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Muslims in Web3, with Sh. Mustafa Umar | DoubleTake S4 E4
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When Facebook changed its company name to Meta, it doubled down on its commitment to the future of the internet: the so-called “metaverse.” But with tech companies laying off thousands of employees and billions of dollars being wiped out in the cryptocurrency bubble collapse, the future is still unclear, and preparing for it seems as confusing as ever.
What is Web3, and what will it change about how we use the internet? As Muslims, how should we assess the risks and opportunities offered by this new frontier? How can we utilize the latest technologies as a means of better serving Islam, Muslims, and the world at large?
In this episode, host Mohamad Zaoud talks to Sh. Mustafa Umar, a fellow at Yaqeen and the Religious Director at the Islamic Center of Irvine.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah. When Facebook changed its company name to Meta, it doubled down on its commitment to the future of the internet, the so-called metaverse. But with tech companies laying off thousands of employees and billions of dollars being wiped out in crypto recently, the future is still unclear, and preparing for it seems as confusing as ever. What is Web3 and what will it change about how we use the internet? As Muslims, how should we assess the risks and opportunities offered by this new frontier? How can we utilize the latest technologies as a means to better serve Islam, Muslims and the world at large? Today, I spoke with Sheikh Mustafa Omar about Muslims in the age of Web3 and the metaverse. Welcome to a new episode of Double Take, a podcast by Yaqeen Institute about the questions and ideas around Islams and Muslims that give us pause. Remember to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Check out the links in the show notes if you want to share feedback with the team or you would like to join our new email newsletter. Sheikh Mustafa is the religious director of the Islamic Center of Irvine and an executive member of the Fiqh Council of North America. He was previously the founder and president of California Islamic University. He completed a bachelor's in theology and Islamic law in France and a master's in Islamic studies from the University of Gloucestershire. Sheikh Mustafa completed the Iftar program at Dar al-Iftar, Birmingham, UK, granting him the title of Mufti or specialist in Islamic law. Sheikh Mustafa also has a bachelor's degree in information and computer science from UC Irvine. Enjoy the episode. Sheikh Mustafa, Salam alaikum and welcome to Double Take. Wa alaikum salam, thanks for having me. Sheikh, you know the saying, if you're the smartest guy in the room, you're in the wrong
room. I'm sorry to tell you, you're in the wrong room. I'm really looking forward to this conversation because there's a lot to get through about Web3 and Metaverse. Sheikh Mustafa, there's been a lot of hype in the past two years about crypto, NFTs, Metaverse. These things are all related to Web3 and it's been presented as the next phase of the internet. I keep being told that NFTs are like what MS-DOS was in the 1990s. Few people had it, but it's just a moment away from being mainstream. But that seems very, very far away at this point. Cryptocurrencies and NFT bubbles seem to have been bursting over this last period, or at least plateauing. And Facebook's Metaverse isn't necessarily coming along as planned. And following the latest news has been quite overwhelming. Me, as someone who's a simple guy in Sydney, not really following every single article about this stuff. So to get us started, before we get into the context of how Muslims should interact with Web3, help me understand what Web3 is, please. Sure. So this term, Web3, a lot of people have been talking about it for at least several years now. So it's basically a way of looking at the evolution of the internet. So Web 1.0 was basically like static pages where you're just consuming content from other people, mostly from big, large corporations. Microsoft had a website and Capcom had a website. And you're basically just getting information from that website. That was basically Web 1.0, which is like static websites. Some people had personal websites. And then Web 2.0, the
idea of how the internet was primarily being used shifted. And it shifted when it came to social media. Other people were interacting with content. A lot of people were leaving comments on videos, writing blog posts. There was MySpace. Facebook came up, all of these things. So now there's a lot more interaction between people rather than just going there to read information. So that was like Web 2.0. So what Web 3 is, what makes it different is this idea of a few things. Number one, to make the web, to make the internet more decentralized by using blockchain technology and other things, like you were mentioning about NFTs. Also contained within it is the usage of artificial intelligence, usage of machine learning and other things. So usually when we say Web 3, we're focusing primarily on decentralization of the internet. And then you can expand that in a very broad fashion and say, it's basically what the future of the internet is going to look like. What are people going to be doing and how they're going to be interacting through the internet. It's going to be very different from what it is right now, significantly different. So what does that look like? That's pretty much what Web 3.0 is pretty much referring to. So where's Web 3.0 now? Am I interacting with it? Do I consume Web 3.0 at the moment or is this something that's in the distant future? So there are services already that are decentralized. So there are things that are already utilizing blockchain technology. There are already programs that do not have to be hosted particularly on a specific server. And they're kind of owned by or controlled by users, not by major companies like Facebook or Meta or Google or something like that. So services like that
