AhlulBayt (AS) International News Agency — ABNA: Hojjat al-Islam wal-Muslimin Muhammad Hussein Amin, a writer and religious researcher, in a piece written exclusively for ABNA, examines the relationship between today's digital lifestyle and the ethical teachings of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). Drawing on Quranic verses and the narrations of the AhlulBayt (peace be upon them), he discusses how excessive use of mobile phones and social networks affects a person's presence within the family, the management of one's time, and the health of social relationships.
Is Our Digital Lifestyle Compatible with the Prophet's Way of Life?
Muhammad Hussein Amin / Writer and religious researcher
Today, perhaps the strangest image of modern life is this:
A family sits under one roof, yet each lives in a different world. The father is absorbed in messages, the mother is scrolling through social media, the child is lost in a game or video, and real conversation has quietly slipped out of the house.
The problem is not simply the phone. The problem is that moment when a person, without realizing it, surrenders control of his gaze, his attention, his time, and even his relationships to a small screen. Islam has no quarrel with technology; Islam's real question is what a person does with his time and his free will.
If the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) were to walk into our homes today, we cannot say with certainty what he would say about the phone, for such a subject is not addressed in the narrations. But based on the principles we have from the Quran, the prophetic way of life, and the AhlulBayt (peace be upon them), we can understand that he would likely warn us not against the "tool," but against "enslavement to the tool."
When the Phone Turns from a Tool into the Master of the House
The mobile phone is essentially a tool; it can serve as a means of education, staying in touch with family, business, research, spreading religious knowledge, and countless useful tasks. The trouble begins when the tool becomes the master of the person — that is, when a person no longer decides when to enter social media and when to leave it, but notifications, messages, and endless content decide for him.
The Holy Quran says: «وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَٰئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا» — "And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight, and the heart — all of those will be questioned."[1] This verse takes on a far more serious meaning in the age of social networks, because today every person faces an enormous flood of images, news, rumors, analysis, and entertainment throughout the day.
Therefore, a believer cannot accept or share everything he sees on his phone screen without reflection. Not every image, not every news item, not every sentence is worthy of entering a person's mind and heart. Sometimes piety in the digital age means that just as a person guards the food of his body, he also guards the food of his mind and soul.
"What Does Not Concern You": A Prophetic Principle for the Age of Social Networks
One of the most precise teachings we can lean on for today's digital life is the Holy Prophet's (peace be upon him and his family) statement about avoiding useless matters. In a narration transmitted from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) from his noble forefathers up to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), it is stated:
«مِنْ حُسْنِ إِسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ»
It is part of the goodness of a person's Islam that he abandons what does not concern him.[2]
This narration has something fresh to say to today's person. Many of the things that occupy our minds for hours on social networks fundamentally have nothing to do with our lives. Other people's private lives, endless virtual arguments, the side stories of celebrities, rumors, fruitless debates, and dozens of pieces of content we do not even remember after a few minutes.
The trouble is that not everything "interesting" is necessarily "important." Not everything with a large audience is necessarily worth watching. And not everything that occupies our mind is necessarily worthy of our time. Perhaps one of the most important forms of digital piety is that a person can ask himself: does this thing I am looking at really concern me?
Imam Ali (peace be upon him) also says in a remarkably clear expression: «مَنْ اشْتَغَلَ بِمَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ، فَاتَهُ مَا يَعْنِيهِ» — one who occupies himself with what does not concern him loses what does concern him.[3] This sentence is perhaps one of the most precise descriptions of an unbridled digital life: every minute spent in the endless margins of the internet may be a minute taken from family, study, worship, raising children, conversation, or one's own peace of mind.
A House Whose Members Are Beside Each Other, But Not With Each Other
Perhaps the greatest loss of the digital lifestyle is neither less reading nor more time spent online, but the loss of "presence." Presence means that when our spouse speaks to us, we truly listen. When our child tells us something, our gaze lifts from the phone screen. When our parents are beside us, they do not feel they are competing with those present in cyberspace.
The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), in a narration also transmitted in Imami sources, said: «خَيْرُكُمْ خَيْرُكُمْ لِأَهْلِهِ وَأَنَا خَيْرُكُمْ لِأَهْلِي» — the best of you is the one who is best to his family, and I am the best of you to my family.[4] This narration is an important criterion for rethinking our lifestyle.
