THE INTERNET VEIL
I wanted to write a post on this topic long ago, but it got forgotten. So now writing and i request everyone to read it as its a very very important issue. It might get lengthy. I dont care. I should say it today. So here it goes.
Brothers & Sisters. PLEASE learn the art of differentiating between the CYBER WORLD and the REAL WORLD. Most of us are ignorant of this awareness that Cyber world is far more different than the real world. The name of the topic might have given you some idea of what that difference is. Internet is NOT the real world. Internet is a platform dependant on many factors which need to be taken into account. Internet has a BIIG problem. And you know what that problem is? Its the veil, the curtain which is between REAL PEOPLE behind the screen. This curtain blocks a very fundamental asset of human beings known as Emotions. You can't see how a person is feeling and what a person is doing. You can't know if the person is angry, sad, happy, frustrated etc etc while talking to you. Simply typing ":@ :) lol :-|" etc etc doesn't mean that this person is really feeling what he/she wrote. It maybe that a person is very upset and angry types the smile emoticon ":)" and everyone gets the impression that this person is very "Khush akhlaq" and based on this they form Judgements. It maybe that a person is very "Khush akhlaq" but he never makes the ":)" emoticon while talking, either because that person is not much aware with internet use or because his typing is not good or there can be other reasons. My point is:
"STOP JUDGING PEOPLE THROUGH INTERACTION AT INTERNET."
You dont know because of the curtain between u and the other person, that what that person is doing. He/she might be busy doing a lots of other work while talking to you at internet. He/she might be upset at something and that might bring some harsh tone into that person's writing while talking to you. He/she might be unaware of proper internet usage and that might bring some unpleasant style of talking. For Allah's sake!!! STOP JUDGING OTHER PEOPLE THROUGH INTERNET!!
Another huge problem of the internet. A person might say something in anger at some time or because of frustration. If the same thing is said face to face, that person might rectify that at some time and clear the misconception. But what happens at internet? Whatever you say gets printed (saved) and a person might read what you wrote in anger or frustration after 1 week or 1 month or even a year, and say "OH! HOW ILL MANNERED THIS PERSON IS!" While in reality you had already rectified and did tawbah but the other person forms a judgement based on an old comment.
By Allah i have myself witnessed many people who talk at internet like they are the most harsh, dry people on earth. But i swear to Allah when i met them i felt that they are completely opposite of what they appear on internet. I myself have experienced so many such events. Internet is a plastic world and behind the screen a person has a lots of issues. Anyone who passes any judgemental comments about other people merely based on their Internet writings or comments, is a very strange person. Stop passing comments like "Yar ap ignore kar rahey hain." "Yar apney mje reply nahi kiya." "Yar ap nahayat hi batamiz insan hain." "Yar ap anti women hain."
I want to tell you people an incident i witnessed from my own eyes. I was eating lunch at a hotel and there was a person eating next to me. And he got a call at cell phone. It was his wife. He received the call and his hands were full of oil and he had to leave the food and he was still chewing food. And in that condition he received the call. Now because of all this unpleasant break (leaving delicious food and hand full of oil) his tone was effected and he talked a bit harshly with wife. Now tell me. What kind of a foolish person would form a judgement based on this that "OH THAT PERSON IS SO ANTI WOMEN. HE TALKS LIKE THAT WITH HIS WIFE!" while in reality that person could be a very good husband and his wife is satisfied with him. But this foolish judgemental person sitting next to him, who has no relation with this person what so ever and meeting that person for the first time, forms a judgement based on one 30 second phone call that "THIS PERSON TREATS HIS WIFE BADLY!".
Grow up my dear fellow muslims. There are so many issues at cyber world and u cannot treat cyber world as real world. Think many times before forming judgements about the other person. Some people pass such big comments and judgements, based on few glimpses of a person's talk at internet, that really hurt. One such comment was given to me:
"THIS POOR PERSON WILL NEVER SUCCEED IN HIS MARRIAGE LIFE!"
ALLAH HU AKBAR!! Fear Allah people. What is wrong with you? You know not a bit about the other person in REAL LIFE and you say such sentences. SUBHAN ALLAH!
The solution i see to all this dilemma we all are facing is given in the hadith, which is:
1- Talk less.
2- Talk good or dont talk.
But what to do when people form a judgement even on this that this person is really harsh?
Sad. Very sad.
