Diary of a Badman -- Haram or not?
 

For those not familiar with "Diary of a Badman" it is a YouTube series depicting the life of a young Muslim adult living in the UK and his daily struggles and what you could say, "adventures" in life. It's mixed with comedy, action etc. and at the end of most episodes it spreads message about Islam and also gives message about dawah. Search "Diary of a Badman" on YouTube to see what kind of videos he is promoting.

I would like to know if it is haram to watch these series because some people have claimed he his portraying Islam in a negative way.

Here is a response to his videos created by AlQadr Media:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBUI23FQ7Gs

Here is his response on the people who have questioned him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnVu4V0XDgw

So who is right?

Allah knows best.

Salaamu alaiykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuhu

If this is a personal question (as in for your own concern), then I think (inshallaah) you can live without watching Diary of a Badman (reminder to myself too btw). There are so many awesome islamic lectures out there which will be more effective in teaching you stuff. If you like the comedy thing, then why not Baba Ali or "qwertyfshag"? I guess they are definately a better alternative.

If this is a contributive question (as in for all those who are influenced by it), then I think you should tell them that Allah has given them many better ways of entertainment and we don't really need to be living our lives based upon someone else other than the prophet Muhammad PBUH (whether you're a pakistani youth living in Britain (which I completely acknowledge the difficulties they face) or anyone else).

I will not say more than this and I encourage others not to aswell, lest we backbite. Let's just call it a misunderstanding...

Salaam.

I think it goes without saying that some of the content of DOABM are haraam.

However, listening to br Humza's response instead of retaliating he appears to have taken some of the advice/criticism on board which is a good sign if true.

Is it true, i heard - (Qeela Wa Qaala) that Br. Humza apparently appeared on some desi pop video on an asian music channel, dancing around and being a lunatic? before i comment further, can someone confirm this?

First of all people need to understand that there is something called comedy and that is what this brother is trying to use as a tool to convey his ISLAMIC message.

secondly, he has appeared in a pop video of the Bhangra genre, but I think he,s already apologised for that and pointed out that he is only human.

Thirdly, these people making the opposing video are part of a publici stunt to promote a certain media company, no question about this, what's with all the follow us on Facebook, Twitter etc... And the media organisation backing this video?

I know very very very knowledgable ulema who use humor as part of the way they convey their message, incidentally those tend to be the most remembered talks.

Finally, using humor and "fun" to teach Islam Isn't making fun of Islam. People need to understand the distinction between the two, and grow up.

Salam

Saqqib

This is a very delicate point, and either one gets it or doesnt. There are probably no fencesitters about the use of comedy for dawaa purposes.

The issue here is really that of adab. I wouldn't recommend anybody to watch his videos. I hope I am not backbiting him but somethings need to be made clear. Mashaa Allah yes the good thing is that he admits his mistakes and we hope that he is doing tawbah to Allah. The problem is that even the non practising youth are watching his videos and leaving unaffected, I personally don't see how it can help. I think he needs to don the sunnah much more, in appearance and conduct within the videos. If he could dress like the prophet sallAllahu 'alaihi wa sallam, wouldn't our youth be even just a little inclined towards that appearance? Sometimes when citing hadith there is lack of adab, we were taught that when learning or teaching hadith one should be in wudu, with 'itr and humble.

If he has done tawbah, khair but I still think the youth need to be given dawah another way. A way which appeals to them but is central to the teachings of Islam. As in, full sunnah is shown and deen is shown as true and positive. Allah guides through different means, I know at least one person stumbled upon a video of Qur'an on youtube and he received hidayah. I myself back in the days when I was becoming more interested in deen, used to watch these serious videos by a wonderful brother. He used to call himself mMrlucky. No comedy, but I don't know what it was that appealed so much. Probably the fact that he was from the youth just like us. He just calmly gave short naseehah videos and I remember once he said something and I ended up doing dhikr from Maghrib to 'Isha or something similar (out of fear for Allah). He isn't on youtube anymore, but some people have uploaded his videos from before- example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyPQCnh08L0

There are also some other brothers on youtube who don't use comedy at all but just the fact that they are sympathetic to the youth and they have good Islamic conduct draws people to them.

