heart of everyone shall be questioned by the one who gave them to you." (Q17:36)
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited