Ethics in the Digital World: What About Profile Photos?

Sharing a photograph should have a sound and compelling reason; otherwise, it may reveal hidden or overt ill intentions.

Knowingly sharing a photograph where it will be seen and attract the attention of non-mahrams is a form of trying to promote and produce corruption and, in certain cases, a covert attempt to prey on the opposite sex and create illicit relationships.

The virtual world may appear to be merely virtual, but in reality it is entirely real—a sphere of action and influence, and of being influenced, that extends far beyond what we think of as the real world.

Virtual spaces can open the door to corruption and a descent into the terrifying abyss of Saqar. The spiritual and psychological vulnerability of people in these spaces is widespread and serious.

The mistaken belief that these spaces are unreal weakens people’s sense of caution and security, giving rise to grave and dangerous spiritual and inward harms.

Under present conditions and management, entering these spaces is like going into a battlefield, confronting every kind of vicious, stinging, and dangerous beast, and facing all manner of contagious and perilous diseases.

And so on …

**Ethics and Rules of Virtual Spaces**
**Virtuality 1**

The Owner, Master, and King of both the real and virtual worlds is God alone!

A false sense of ownership over virtual spaces can lead a person to the brink of disbelief and associating partners with God!!

Some people may think of themselves as kings of a virtual group’s realm, becoming so absorbed in the role that they even claim authority and high office. Going further still, they may imagine themselves masters with absolute power over the group’s members, able to take their lives at will. This is an extremely dangerous stage, because this false sense of power will take root within them. Perhaps, like Pharaoh, they will proclaim, « أنا ربکم الأعلى‏ », or, like Nimrod, «أنا أحیی‏ و أمیت», or, like tyrants, order their subordinates to carry out executions in the virtual world!

Yes, the virtual world has virtual executioners too!

Yes, the virtual world has its Pharaohs and Nimrods too!

Yes, the virtual world has its own particular virtual prophets too!

Yes, the virtual world has killers and victims—and martyrs—too!

Yes, the virtual world has claimants who are true, and claimants who are false!

Yes, the virtual world can be like a university, or like a place of ignorance: it can produce knowledge or produce ignorance!

Yes, in the virtual world, too, people can incur debts of conscience!

Yes, the virtual world can be a place of guidance or of misguidance and error!

Yes, the virtual world can be a field of divine trial too!!!

Let us be mindful of the One God, Lord of both the real and virtual worlds!

**Ethics and Rules of Virtual Spaces**
**Virtuality 2**

Injustice is committed with the greatest of ease in the virtual world. The greatest punishment for the oppressor is to be deprived of God’s love: «و الله لا یحب الظالمین » Oppressive activity online truly makes anyone who engages in it an oppressor!

Freedom of expression applies to virtual spaces too; not every truthful statement should be suppressed!

The presence of informed and knowledgeable people helps keep virtual spaces safe and healthy. Removing them puts the health of these spaces at risk!

Informed, learned, and well-researched people in virtual spaces—who serve as the brain, senses, and nervous system of those spaces—should be supported. Removing them will drive virtual groups towards stupidity!

Fair, informed, and learned criticism can lead virtual groups to a garden of pure knowledge. Without criticism, and with group administrators acting unchecked, the production of knowledge in virtual spaces will cease; perhaps, whether deliberately or by accident, ignorance will be served to group members in place of knowledge!

One day, these very virtual groups will testify against their administrators and members! Minds and hearts are in motion in virtual arenas, active and susceptible to influence!

Unrealistic support for group administrators and experts will only deepen the groups’ corruption!

The unjust removal of members who offer a group well-intentioned criticism in virtual spaces reveals how ready those who “must obey orders” may be to physically eliminate those same critics in the real world!

Fabricated hadith spread very rapidly in virtual spaces. We must take great care before sharing material. Content taken from online sources with misleading web addresses should never make us neglect scrutiny, verification, and comparison with the original sources!

Ethics and Rules of Virtual Spaces
Virtuality 3
Virtual Nerves, Real Functions

The virtual nervous system of a group safeguards its health. One of its functions is to generate awareness and understanding—and, at times, to cause pain and discomfort, sounding an alarm for the life of the group.

A group’s nerves must be strengthened. Cutting off its nervous system may seem to create security and a calm, reassuring atmosphere, but in reality, that silence is a sign of deficiency. Such calm actually points to hidden corruption within the group, which may put its intellectual life at serious risk and bring about its destruction.

Silence is not always a sign of peace; it may well be a sign of deafness and an evident defect.

Although groups are virtual, the people in them are real—and they have the right to reason, think and choose freely.

