# Is This Da’wah or Entertainment? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

**Author:** Tom Facchine
**Series:** Imam Tom Live
**Published:** 2025-07-30
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/zos896GQ5is
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/is-this-dawah-or-entertainment-snapshots
**Topics:** Identity, Politics & Practical Theology, Social Justice

## Description
Many claim to believe. They speak of love for their scripture, loyalty to their prophet, and devotion to God. But belief without obedience is hollow. When revelation challenged comfort, it was ignored. The book was honored in words, but neglected in action. This episode exposes the gap between...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** One of the dangers we face today is edutainment, especially in the social media world. When does Islamic knowledge become cheapened by TikTok trends and everything else?

**[0:15]** It's a tough tightrope to walk because, to be fair, that's where the youth are. People are saying, well, you need to be on social media, you need to put stuff out because if not, they're going to learn it from somebody else. Those who get involved in such da'wah need to be super aware, hypersensitive and have accountability mechanisms and accountability partners to make sure that the logic of the algorithm does not swallow you. Yes, it happens and it can happen to you.

**[0:42]** That going viral is fun, it's tasty, it's addictive, you want more of it. And once you go viral once, now you're thinking subjectively or subconsciously, how do I do the same thing? How do I recreate the right stuff? What's the recipe to go viral again?

**[0:58]** And it takes you down a hard path. If you look at some of the channels that specialize in refutations, if you go through the libraries, the videos with the most views are always the refutations. Even you'll see that some people, maybe they tried to do some beneficial, constructive content that wasn't tied to taking someone down or commenting about this drama or whatever.

**[1:21]** But those videos have very low views. You'll find someone, they've made their first or second refutation video and boom, they comment on something that's dramatic and going on, they blow up, it goes viral. What are you going to do your next time that you do a video? Are you going to go back to teaching Alif Ba Ta? Nope, you're going to try to recreate that recipe to go viral once more and then before you know it, you're being led by your nafs. Hate to say it.

**[1:47]** Caveat, not saying that every refutation video is misguided or wrong. Refutation has a clear time and place in Islamic culture and in the culture of Islamic scholarship. But let's be honest, many, if not the majority of people participating in refutations are neither qualified nor are they taking the proper precautions to stop the runaway train from it just being about a nafs issue.

**[2:11]** Now, there's other things that have to be taken to account of, and that is your interaction with your audience. And I don't mean what you might think I mean by this. I mean that when you put yourself out there and you have a certain brand, intentionally or not, people are going to start to applaud you for certain things.

**[2:29]** Maybe in the previous example, they'll applaud you for speaking the haqq and taking it to them and calling a spade a spade. Or on the other end, they will praise you for, oh, this is so compassionate and this is so merciful and so healing. And this is like, this is what I've been looking for. That praise can be addicting. And if you're not careful, you will end up pandering to your audience, even when the truth is something else.

**[2:57]** If your content is always affirming your core audience, there might be something wrong. We just talked about this, that Islam is a mix of challenging and affirming. You're not going to be affirmed 100% of the time, but you're also not going to be challenged 100% of the time.

**[3:14]** So think about you and your channel and your core audience. What's your relationship to your audience? Are you giving them what they want 100% of the time, 90% of the time? Have you ever challenged your core audience or taken a position that would challenge what your core audience would expect from you? You might be pandering. You might be led by your audience. And then that's really ironic because then who's the influencer? Maybe your audience is steering you.

**[3:38]** These are all things that have to be taken into account. And if you're going to seek knowledge, right, it's not for show. It's not for theater. It's not to get back or to stack ammunition against the other guy or your ops or whatever you think that you're doing. It's for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You want your knowledge to get you into Jannah.

**[3:55]** And the way to make your knowledge to get into Jannah is to, yes, to teach, but also to act by it. It would be a terrible thing if you had secured your intention when you were studying and you obtained the knowledge that you obtained. But then over time, because of the forums upon which you're teaching or spreading your knowledge, then your intention was corrupted. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for sincerity in everything we do, especially those who are teaching.

**[4:25]** Al-Fatiha.

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