Watch this junk if you want to see your mind evolve from a person to that of a monkey.
This is the same level of trash like most other trash you find on YouTube. No sensible person would watch it and certainly would not let his kids watch it.
I once watched maybe 2 minutes when some kids put in on in my house........boy what a lot of tosh

Btw, why is there background music playing in the first video whilst Shaykh Abdul Jabbar is criticising 'the devils music' at the same time?

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I think Humza had too much ego, saying: "I could say things about them" even regarding Brother Abdul Jabbar whom he didn't even know! The problem is that this type of video was a last grasp attempt to save his "fans" from not leaving. So this is why he conducted his video in such manner. The brothers clearly gave him naseehah earlier on and kept on telling him to not do such and such even after they departed, but he still went to do and employ haram stuffs in his videos and feature in some desi video, alot young Muslims who follow him on and his page will see this that their "role model" is doing this then it must be okay. This is the essence the brothers at al-Qadr media were saying, but there is no doubt in any sane Muslims mind that DOABM is damn right junk, waste of time. Hopefully in his new series he will employ much more adab and stay within the bounds of the laws of Allah and encourage young Muslim and Non Muslims towards Islam.

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One must also not forget that at times the blessed vein of Rasulullah http://discussworldissues.com/forums...ilies/pbuh.gif would pulsate in anger when the laws and hukm of the Shariah were being violated.

One must also not forget Hadhrat Abu Bakr's anger when a hukm of the Shariah was being violated.

One must also not forget Hadhrat Umar http://discussworldissues.com/forums...ilies/anhu.gif's anger at people distorting the deen.

One must also not forget Hadhrat Ali http://discussworldissues.com/forums...ilies/anhu.gif's anger at the innovaters in the Deen.

Anger for the sake of Allah Ta'ala is a blessing. One must remember to be sincere and make sure that the intention is solely for Allah.

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They have 'singled out one brother' because 95% of the videos are focussed on this one single brother. badMAN = br Humza. And in actual fact Shaykh Abdul Jabbar also criticises the female actress who wears a niqab and is shown to be in a club with many men, carrying a knife amongst other things.

Conducted a discussion....they say at the start of the video "Please note Humza Arshad was approached by the exCrew and other scholars, but he rejected them...every effort was made". If he did reject any direct approach for discussion, how can there be any discussion? Whilst at the same time his filth is propagated far and wide on the internet every day.

If, as the ex-members are saying, young children are being affected by this and imitating whats being shown on these videos then they were completely in the right to make this video to stay away from DOABM.

I also don't believe it was a publicity stunt. Which company does NOT provide links to their website regardless of the content a particular video? Hanafi Fiqh Channel, Zaytuna. Riyadul Haq's Al-Kauther Organisation, they all do.

As for the 'crazy mullah rant' view..amongst ignorant youth this may have actually been the dominant view if it was just Shaykh Abdul Jabbar. But from what I've read and seen, the presence of the two ex-members has had a major impact since they were part of this series, they themselves are young, non 'mullahs' and they have realised the errors of their ways mashaAllah.

Im sorry, but you're missing the point, the brothers of al-Qadr media made the video and clearly took on nearly all the blame, i was one at first who thought the brother with the beard was to blame because he didn't inform Br Humza of his problem, but they have realised their mistakes and have tried their best to rectify what they did wrong before even making that video.

But Khayr it is not a blaming game, the brothers of al-Qadr want to say to Br Humza as they have done on previous occasions, is that his videos, though should contain humour but should be within the limits of the Deen of Allah, not a woman in a club with a knife with men, no music, no dancing, no girls or appear as a joker on music videos etc etc. Because at the end of the day if you want it to be Islamic keep fully to it, and if you just want to be a comedian with no aim of it being Islamic then fully keep to that also, you can do both.