If critic and criticised become one and the same, every spoiled morsel will become food for the souls of the group’s members. The presence of critical, well-intentioned people will help keep unhealthy, toxic fare off the table.

Students cannot be good critics of their teachers, since they are still studying subjects with which they are not yet fully familiar; they accept what their teachers say largely on trust. The presence of different teachers and specialists helps preserve the health, integrity and authenticity of groups.

Smearing critics is a way to dominate a space without competition. It allows possible errors and illegitimate or incorrect claims to remain hidden and unexamined. Yet their harmful effects will endanger the hearts and souls of the group’s members and pave the way for corruption.

To label critics as members of deviant groups or sects is an evident injustice to the critics. It is also a further injustice to the group’s members, who will come to see every critic as resembling the ignorant and fanatical groups. This means the death of knowledge and understanding in the hearts and minds of the group’s members!

الأعراف : 79 فتولى عنهم و قال یا قوم لقد أبلغتکم رساله ربی و نصحت لکم و لکن لا تحبون الناصحین

(Salih) turned away from them and said, “My people, I have delivered to you the message of my Lord and sincerely counselled you. But you do not love those who counsel you.”

هود : 34 و لا ینفعکم نصحی‏ إن أردت أن أنصح لکم إن کان الله یرید أن یغویکم هو ربکم و إلیه ترجعون

“But what good would my counsel do you, even if I wished to counsel you, if God wills to lead you astray for your sins? He is your Lord, and to Him you will be returned.”

الأعراف : 66 قال الملأ الذین کفروا من قومه إنا لنراک فی‏ سفاهه و إنا لنظنک من الکاذبین

The unbelieving leaders of his people said, “We see you as a fool, and we surely think you are a liar!”

We must judge even our enemies fairly—how much more so our friends, brothers and sisters.

Ethics and Rules of Virtual Spaces

Virtual Space 4⃣

The duty to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong must not be neglected in virtual spaces!

Carrying out this duty, offering guidance and preventing distortions and misconceptions in virtual spaces can be difficult. It is easy for people to remove anyone whose views differ from their own, leaving their groups populated only by those who agree—or stay silent.

Removing a group’s well-wishers and critics, then launching a smear campaign against them—whether openly or by implication—is tantamount to drying up the roots of every good and strengthening every evil. Misrepresenting those who enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong is a way of aiding falsehood and spreading sin and corruption, along with misconceptions!

فمن أمر بالمعروف شد ظهر المؤمن و من نهى عن المنکر أرغم أنف الفاسق(نهج البلاغه)

Whoever enjoins what is right strengthens the believer’s back, and whoever forbids what is wrong rubs the sinner’s nose in the dust.

So anyone who acts against the words of our Master, or sets out to discredit those who enjoin what is right, is in fact rubbing the believer’s nose in the dust and strengthening the sinner.

We may well compare the Salmans, Abu Dharrs and Miqdads of our own time to the Kharijites, and, heedless of what we are doing, set about discrediting the faithful in our community—perhaps even taking pleasure in this dangerous act. But such people will be ashamed before the presence of our Imam of the Age!

Critiquing philosophical theories is not the same as excommunicating or condemning any philosopher, scholar or thinker. Philosophical debate requires criticism and discussion; without them, philosophy has no meaning. Remaining silent in the face of philosophical views that run counter to one’s own principles is contrary to the spirit of philosophy itself!

We must not compare the views of philosophers with the pure hadiths of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), which are pristine and unalloyed wisdom. The words of the Ahl al-Bayt flow from the clear spring of reason, and have neither rival nor equal. Placing the exalted words of these revered figures alongside the theories of philosophers is an evident injustice to the realm of truth!

If a complainant becomes the judge, they may well level baseless accusations against the other party. Justice must be observed in every setting, whether real or virtual, for justice is an undeniable truth. Unfounded accusations can be pursued by any means—through virtual channels, through real-world avenues, or by appealing to the presence of God, the Exalted!

المائده : 8 یا أیها الذین آمنوا کونوا قوامین لله شهداء بالقسط و لا یجرمنکم شنآن قوم على‏ ألا تعدلوا اعدلوا هو أقرب للتقوى‏ و اتقوا الله إن الله خبیر بما تعملون

O you who believe! Stand firm for God and bear witness with justice. Do not let your hatred of a people lead you into sin by abandoning justice. Be just; that is nearer to God-consciousness. And be mindful of God. Indeed, God is fully aware of what you do.

