๐ In The Name Of Allah The Most Gracious The Most Merciful
๐ Just because a Facebook user's timeline doesn't contain many photos of themselves and their friends does not mean that they lack social life offline. The most confident people out there could go to a five-star restaurant, attend a friend's wedding ceremony, do tons of grocery shopping, enjoy a huge family gathering, travel by plane or drive a brand new car without needing to upload selfies on their social media accounts for everyone to see. It's okay if your intention of photographing the food you're about to eat is to helpfully promote a friend's halal cafรฉ, or the purpose of taking pictures at a place is to encourage other Muslims to enroll their kids at an Islamic school, to do Da'wah, or to support an Islamic institute. However posting numerous selfies of oneself in different attire or making it an assignment to snap a collection of photos of almost every meal enjoyed could be an indirect message stating that the selfie-addict is either too in love with themselves or they're slightly insecure. Insecure individuals have this mentality of assuming that only they can be awesome or look beautiful, so anyone else who portrays better skills or fine appearance would be considered as a threat to them. Their insecurity prevents them from complimenting others, congratulating and motivating their peers because they're afraid that the latter may take from their spotlight, supersede or outdo them. So they overcompensate by posting as many pictures of themselves when they're outdoors. "I look specially fabulous today. Let me take a selfie to remind my Instagram and Facebook followers how hot I am.", "Nice classy restaurant... allow me to upload these selfies and emptied plates to showcase the fact I can afford gourmet cuisine and exotic dishes.", "My make-up is on fleek again. This calls for my 100th something selfie. My stalkers can't get enough of this flawless beauty." are some probable thoughts of people with an addiction to selfie-taking.
A reminder to all including myself is to never judge people by their Facebook accounts alone. A Facebooker may hardly post Islamic status updates but their faith/Imaan and Khushoo' or concentration in Salah is way better than many of those who appear intellectually religious online. A so-called hijabi model may receive dozens of reactions to their photo uploads with thousands of followers yet inside they still feel empty as though they're missing something significant in their life. Another user may not be popular on social media but offline they have charisma as well as the courage to interact with various types of people.
If you really want to know what a person is like, don't estimate their value by the number of likes they get from their posts nor scrutinize their online profiles. Actually get to know them in real life, travel with them more than once, have a sleepover at their house or let them stay overnight at yours, go on frequent outings and observe their reaction whenever you can't fulfill all their rights. The actual nature of a person is known when Only Allah Subhaanahu wa Ta'aala sees them day and night, away from prying spectators, not by their online profiles.
๐ Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqqas RadhiAllahu 'anhu narrated: Allah's noble Messenger Muhammad SallAllahu 'alaihi wa sallam said, "Verily, Allah loves a servant who is righteous, independent, and obscure (unknown, unpopular, not famous)."
Source: Sahih Muslim 2965
Grade: Sahih (Authentic) according to Muslim