already exist, but there are very few. And what they're saying is in the future, there's going to be a lot more of those services. When it comes to artificial intelligence and things like that, yes, you're already utilizing that. So you're utilizing that when you use your Amazon Alexa or if you use your Siri to go and get results or something like that, that's already being implemented. So that's already people already using that on a regular basis. And that's a very new way of it's different from the old artificial intelligence that we're using when we are playing like chess against a Windows machine or something like that. Having the metaverse, how integrated is that with Web3? We hear a lot about meta, metaverse. Is this something I really need to learn about? Sorry, I'm just trying to get all of these kind of explanations through the door just so that we can get into as Muslims how we need to interact with this whole new world. Yeah, a lot of people, they're not that familiar with these terms. Some people are, some people are not. So metaverse should not be confused with multiverse or something like that. The idea that there's different universes in the meta, in the universe. Metaverse is basically this concept that it's an immersive experience of a virtual world. And people can live inside of that world. They can have an avatar. They can have a persona that they can design. And they're going to be interacting with other people. They're going to be interacting with products. They're going to be experiencing advertisements. That's what the general metaverses is referring to. Now the concept itself, it could actually be there's going to be one metaverse where everyone is going to be part of that metaverse, which not sure how likely that is, but there's going to be different types of metaverses. So in the sense that we're already experiencing
these type of virtual worlds, anyone who's seen their children play like Roblox or Minecraft or one of these things, they're kind of interacting in a more primitive version of a metaverse where you get an avatar, you kind of walk around, you have settings, you can live through that. So that's what we're talking about when we talk about the metaverse. So the difference in the metaverse is that immersive experience of virtual reality or augmented reality. And this is what companies like Meta are trying to build. And then you have Web3, which is the decentralization of the internet in general. And they're going to try to decentralize that future internet, which is partly going to be the metaverse as well. So metaverse is part of what uses Web3 technology. Is that what I'm hearing? So if we expand Web3, it's hard to define exactly what it is. If we expand Web3 as much as possible and say it's all the future technologies, then yes, we can include the metaverse in that. Sometimes when people, you guys got to be careful with terms. So sometimes when people are talking about Web3, they're just primarily talking about decentralization of the internet. And that's going to play out depending on which metaverse is made by whom and how it's marketed and whether it's in the control of a monopoly or just a few companies or something like that. It's going to make a difference depending on how that pans out. So for the purpose of this conversation, then share a couple of things. Let me just quickly summarize what I understood from those two definitions. So Web3 is kind of the future internet. It's a decentralization of the internet. So it's new technologies on the horizon. Metaverse is this virtual reality, which is a whole world in the internet, I guess. I'll tell you why as a Muslim, I'm interested in this stuff. First of all, just generally, I'm interested
because I want to adopt new technologies. I want to see what's out there and I want to stay kind of, I want to keep my finger on the pulse. But as a parent, as a Muslim parent, I want to stay connected to what my kids are growing up with. So my parents weren't really kind of, they were speaking a different language technologically. And frankly, I don't want to be in that same boat. I want to know, you know, when my kids are on roadblocks, I want to know it. I want to know about it. I want to know kind of the challenges that they're facing. I want to talk their language. So for me, frankly, this conversation is about learning the language that my kids are going to grow up in. And I want to get ahead of it before it's too late. So it's almost like for me, a responsibility to learn these things as opposed to just, you know, keeping up with technology. That's a good intention. And that's something that's very wise. You know, I would just encourage all Muslim parents to have that same mindset, because that's extremely important. Because what happened is, you know, in my generation, people