Writers' Hotline

Avoiding Fitnah ~@-ScatteredPearlz-

Alternatively, how to prevent yourself and others from falling into fitnah through your story. I personally feel like this is very important issue, especially on Wattpad, where Muslim Fiction is rampant, and is a breeding ground for new types of fitnahs.

In the society we live, rights dominate over responsibilities. Everyone is too busy demanding their rights from others to fulfil their responsibilities towards others. 

On the other hand, Islam advocates fulfilling one's responsibilities to others and seeking your rights in the court of Allah. In reality, should everyone fulfil their responsibilities, everyone's rights would also be met. 

But unfortunately, we can only hope and dream for that. 

Let's delve a bit into our responsibilities as readers and writers within the Islamic community on Wattpad and how we can avoid spreading and falling into fitnah. I will only be speaking from my personal reading and writing experience within the past years. It will not be encompassing everything because in the recent months I've curtailed from reading a lot of stories depending on what themes and genres they explore. 

If you have more tips and points, please share. Let's help and benefit each other. 

Our Responsibilities as Readers—

1) We're all old enough to somewhat identify what is good for us vs what is bad. Similarly, we all have the basic knowledge to differentiate between halal and haraam, as well as toxic and non-toxic things. 

Sometimes things may be confusing and strange, but Alhamdulillah, with the advent of technology, it's fairly easy to reach the correct answers.

Therefore, we all have the choice in what we consume. If there is a story where the writer is not completely adhering to the commands of Islam, and/or is writing in such a way which promotes the wrong things, then it's our responsibility to stop reading it. We can stop ourself from falling into fitnah just like that. Delete the book from your reading list, library and don't look back at it. 

2) If you're a stronger person, you can message the writer explaining the issue. But frankly, on Wattpad, people tend to take offense at anything remotely negative and are usually unable to differentiate between hate and constructive criticism (speaking from experience). I don't tend to message anyone regarding this, because more often than not, they will not listen. And I have better things to do than be a keyboard warrior and haraam police. 

At the end of it, Allah has allowed me to stop reading that book, and whatever is else rests with Him. 

3) Support the writers who write within the Islamic Fiction category. By support, I mean vote and comment on their stories to encourage them. Stories like that are falling to the bottom of the algorithm and hard to discover. many a times, the writers lose heart and even stop writing their stories. 

Encourage them, leave a comment here and there. Trust me, it will make their whole day. If you're a silent reader, just vote and leave a little comment, even if it may be an emoji. Perhaps, as a writer, I can relate a bit more to this. Even though I have no wish to be published author, when I see notifs of votes, and even better, comments, it really lights up my whole day. 

It doesn't take much effort from our side, and we will gain reward by making a fellow Muslim happy all the while encouraging them to continue with their stories. 

Promote the stories which are beautifully written and completely fall into 'Islamic Fiction'. Books like these are woefully rare and need more love so they can be read. Books like 'Woven', 'No Yesterday', 'Journey to Hidayah', 'The Anthem of the Rebels', 'Empires of Faith' etc.