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Ethics and Guidelines for Virtual Spaces

Majāziyya 5⃣
Unjust Reproaches
Do not condemn anyone beyond the measure of their fault. If the mistake was unintentional, simply point it out to the person who made it, and refrain from reproaching them!
If someone has repented of a deliberate wrong, do not subject them to a barrage of blame, barbed remarks and insinuations; nothing will come of it but deeper enmity.
Reproach driven by vengeance goes against the way of the Ahl al-Bayt عليهم السلام and is wrong!
Enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong are means of strengthening devotion, friendship and love. Reproach runs counter to this blessed duty!
قال رسول الله ص من عیر أخاه بذنب قد تاب منه لم یمت حتى یعمله‏
Warrām’s Collection, vol. 1, p. 113
The Messenger of God صلى الله عليه وآله said: “Whoever reproaches his brother for a sin of which he has repented will not die before committing that very sin himself.”
Let us remember that God loves those who repent—Al-Baqara, 2:222: ... إن الله یحب التوابین و یحب المتطهرین—so let us not reproach God’s friends, lest we be disciplined by God in retribution!
If someone makes a mistake unintentionally and regrets it, their standing is different from that of a repentant sinner; we should not add to their distress!
Using another person’s inadvertent mistake to hurt and torment them is a kind of delight in the occurrence of a mistake, and we should repent before God for taking such pleasure!
قال رسول الله ص لا تظهر الشماته بأخیک فیرحمه الله و یبتلیک.
Al-Amālī (al-Ṣadūq), text, p. 228
The Messenger of God صلى الله عليه وآله said: “Do not rejoice at your brother’s misfortune, for God may show him mercy and afflict you instead.”
When we witness another person’s mistake, let us look within ourselves and seek refuge in God from the possibility that we may commit a similar one!
عن أبی جعفر ع قال: لما فارق موسى الخضر ع قال موسى أوصنی فقال‏ الخضر الزم ما لا یضرک معه شی‏ء کما لا ینفعک من غیره شی‏ء إیاک و اللجاجه و المشی إلى غیر حاجه و الضحک فی غیر تعجب یا ابن عمران لا تعیرن أحدا بخطیئه و ابک على خطیئتک.
Biḥār al-Anwār (Beirut edition), vol. 70, p. 386
In his counsel to Moses عليه السلام, Khidr عليه السلام said: “... O son of Imran, never reproach anyone for a sin; weep instead for your own.”
Let us sweeten people’s lives through acts of forgiveness; let us not deepen their bitterness with the poison of cruelty, barbed remarks, insinuations and reproach.
Āl ʿImrān, 3:134: الذین ینفقون فی السراء و الضراء و الکاظمین الغیظ و العافین عن الناس و الله یحب المحسنین
They are those who give in prosperity and adversity, restrain their anger and pardon others; God loves those who do good.

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Ethics and Guidelines for Virtual Spaces

Majāziyya 6
Let Us Honour the Sacred Realm of Reports and Hadith
Verses and hadith are trusts from God and His saints placed in our hands. We must be faithful custodians, striving with heart and soul to protect them!
One of our duties in preserving and safeguarding verses and hadith is not to use them except in their proper context. Careless use shows disregard for their lofty standing and dignity!
We must not use verses and reports as tools!
Let us never use verses and reports to advance personal or factional aims; a wrongdoer may even incur the curse of those very verses and reports!
Let us take to heart our Master’s counsel and not become an example of what he described: إن هاهنا لعلما جما و أشار بیده إلى صدره لو أصبت له حمله بلى [أصیب‏] أصبت لقنا غیر مأمون علیه مستعملا آله الدین للدنیا و مستظهرا بنعم الله على عباده و بحججه على أولیائه‏. “Know that here”—and he pointed to his chest—“there is abundant knowledge, if only I could find those capable of bearing it. Indeed, I have found one: perceptive, but not trustworthy. He uses religion as a means to worldly gain, boasts over God’s servants of God’s blessings, and uses the proofs of God to overpower His friends.”
Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition), p. 496
Just as—God forbid—someone would commit a vile act by throwing the Qur’an or books of hadith at another person in revenge, so too it is no less vile to use verses and narrations to take revenge on someone!
We must not mistake verses and reports for weapons, whether cold or firearms, and wield them for personal vendettas!
Using verses and reports beautifully is a way of adorning and honouring them; using them out of place is like muddying them!
Reports and hadith are meant to revive hearts. We must not turn them into tools—God forbid, into cudgels—to destroy and shatter hearts.
A mosque is no place for quarrelling; let us honour the host. Verses and reports are not for personal or instrumental use; let us respect those to whom they belong.
We should sacrifice ourselves for God’s verses and reports, not sacrifice them for ourselves!

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