were very averse to technology. They would be like, oh, you know, this is, you know, this is not going to go anywhere. And I heard so many times from family members, you know, Internet's not going to go anywhere. This is just a fad. And so many things like that. And then later on, they realize they're way behind not understanding what I'm doing, what my friends are doing. And now, you know, their grandchildren, too, they just really try to play catch up. And the world has changed. And if you don't understand the world, you can't provide correct guidance, you can't relate to people. So we really do need to understand what's happening, especially on a massive scale. Great. So help me understand then, Sheikh, you have an Islamic background, you also have a technology background, and you're well versed in this space. So what are the opportunities
on the horizon for the next phase of the Internet for us as Muslims? So if I wanted to use and get involved in this Web3 space, what are the opportunities for me? I mean, the opportunities are unlimited if you think about what we can do with the new technology. So if you just look at what technology has done, you know, we're able to have a video conference here and we're able to, you know, record this podcast. I don't have to fly all the way out to Australia, you know, and we're still doing this, you know, so that's a huge blessing. You're more than welcome. Yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to be someday, inshallah. But it makes things more convenient and we can actually have this interaction. So the same thing is going to happen is that, you know, the possibilities are really endless. I'll give a few examples, right? So like, imagine, you know, one of the biggest complaints of online classes, and it's one of my complaints that I have, you know, with students who are sitting there online, is that they're not going to get the same connection, you know, with the Sheikh or with the teacher or something like that, because it's not the same on a screen versus someone, you know, actually being there in person. So a lot of the emotion, the feeling, the potential for tarbiyah and like really imbibing, you know, connecting with your teacher, it's missing. What's going to happen is with this virtual reality, with augmented reality, with these immersive classes, you're going to be able to attend the class and the class that you're attending, you know, you could potentially, you know, everyone can be in the first row. You're going to be right next to your teacher, and you're going to be able to feel their, the sensations, their little movement of their head or the nodding or way the way they open their eyes, the way they're talking to you, and they can see you in exactly the same way. So a lot of the complaints, a lot of the problems that come with, you know, remote based learning is actually going to be improved significantly. Some of the negative effects of not being in person, they're
going to be significantly improved, because you can have that immersive experience. So you can get that level of tarbiyah, you're going to have immersive classes, you know, you can have some things like you can just imagine some things you may want some things you may not want. But you know, one of my friends we're talking, we're like, you know, imagine if you walk into the masjid, and all of a sudden, they do a scan, and they're like, you know, welcome, Mustafa, you know, you welcome back to the masjid. You've performed, you know, 14 prayers this week at the masjid, you know, good job, you had a target set. And it can basically, you know, scan everything that you're doing. So there could be like a facial scan, there's going to be virtual experiences of people going and visiting different, you know, historical sites, you're like, you know, I always wanted to know what, what Mecca and Medina look like during the time of the Prophet. So you're going to walk around, and you'd be like, these are the type of homes that they lived in, you can you can walk around and have that experience, right? You can, you know, have artificial intelligence, you know, correcting your tajweed when you're reciting Quran, there's already, you know, there's an app for that, like, I think it's called Tartir, you can recite, it'll take you to the place, it can correct your tajweed. So I mean, with this technology, we can do a lot of things that is going to really help our lives as Muslims to improve our lives as Muslims to get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to develop a stronger community. So this is this just infinite ways of how we can utilize this technology for good. You know, subhanAllah, it's, it's exciting. It really is. And I do feel like, unlike many other technologies, this whole virtual space can can be embraced. It's a positive thing, especially for remote learning. I see that. But when I talk about new technologies, the one thing I can and Muslims, one thing that keeps coming to mind is a very famous Sheikh
