Personas, Personality & Perception | Mufti Abu Layth

alayum folks now I did say I was going to share my theory with you so is to do with personas personalities and perception and I mean by that the way we understand Islam or better Muslims to have been throughout history now you've probably asked yourself that I wonder how Muslims were in the past were they always Pious virtuous did they chill how were they let's suspend that Chain of Thought for a moment let's come to the term Persona which originally meant a mask a kind of front we put now although

psychologists May disagree in describing what a Persona is but these are things we all adopt in different context sometimes we may adopt a Persona of being more serious or mature than we actually are sometimes maybe the opposite we're trying to show more of a chill side well if that's got you curious then I've got the perfect experiment to analyze social

media well these personas or masks we place over our face what could be a better place to uncover them than Facebook What would you come across when you examine the Facebook statuses of many Muslims perhaps even our own isn't it interesting how many Muslims come across as very religious always quoting verses of the Quran Hadith also liking to appear very wise quoting wisdoms and wise sayings and

also very virtuous sayings so somebody might sh something like hey did you know the amazing reward for reciting Surah as an example or they might come across as some something like wow Islam is so beautiful wow it's so I just can't get enough of praying and fasting these people will be just like everybody else they'll be into all the everyday things entertainment music movies smoking you name it in their own own lives their attitudes towards these very things may

not even be that harsh or that virtuous as displayed on social media but why you picking on them any brother or you trying to show them up at least they trying on the contrary I'm not actually picking on them I'm just trying to show that having a Persona is quite natural yes although some some of them do overdo it but we all have some personas in different contexts in our lives but imagine reading just those

Facebook statuses and then thinking that's how that person's entire world is with that thought in mind I want us to go back now to the Islamic books which we have today as part of our heritage now we have to understand that these Scholars these books were their social media they too wrote with a Persona now yes we absolutely love the and the Heritage they left us but we have to remember many of the rulings were written from an idealistic perspective and it certainly isn't a

window into their world their actual societies and communities may have been considerably different this is simply food for thought that's all it is there no need to freak out perhaps next time you're thinking everybody in the past used to be so Pious and awesome and we're just so corrupt in this day and age then maybe these thoughts I've shared will help shed some light [Laughter]