Shouting and raising voice is the way Muhammad Abdul Jabbar speaks and one should be stern when speaking regarding Haram and Halal, and nearly all his talks are like that, he is warning people that the videos of DOABM are NOT Islamic though it is being made out to be so.

I felt there was too much ego from Br Humza, the way he said "I can tell you about them, but i won't", that is a very very cheap shot, absolutely cheap.

Bottom line is DOABM is NOT Islamic, if people want to watch a comedian just to laugh without gaining Islamic ethics or get mixed messages, then DOABM is FOR YOU. If you want to fully gain Islamic ethics and a nice thorough message then DOABD is NOT FOR YOU.

Wa AlaykumuSalaam wa Rahmatullah,

In one of his videos you can see a copy of Fadhaa'il ul A'maal on his desk, so it seems as though he/his family are familiar with the effort. Perhaps someone should take him to seek advice from the Elders?

I think you took my quote out of proportion bro. I was merely saying that I believe people, consciously or sub-consciously, are starting to take him as someone who is a good role model at this day and age e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0_p8Fr6DQI. The boy is not at fault at all, and Allah is the all Just. And the fact that he puts islamic things in there, make it seem even more okay for them to follow him. Let's face it. If the people are not completely following the prophet Muhammad PBUH (can you say you are?), they are likely to get someone else as their role model, and they want someone who fits in with the modern day "cool" while at the same time has some islamic benefit.
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Be careful bro. If you let your emotions get the best of you, you'll actually fall in the wrong yourself. It's a trick of shaytan that he makes one think it's okay/just to judge and slander someone just because that person APPEARS TO judge and slander someone else. Let us all watch out for that trick before it hits us.
May Allah protect us.

P.S. Like I said in the beginning, there's many other ways of achieving the same entertainment but in a less controversial way. Why not seek them out and keep safe?

Jazakallahu khaiyr for that reminder. Really excellent.

Brother, you make out as if Shaykh Abdul Jabbar singled out a single unknown individual who no-one knew about and had minimal influence on people. Wake up, he's not targeting or judging an uninfluential, unknown individual just for the sake of it.

The truth is this series has become somewhat of a phenomenon. If you go to youtube and add up the 'views' of the first ten parts alone the total comes to 30 million. And the majority of these gullible viewers are clearly liking and being influenced by this individual making fun of the sunnah, a niqabi actress dancing with men in a club, scantily clad girls dancing in the park. I read somewhere else that in one of the episodes br Hamza and his 'crew' were taking turns to try and obtain girls telephone numbers in the park. No-one in their right mind can try and defend these carefully orchestrated haraam scenes and say 'dont judge dont judge!'

Back to the point of singling out one person - as mentioned he has tens of millions of followers - when something so unislamic becomes so widespread of course the ulema are correct to warn people to stay away from such filth.

The fact that the main actor intersperses trying to get girls numbers with Quranic verses and getting an actress in niqab to dance in a club with men and then later on quoting a hadith presents a dangerous and slipperly slope to many - is this actually ok to watch? Hence the obvious warning from the Shaykh and ex-members.

its amazing that people got so hung up on DOABM, look at the amount of "muslim" singers, rappers, musicians, actors doing MUCH WORSE than this yet people are asking is watching this halal? i wish this scholar picked all the muslim musicians,singers,actors etc. and make a whole lecture about each and every one of them, to pick DOABM and ridicule him was totally unfair since there are thousands doing much worse

Is "Muhammad Abdul Jabbar" an 'alim? He doesn't come across that way to me.

He does sound a lot like Maulana Ahmad Ali and Shaykh Zaheer Mahmood in his speaking style though.

But please, if he is not an 'alim, please, please stop referring to him as such.

From my perspective this whole episode appears to be a case of Humza (non-'alim) v. Abdul Jabbar (non-'alim).

I'd rather stick to the ulamah myself for me deen http://discussworldissues.com/forums...on_biggrin.gif