in the 90s coming up on the mimba, very, very famous, saying that satellite TV is haram. And basically warning everyone against satellite TV. Now, you know, fast forward, 10 years or so, the Sheikh has lessons on satellite TV. But the thing for me is, I see where he's coming from. Like, there are more questions and there are answers about this whole new world. And it seems to me like just like you could use it for good. Clearly, there'll be so many more doors of evil, many more khutbah to shaitan on the horizon. So with that in mind, what would you say are the risks of this new world of web three for Muslims specifically? Yeah, I mean, there's definitely several risks. And if you're saying specifically for Muslims, I mean, one of the problems that whatever affects the non-Muslim society, the society in general is going to affect Muslims as well. Right. So this is these are general harms. But if we just we're saying, OK, well, some things Muslims are not as prone to, hopefully there's some things which are there across the across the board. So one of the biggest things that I think I'm very concerned about is people preferring this artificial life and this escapism that's that's always been there, but it's going to be enhanced. You know, so since the introduction of novels, people were reading books that we get lost in a book. Since we had headphones introduced, people would sit there and like be, you know, listening to music all day and they don't want to talk to people. Yeah, I went through a phase in my own life like that. I guess I'd rather just have like background noise, listening to a song and interacting with other people. There's going to be, you know, people get stuck in video games and even even the old like original Nintendo system, you know,
people would get addicted to that. They wouldn't want to leave that, you know, playing that game. Same thing with movie theaters and all that. But what's going to happen is there's going to be a greater desire for getting stuck in that world. You won't you won't want to come back to reality as much when you can just remain in that virtual world. So if you're in the metaverse and you look so cool, your avatar is looking awesome and you don't have to worry about actually, you know, doing your hair or anything like that. You can talk to people getting stuck in there, I think is one of the one of the biggest concerns that we should have as Muslims, because when we lose real life interaction and we lose the desire of wanting to be in this dunya that Allah has placed us in to test us, but then we want to escape and live in an alternative reality, that's going to definitely affect our our real reality when we do have to return back to life. You know, so that's how does it affect us? I mean, how would it affect that real reality? One, it's going to make so it's going to make everything seem boring. And that's and that's part of the problem we're already experiencing today. You know, people are people are you know, they're seeing like the either short clips, they're losing their attention span, you know, so like nowadays, if just compared to 15 years ago, it's people can't sit through a 30 minute class, let alone an hour class, you know, so they're they get bored because they're used to seeing YouTube shorts, they're used to reading something very small, you know, short on Twitter, they're used to seeing a very short, tick tock clip. And now their mind just can't focus anymore. So you speak, you know, the khutbah is like 20 minutes, it's like too long. So you know, I'm zoning out. So what's going to happen is that that's already there. But this is going to make it worse, it's going to exacerbate the situation even more. Because when you're in an immersive reality, now, the the physical effects and the psychological effects that
we're already seeing from our current technology is going to be enhanced even more. So there's going to be that desire for not returning to reality is going to be that difficulty focusing, you know, paying attention to anything, it's gonna be difficulty with social interaction, you're used to interacting with people socially, you're used to seeing them in their avatar. And now you're like, Oh, man, you know, I could interact with your avatar, but interacting with like you the way that you actually look and you know, the way in which you're behaving. That's just, it's all it's a challenge. And that's going to be difficult for people to really, you know, interact with each other and hold conversations or something like that. And, you know, I think that's all of that's going to be exacerbated. So those are some, you know, that's one of the one of the harms, you know, there's Yeah, I want to hear more of them, please, because for me, we need to know these things like and this is on the horizon, you mentioned that we're already using some of these technologies, I do have a feeling that this is going to come much quicker than we anticipated. Mm hmm. Yeah, for sure. You know, the other thing is going to be privacy, privacy and security risks. Basically, you know, the more information a company or somebody knows about you, the more services you sign up for, it's going to know everything from, you know, your, your style of speaking your voice, the type of language that you use, it's going to know everything about your personal data, your preferences, your preference of even what you look at. So now it's like there's some some data is some level of data is not being captured, you know, every time you you drive somewhere, if I drive to work, you know, the data is already captured that they know I go to work at this time, I stay this long. And when I search on Yelp, these are the type of restaurants that I look for. But the amount of data that, you know, people are going to have on us now, it's going to be able to predict the smallest little things.