A person may be very polite, active, social, and even of great service to others outside the home, yet the members of his family see him as someone who is never truly beside them. If we spend our best words on cyberspace and our greatest attention on people far away, while the family's share of us is only exhaustion, silence, and a brief glance at the phone screen, we must reconsider what "being good to family" really means.
In the view of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), the family is not a marginal part of life. The home is a place of affection, tranquility, and responsibility. So if technology, instead of strengthening family bonds, gradually replaces conversation, looking at one another, and hearing each other's voices, the problem is not technology; the problem is how we use it.
The Example of "Laghw" in Our Age Can Be an "Endless Scroll"
The Holy Quran describes one of the characteristics of believers as follows: «وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ» — "And those who turn away from laghw," from idle and useless matters.[5] In the interpretation of this verse, laghw has been explained as falsehood and what is useless.[6]
In the past, laghw might have meant sitting for hours in a pointless gathering or talking about a fruitless subject. Today its form has changed. Sometimes laghw is that endless scrolling; one piece of content ends and another immediately appears, without the person even knowing why he opened the app.
Of course, not every entertainment is laghw, and Islam does not oppose wholesome joy and permissible recreation. The issue is losing control. If a person consciously opens social media for entertainment and after a while sets it aside, the tool remains in his hands; but if he opens it without purpose and leaves without will, he must reflect on his lifestyle.
In truth, the main question is not how many hours a day we use the phone; the deeper question is what we have gained and what we have lost during those hours. Have we gained more knowledge, or has our mind simply grown more cluttered? Have our connections increased, or has only the number of our contacts grown? Have we drawn closer to our family, or have virtual people taken the place of the closest people in our lives?
Certainly the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) Would Not Take the Phone from Our Hands
If the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) were in our home today, we cannot fabricate words and claim "he would certainly have said to put the phone aside." Such an attribution requires a reliable narration, and we must not put our own words into the Prophet's mouth.
But based on his definitive teachings, we can raise other questions: Has this device made you heedless of your family? Are you seeing something you should not see? Are you sharing something whose accuracy you are unsure of? Are hours of your life slipping away in things that bring you no benefit? When your loved ones speak to you, is your attention somewhere else?
Perhaps our problem today is not that we look at the phone too much; the problem is that sometimes we have stared at the screen so long that we no longer see the people in front of us.
Nor is the way out necessarily abandoning technology. Control must be returned to the human being. We must carve out phone-free time for family, set the phone aside during serious conversation, ruthlessly delete useless content, weigh the accuracy of any news before sharing it, and each time ask ourselves: "Does this content really concern me?"
Perhaps if the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) were in our homes today, he would not take the phones from our hands; rather, he would want us to look into each other's eyes again.
Because in the end, the Islamic lifestyle in the digital age means technology in the service of the human being, not the human being in the service of technology; more connection, not more loneliness; greater awareness, not confusion; and a home that remains a place where, when family members are beside each other, they are truly "with" each other.
Footnotes
[1] The Holy Quran, Surah Al-Isra, verse 36: «وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولَٰئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْئُولًا».
[2] Sheikh Mufid, Al-Amali, p. 34, fourth assembly, hadith 9; the narration from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him), from his noble forefathers, from the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): «مِنْ حُسْنِ إِسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ». This content has been transmitted in Imami sources including Bihar al-Anwar and other hadith sources.
[3] Allameh Majlisi, Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 73, p. 319; from the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him): «مَنْ اشْتَغَلَ بِمَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ، فَاتَهُ مَا يَعْنِيهِ». This narration has been reported with the same content in Shia ethical sources.
[4] Sheikh Hurr Amili, Wasa'il al-Shia, vol. 20, p. 174, hadith 25337; with reference to Al-Kafi, vol. 5, p. 511: «خَيْرُكُمْ خَيْرُكُمْ لِأَهْلِهِ وَأَنَا خَيْرُكُمْ لِأَهْلِي».
[5] The Holy Quran, Surah Al-Mu'minun, verse 3: «وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ».
[6] Muhammad ibn Jarir Tabari, Jami' al-Bayan, on verse 3 of Surah Al-Mu'minun; in interpreting "laghw," he explained it as falsehood and what is displeasing to God.
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