Texting. Love. And the Danger it Brings.

Bismmillah.

Isang image na hiniram ko lang sa google image.
At least credit sa sino man may-ari nito.

Every now and then I would receive a lot of 'chain messages' with either of the following texts:

"If you love Allah, you must send this dua/text to 15 people..."

"I love Allah and His Messenger, now send this to 20 people... you will get rewards..."

"If you ignore it, you will be punished. And if you send to 10 people you will get good news after 10 days bla bla bla."

Other texts would even share stories of family members being killed if you do not pass the message.

SCARY.
And indeed REALLY FUNNY.

Funny how people had started this kind of idea of using 'religion' and 'family' as making SPAMS, or useless messages and make others send them to as many numbers in their phone-books. But much more funnier is amidst the knowledge that these things are not true, there are still amny of us who fall victims to these kinds of act. We think to ourselves: "Sa bagay, unli naman ako eh, so what's to loose?", "Eh pano kung totoo? eh di lagot ako... There's no harm in trying naman eh" are the common answers we get.

But really? Is there really no harm in BELIEVING and then PASSING on these messages? This is yet another thing we, the young advocates of goodwill (YAGooD) should investigate on (wag na kayo umangal sa name ng 'group', parang Justice League yan eh.) Ako po ay hindi makikipag-away dito, just wanting to share some idea about it.

LOVE is a something that MALES seldom talk about. It just makes us look 'girly', if you allow me to use the word. We are really not good in expressing ourselves while keeping secured about our 'tough' identity. I feel uneasy writing about LOVE, yet nevertheless its our topic for the day. And with all those denials that MEN are weak, we have to accept the whole reality that indeed, we human, be it a male or a female do feel LOVE. As to its definition, which goes beyond the pages of high-school autograph notebooks (the hardest question perhaps), I want to make a simple yet complete answer: "Love is doing what someone (you love) pleases him, and avoiding what displeases him." (ayan, may maisasagot na tayo sa autographs...)

If you love your parents, you never wanted them to be angry with you. You do everything to please them: help in household chores doing your assignments, respecting their commands, etc. And to best of your ability, you would avoid everything that will get them displeased with you. Oh I don't have to enumerate them, you readers knows best what displeases your parents (hehe). And same things go to other persons you have attach the word "LOVE" to them. If you love a brother, you always want goodness to him. When you have a special someone (ehem ehem. I would like to limit this to the LEGAL ones. Legally and Islamically),you always take efforts to please them. Maybe it is more complicated than this, but we want to make it simpler for the sake of the discussion.

Now we go back to our SPAM-matter. We would like to analyze the message "If you love Allah, you must send this to bla bla". We used the word 'Love' here. Is this want love really is? Certainly NO my friend! If you really, really love Allah-The Lord of all Beings, The Most Merciful-you have to stand to what 'love' means: Doing what pleases Him, and avoiding what displeases Him. MashaAllah. It's as simple as that! And the very same thing goes to our Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Do righteous deed, read the Qur'an, understand the teachings of Islam, respect people, say your prayers regularly, learn the hadiths of the Messenger, do more sunnans (Sunnahs). These things and a lot more are things that pleases Allah. Alhamdulillah, These are already given in Islam for those who are really looking for the answers. (you just have to find a number of good Islamic books, read; talk to your jama'ah and friends and learn about these.) 

A good friend of mine once said, "The term 'LOVE' had already beed overused (he meant misused) by all of us. We can easily say 'I LOVE YOU' then don't defend and work on that what we said. We just say it. Now there's no more meaning attached to it." He was referring then to the use of modern text messaging of saying "I LOVE YOU" to someone. I say he is TRUE. It doesn't always have to be said to prove that you do love someone, or to tell everyone in the world that you love this certain person, or group of people, or even your parents. It requires more actions and effort. (Again, I am limiting this to the LEGAL ones. :-) Things certainly misleading if you do not understand it well.

What is far more dangerous is the belief of the Rewards and Punishments that will come to you if you Pass or Ignore the text messages, respectively. It says: "If you Ignore this, you will have one of your family relatives die." SubhanaAllah, I dont know where did these things came from! How can such negligible things as ignoring a text make someone die? Do the TM or SMART Servers tell the Angel of Death, "Hey, this guy ignored this text, you should get the soul of his brother or sister." It's crazy! And yet we BELIEVE THAT! And we immediately PASS them on to other friends, fearing what will happen next!

This might be funny, but this is True! And its Dangerous! How much more serious can it be if you PASS it on!

The greatest sin one can do is bring 'Partners' to the only one True God: Allah. Its called Shirk.(Please do correct me if I'm wrong) We know He is the only one who can give rightful Punishment to anyone He wills, and He gives rewards to any one He wills, anytime and anywhere as He pleases so. NOT THESE TEXT MESSAGES! Nastagfirullah, We ask forgiveness from Allah. 

We must STOP BELIEVING these text messages, even how convincing they might be. It is not true that we are not loosing anything. We really are getting to be accountable for every single deed we do. And we have to face our Creator in the day of Judgement, and answer these things. What would we say by then?

To end this discussion, I would like to remind everyone taht if any of the statements I had above is erroneous, please do consider telling me so as I may edit it immediately. I am not an ISLAMIC SCHOLAR, I only know a few, and Allah is the All-Knower of things. So forgive me if I had some mistakes. This will only serve as a warning for everyone of us. With the rampant incidences of these SPAMs nowadays and the REAL DANGER it has, we really have to worry about it!

so when you receive same texts again, instead of PASSING it on, reply to them. Tell them that it is not TRUE and it is not right passing such kind of LIES. Then you delete the Message. (And never ever count the days and look for dying family members). 

Believe and Trust Allah alone. Worship Him alone.

And if you LOVE someone, don't just say the words (or don't even bother to say it). Just Do it. 

Wa billahil Taufik wal Hidaya.

SalamKasilasa and 

A blessed Ramadhan to All!

AnakIluh