What kind of things do you look at? How many seconds do you stare at that thing in the virtual world? What kind of people do you like interacting with? What kind of avatars are you interested in, you know, are attracted to or, you know, want to interact with or whatever it is. So that data and that privacy is definitely going to be another concern that we're going to have. So I think these are probably the two biggest concerns. And then you've got your typical concerns about, you know, regulating, you know, free speech. What are you allowed to say? You're going to look like, you know, everything's going to be enhanced. So you have like cyber bullying taking place today, you know, so someone comes and, you know, post a comment on your on your social media and says, like, you know, why don't you go kill yourself or you're this or you're ugly or something like that. That affects some people to a very great extent right now. Now, imagine if you have a virtual bully coming up to you and doing the same thing in a completely immersive experience. Yeah, that's decentralized with no rules. And yeah, I mean, it's scary. Exactly. So the enhancement is there and then it's decentralized. You're supposed to have some rules, supposed to have some level of limitation, right? It is debatable to what extent. So that's definitely another one of the concerns that we have to be careful about. So what would you say spiritually is the biggest risk on the horizon? Because I want to protect my relationship with Allah and I see the value of web three, okay, remote learning. I can sit down, there's a sheikh wherever in the world and he's teaching me Quran. I do that now, actually, just on Zoom. But I can see this being even better, you know, maybe having a class and I can see it. But what would you say are the risks of really going two feet in to this whole space? What are the risks on my spirituality?
Yeah, I think the biggest risks are there's going to be overstimulation. And when you have overstimulation, it's going to result in a lot of boredom in real life. And when you have boredom in real life, you can't focus in your prayer. You can't try to connect to Allah. You don't even have time to focus on your purpose in life, you know, why Allah created you. So that's one of my biggest concerns is that, you know, overstimulation is going to, it's already destroying people. They're getting addicted and it's affecting everything that they do in the real world. It's just going to be enhanced. So that's one. Another one is there's going to be dumbed down content, basically. So when, and that's kind of already happening, right? So when people, you know, can't, when people don't read books anymore, when people can't have an intellectual discussion anymore, they're constantly being entertained all the time. Basically, you can only consume information or knowledge as infotainment. And what's going to happen is the speeches or, you know, the lectures, the classes, the tazkiyah lessons, everything that we need in our life, especially at the level of, you know, culture and whatever education we may have, we need to offset that with proper doses of spirituality, of intellectual, religious discussions and things like that. It's all going to just become dumbed down because we're so addicted to entertainment. We're so addicted to, you know, just content that is not of a serious nature. And that's another concern that I have.
In addition to that, we're going to have information overload. So there's just, we already have that too. It's just going to become more. So just so much information that you go out and, you know, there's going to be virtual, you know, muftis that are set up and you can go and ask them for a fatwa and it'll automatically, you know, respond with the, you know, an AI technology. But the problem is this. The problem is whoever develops the best AI technology is going to get the most, you know, queries, the most people asking for fatwas, for example, or asking for religious guidance. It's exactly what the problem is. We say like Sheikh Google, right? It's like, you know, you put in, you know, is this halal or is this haram? And Google's search results based upon whoever put the most code in the back end, you know, whatever's going to come up to the front doesn't necessarily make it the best or the most authentic or the most appropriate answer for you. So the same thing is going to happen when it comes to that information overload. There's going to be scholarly anarchy. There's going to be, you know, more celebrity culture. And, you know, celebrity culture, I think, is almost like a new type of idol worship that people are getting addicted to. And it's very dangerous. I think it's going to become more enhanced as well. So that's something that I was just talking to my friend this morning about that, you know, sometimes a celebrity that you care very much for, if they do something wrong or they slip or something, it's affecting your iman. I mean, there's statistics that show that you follow the life of someone in so much detail. And then if they do something that you don't approve of or you don't like, it affects your own personal life. And it's not supposed to happen like that. Right. So I think that's going to become worse. And then and obviously the biggest one is, you know, pornography. The access and the effect of pornography is it's already horrendous. It's going to become even more. And that's going to spill over into people's marriage relationships.
