What has the Metaverse got to do with us as Muslims, Madinah and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ?
Let's find out.
Let’s talk….
Back in the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ whilst he was delivering the Friday Khutbah,
a caravan equipped with music, festivities, entertainment
and merchandise soon entered the city of Madinah.
It’s a striking incident the ones that’s captured in the Quran.
Now, where am I going with all this?
Well, this caravan is pretty much still around today,
just in a different form.
You see with the advent of the television,
the computer and soon after the internet, we pretty much saw this caravan make its way into our homes.
And over the last 15 years, following the release of the smartphone and mobile internet,
we literally have had this caravan following us everywhere we go.
Add social media into the mix – and you get the picture
– this caravan isn’t leaving us alone.
And what makes this caravan even more distracting,
is the fact that it’s not just generic entertainment.
Rather, thanks to algorithms and artificial intelligence,
it is strategically engineered to present content that appeals to you.
It knows your individual preferences, interests and wants.
Whether it be sports, comedy or even cat videos,
these algorithms have reached a point where they know you, better than you know yourself.
– Google or Facebook can create an algorithm that knows you better, than you know yourself.
They’ve pretty much hacked our impulses
and they know how to keep us addicted.
It's not guesswork. It’s science.
Every time they present you with a new notification, a new post,
a new video that they know you will enjoy, dopamine is released through your brain.
And your motivation to keep scrolling only intensifies.
At such we are no longer interested in the natural real world because quite frankly,
the real world it can’t reward us with the same levels of dopamine
we receive online artificially.
It’s a repetitive vicious cycle that has most of us addicted
while making social media giants are making billions of dollars.
It’s a proven formula that works and they aren’t planning on stopping at all.
In fact, they are only planning on taking this further.
You see, this caravan that has been following us around from the outside
will soon become our home, our walls and the roof above our heads.
Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and what he has dubbed ‘The Metaverse’.
It’s said to be the next iteration of the internet,
whereby the physical world will fuse the digital screen.
Formimg a virtual world where you will socialise, work, play games
and pretty much live your own virtual life.
You have your own virtual home, your own friends
and even your own realistic avatar of yourself.
And thanks to headsets like these, we will be completely and totally be immersed.
And I know a lot has been said about this and much criticisms have already been made.
I mean we have already seen enough damage from social media as it exists today,
whether that’s due to the rise of anxiety, depression, addiction, pornography,
loneliness and the rapid decline of society,
we can only imagine how worse it will become.
Yet despite all that has been said,
there’s something else I want to hone in on.
One of the greatest consequences these distractions have on our lives
is their ability to make us forget Allah and forget the Quran.
And it’s not because anyone is actively forcing to stop remembering Allah
or stop reading the Quran
but rather we are so distracted, we are no longer receptive.
Hear me out.
Let's go back to where we started in the beginning.
You see as the companions were met with this caravan of distraction,
and they left the Prophet ﷺ standing all alone, Allah instructed the Prophet ﷺ to tell them.
What is with Allah is far greater than the distractions,
the entertainment, the pastimes.
It’s a blatant truth, yet for many of us, myself included,
we can no longer see it.
Why? Well, we need to get out of the caravan for a start.
You see in order for us to be receptive to Allah and His words,
we need to be people of life, people of mind, people of hearing and people of sight.
As Allah states in the Quran,
And in another verse,
A witness, by all means, is someone who is present and not someone who is distracted.
You see while social media giants keep coming up with ways to further push us away from real life,
Allah is calling us to that which truly gives us life,
we just need to answer.
Connecting with Allah, connecting with the Prophet ﷺ,
connecting with one another as Muslims gives us life.
And our greatest pride as Muslims is in being people of life,
not people who are distracted.
And I know have my shortcomings and I say this message with a hint of salt knowing I myself do struggle
and I might even consider myself a hypocrite considering I am heavily involved in social media,
but I just want us to be aware, and mindful of what is taking place.
And I pray that we may never forget that what is with Allah
is far greater than the caravans of distraction.
These distractions also are having deeper impacts on who we are as individuals,
and in shaping our identities,
and in a further video I do plan on breaking this down.
So be sure to subscribe, hit a bell of notification, like the video to stay up to date.
And we will be forward to see you next time.
As Salyamu Aleikum Wa RahmatuLlahi Wa Barakyatuhu.