The Effects of Television

Most people think that television is Haraam only because it projects images of living creatures. Today, tables in living rooms and bedroom walls are adorned and decorated with family pictures and other portraits, to the extent that some students hang the portraits of their shaikh on the wall for blessings. It is difficult to comprehend how the mercy of Allah ta’alaa is going to descend.

The pictures on the television screen are also still pictures like all other pictures or photos. The motion seen on TV screen is illusory and false. The ‘motion’ depicted on the screen is simulated by the rapid transmission of a large number of still pictures. the pictures on the television screen are also still pictures like all other pictures or photos.

The Encyclopaedia International states:
"The illusion of motion in television is produced by showing 30 still pictures, or frames, each second. Through persistence of vision the brain retains each picture until the next comes along. We are not aware of the fact that our eyes are really seeing a rapidly changing sequence of a large number of slightly different still pictures."

Any home that has images displayed is not visited by angels of mercy. The Holy Prophet of Allah (S.A.W.S) has informed us that any home which contains pictures of living creatures is not visited by angels of mercy. ( This saying of our beloved Prophet(S.A.W.S) must have been enough for us to shun the Television )

However, do you think television is only haraam because it projects images? There are many reasons for the ‘T.V.’ being haraam. Everybody who studies its influences finds new dangers. Televsion is an instrument of violating the injunction of hijaab. We all know that a non-mahram man cannot look at a non-mahram woman. The Prophet (S.A.W.S) has said “verily, the gaze is a poisonous arrow from the arrows of satan”.

Take heed my friends! After having seen one woman you turn to another and then another and are not satisfied and so you move onto magazines. But, the lust in your heart remains unfulfilled so you move onto pornographic images on the television and video and internet. The truth is always bitter and hard, but one does not need to conduct a survey to find out what people think when they are spending hours, watching naked women and men on the filthy ‘box’.

It is reported on the authority of Hasan Basri (R.A) that the Apostle of Allah (S.A.W.S) is to have said “the curse of Allah is on the who sees and on the one who is seen”. When a man looks at a non-mahram woman, then Allah’s curse descends on that individual for as long as he keeps on looking. We are glued to the television for hours, some even more, at a time. Be cautioned my friends. During all this time, Allah’s curse is befalling us.

There is no doubt that society at large influences children, but without any hesitation I can say that the effects the television has are far greater. It is the television that take our children on the path of drugs, alcohol, fornication, disrespect, confrontation, modernism and many other evils that are apparent in our society today. Know that these evils are a direct result of watching and learning from the television. ( But still we dont take heed, we are leading our children into hellfire, May Allah save each one of us )

Infact, television is being used to disseminate evil within the community. You may think that you are passing time and entertaining yourself when you are passing several hours in front of the T.V. You are mistaken my friend! Whatever you watch on television you accept as the truth. The television is not an instrument of entertainment, but an instrument used to reshape and motivate ones thoughts and loyalties.

Television is without any doubt a powerful agent and a stepping stone for fornication. In one Hadith our Nabi sallallahu alaihe wasallam said that among the signs of the Final Approaching Hour is that the whole family (mother, father and children) will collectively indulge in Zina. Hazrat Moulana Yusuf Binnuri has interpreted this Hadith as a reference to the modern mother of immorality, the TV. We find today the whole family – father, mother, sons and daughters – sitting huddled together around the TV set viewing the obscenity and the nudity exhibited on the TV screen.

Together, in a display of stark shamelessness, the whole family is committing Zina of the eyes, Zina of the ears and Zina of the heart, and Allah knows how many multitudes of men and women indulge in the final act of fornication as a result of watching and being aroused by the evil on the TV screen.

Islam lays a great emphasis on modesty, so much so, that our Nabi sallallahu alaihe wasallam said,
"Modesty is a part of Imaan (Faith)."

TV with its emphasis on illicit, depraved and bestial immorality is the very negation of the Islamic concept of modesty and shame. Mother, father and children together viewing the Zina – the fornication and vice on the TV screen – what is now left of humanity?

May Allah protect us and our children from the filth and depravity of the Modern World sunk in perversion and immorality