It's going to spill over into people's ability to ever get married or have a functional marriage or have a proper romantic life or something like that. So that's going to become a massive addiction. And it's going to definitely have societal effects. So, Sheikh, I told you the intention here for me was to learn the language that my kids are going to grow up speaking effectively. So what would you say now, end of 2022, beginning of 2023, what would you say I need to know about Web3? Like, what do I need to know? What do I need to learn to make sure that I've got my finger on the pulse? OK, so I think you need to know what virtual reality is, the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality. So there's VR and there's AR. And what virtual reality basically is, is, you know, you're going to be wearing like a headset and you're going to be experiencing a virtual world in front of you with sound and sight and all of that. And augmented reality is basically where you have an overlay of some type of technology on the real world. So kind of like if you have one of those filters, you know, on Snapchat or something like that, you have a real person, but there's an overlay of information. So what's going to happen is these two terms are going to become very prominent and prevalent. So you need to know about that. You need to know about some of the big companies that are investing like Meta, which was previously Facebook. They changed the name because they're investing so much in the metaverse, in the concept of the metaverse. They're putting billions of dollars because they believe that this is going to be like the next, the future of usage of technology.
So you need to know that as well. And this is more of the terms that you need to know, I would say. Companies, the terms. I think that's, you know, that's among the main things that you would need to know to be able to connect with people. So basically, you know, you need to know about the big gaming companies that are going to be producing new games. And, you know, there's a Star Wars immersive experience where you have like two lightsabers in a virtual reality and you're cutting different things. So as soon as the technology improves, you're going to find that more and more virtual worlds start opening up and people are going to be living in those virtual worlds. They're going to have meetings with their friends and with other people in those virtual worlds. So I think whoever markets the technology better, whoever develops it such that you actually have, you know, a nicer looking avatar or you have more customization or something like that, that's going to catch on. So I guess that's what you should be aware of for now. And you've alluded to kind of this need to offset this whole world with like real life knowledge and real life kind of spiritual activities. What would you say are the two or three guardrails that I need to put up now as a Muslim with regards to this space? Right. So I would say the first thing is you should look into a professor by the name of Cal Newport. And he has a philosophy. He's a professor at Georgetown University. He is someone who's written a few books. They're really good books. One of them is called Digital Minimalism. Another one is called A World Without Email. Another one is called Deep Work. Does he have a YouTube Shorts channel? I'm not sure about that, but he definitely has a blog. So he has a blog and he has really good stuff. Yeah, but I can tell you that he's in the computer science department, I think.
And he's been talking about the harms of technology while not saying that we need to boycott technology. And that's really my thing. I think there's some people that are just like, no to all technology. We're going to live in the forest and we're just going to avoid all of these things. And there's other people who are like, all technology is great. It's going to make the world a better place. And I think there is a balance to be had. Right. We should embrace this technology, but we should also understand there's a healthy way to use technology. And most of the problems that are resulting today from the use of technology and same thing that's going to happen in the future with new technology is there's a unhealthy way to use it. Right. And that's really what the core part of the problem is. So what people need to do is they need to learn how and when and how often to disconnect from that technology. They need to know how to regulate themselves and say, I'm going to use this virtual reality headset for 30 minutes in a certain space using certain software with the installed filter to make sure I'm not looking at any, you know, nude avatars that come my way. There's going to be some software that's going to be put out there. So we need to know about content filtering. That's extremely important. So content filtering basically means that stuff that you don't want to experience and you don't want to see, whether on the Internet or whether in the metaverse, you install a content filter, which will prevent blockups and pop ups and stuff that you shouldn't be seeing in rooms that you can't go to. So that's extremely, extremely important. The other one is having this idea of digital. Some people call it digital detox, but more it's like digital. I'd say digital minimalism is a good usage, basically, to to have certain times where you use this technology and you don't allow it to consume your life in a way that is going to have the negative psycho physical effects that I was talking about or alluding to earlier.
Perfect. Sheikh, Jazakallah khair. It's been really good. A couple of last questions. What's the future of the Internet look like to you as a Sheikh, as a Muslim, as someone who has his finger on the pulse? Yes, I mean, the future of the Internet is going to be a highly connected, highly connected world where you can interact with people on a very deep level. And it's going to be to some extent decentralized, unregulated, and there's going to be a lot of information that's going to make our life very easy. But there's going to be some challenges that we need to adapt to using that technology in the right way. And Sheikh, if my nine year old niece came to you and asked you to explain the future of the Internet and Web3 in less than 30 seconds in very, very basic terms, what would you say to her? So I'd say basically, you know, with VR and AR, you know, you're going to be able to wake up in the morning and you can have breakfast with your friends on a remote island. You're going to be able to smell the beach. You can feel the wind. Then you're going to go to a virtual school, perhaps. Everyone feels like they're sitting right in front of the teacher. When you, instead of going on Yelp, you know, for restaurants that you look at, you're going to be in a mall and you're going to look at a store and it's going to start giving you all the data of your favorite menu items for each restaurant that you look at. When you glance at the clothing store, it's going to tell you what kind of clothes, you know, you need and what kind of clothes you'd be interested in. And, you know, walking back to your car, it's going to tell you if it's low on charge. It's going to, you look at your friend, it's going to tell you your friend's name.
So basically VR and AR, I think are really going to be a core part of our everyday life. And that's what the internet is going to be looking like. JazakAllah Khair. Sheikh, kind of makes me want to kind of stay under the duna. But very, very informative. BarakAllah Fiqh. We're going to switch gears to rapid fire. I wonder what rapid fire is going to look like in the metaverse, inshallah, one day and double take for that matter. So a couple of quick questions. You're only going to have a few seconds to answer each one. If you want to pass, you can pass, but you can only do it twice. First one is, who is your favorite reciter of the Quran or favorite qaret? Abdul Wadood Hanif because he's kind of fast. Nice. What's the last book that you were reading? Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud. Your dream breakfast? I'd say like an omelette filled with a lot of stuff and maybe some chocolate croissants on the side. One person you'd love to have dinner with in the metaverse, who is alive? Who's alive? Probably the producer or the creator of the Ertuğrul series. The Turkish show. Of course, one person who's passed away, not the Prophet ﷺ, that you would love to have dinner with? One of the sons of Adam, so Habil or maybe Khidir. That's awesome. If I say embarrassing Masjid story, what comes to mind? I gave an Eid khutba one time and I gave the first khutba and came down, thought it was over and started giving salams to everyone and had to get back up, give the second Eid khutba.
That's pretty funny. What's the right age to give my child a phone? Unrestricted, I don't think any age but with a lot of content filtering and restrictions, it depends child by child. It really depends on their maturity level. Ethereum or Bitcoin? Ethereum of course, smart contracts. How many NFTs have you purchased? Zero. Good man. Will Metaverse succeed? Allah knows best but it has the potential to succeed. And if Sheikh Mustafa Omar had all the resources in the world to create the ultimate resource for Muslims, what would that resource be? I think it would be a VR-based immersive environment of meeting the best Muslims that you can finally find, like the top people that you would want to spend an entire weekend with and you get to spend an entire weekend just absorbing their adab, their character, their behavior. I think that would be the best. I'm going to answer that question myself as well. It's a good question. I'd love to recreate some of our forefathers' experiences. I want to see some of the circles that they were in, the challenges that they faced. If I could do that through virtual reality, I'd love to be able to see it and touch it and feel it. Beautiful, me too. I would love that. Sheikh, BarakAllahu Fiqh. Thank you very much. This is actually your first episode on Double Take but first of many, InshAllah. Alhamdulillah. We'll see you in a virtual one soon, InshAllah. InshAllah. JazakAllah khair. Assalamualaikum.
Waalaikumassalam.
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