You just realized you’ve been scrolling for three hours straight. You opened your phone to check one notification and fell into the black hole—reels, stories, tweets, TikToks, one after another after another. Your eyes are burning, your neck is stiff, and you have to wake up for Fajr in two hours.
But here’s what really should terrify you: You just spent three hours that you will be questioned about on the Day of Judgment. Three hours that could have been spent in worship, in sleep to wake up for tahajjud, in learning something beneficial, in connecting with your family. Three hours completely erased from your book of good deeds.
And this isn’t the first time. It’s every single night. It’s during your lunch break. It’s while you’re waiting in line. It’s the first thing you check when you wake up and the last thing you see before you sleep. Your phone has become your qiblah, and you don’t even realize it.
Let me show you exactly how social media is destroying your akhirah in ways you never considered.
The Time Theft You’re Not Accounting For
Let me give you the math that should shake you awake.
The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The feet of the son of Adam will not move on the Day of Resurrection before he is asked about five things: about his life and how he spent it, about his youth and how he used it, about his wealth and how he earned it and spent it, and about what he did with his knowledge.”
About his life and how he spent it. Not just the major decisions. Every single hour. Every single minute. And you’re spending an average of 4-6 hours daily on your phone, with the majority of that time on social media.
Let’s be conservative and say 4 hours a day. That’s 28 hours a week. That’s 1,456 hours a year. That’s 60 full days—TWO ENTIRE MONTHS—spent scrolling every single year. In ten years, that’s 20 months. In a 50-year adult life, that’s over 8 years of your precious, limited existence spent consuming content that you won’t remember next week.
Eight years that could have been spent memorizing Quran. Building a business. Serving your community. Strengthening your family relationships. Praying tahajjud. Learning your deen. But instead, you traded eternity for entertainment.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, also said: “Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before your busyness, and your life before your death.”
Your free time before your busyness. And you’re giving your free time—willingly, eagerly—to Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and algorithm engineers who designed their platforms to be addictive. They’re stealing your akhirah, and you’re letting them.
The Prayer Destroyer
Here’s how social media is killing your salah without you noticing.
You hear the adhan. You tell yourself “just five more minutes.” You keep scrolling. Fifteen minutes pass. You finally put the phone down to make wudu. But the entire time you’re making wudu, your mind is still replaying that video you just watched, that argument you saw in the comments, that story your friend posted.
You stand to pray. Your body is in qiyam, but your mind is still on your phone. You don’t know what you recited. You don’t know how many rakahs you’ve prayed. You’re physically present but spiritually absent. And when you finish, you immediately pick up your phone again.
The scholars explain that khushu—the presence of heart in prayer—is what makes salah valuable. Without khushu, you’ve fulfilled the obligation technically, but you’ve earned minimal reward. And social media is the single biggest killer of khushu in the modern age.
Your brain has been trained to need constant stimulation, rapid dopamine hits, endless novelty. So when you stand in prayer—which requires stillness, focus, and patience—your mind rebels. It can’t handle the “boredom” of reciting the same verses, making the same movements, focusing on the same thing for more than 30 seconds.
“Successful indeed are the believers. Those who offer their salah with all solemnity and full submissiveness.” (Quran 23:1-2)
But you can’t achieve solemnity and submissiveness when your brain is fried from scrolling. You’ve destroyed your attention span, and with it, you’ve destroyed your ability to connect with Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, in the most important act of worship.
The Sins You’re Accumulating Without Realizing
Let me list the sins you’re committing every time you mindlessly scroll:
Looking at haram. How many times have you scrolled past immodest images, videos, or content that you should have immediately looked away from? How many times did you pause, go back, or keep watching? Every glance is recorded.
Backbiting and gossip. You’re in WhatsApp groups, Reddit threads, Twitter discussions where people are tearing each other apart. You might not be typing the comments, but you’re reading them, enjoying them, forwarding them. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, asked: “Do you know what backbiting is?” They said: “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said: “Mentioning your brother in a manner he dislikes.” Someone asked: “What if what I say about him is true?” He replied: “If what you say is true, you have backbitten him. If it is not true, you have slandered him.”
Wasting time. Time is a gift from Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He. Wasting it is being ungrateful for that gift. And every hour you spend on purposeless scrolling is an hour you’re being ungrateful.
Envy and discontentment. You see others’ vacations, marriages, cars, houses, bodies, lives. And slowly, poisonously, you become ungrateful for what Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, has given you. You start comparing, coveting, resenting. That’s exactly what Shaytan wants.
Spreading falsehood. How many times have you shared something without verifying if it’s true? The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “It is enough lying for a man to speak of everything that he hears.” Every fake news article, every unverified story, every rumor you forward without checking—you’re responsible for spreading it.
All of these sins are being written down by your recording angels while you think you’re “just relaxing” on your phone.
The Comparison Trap That Destroys Gratitude
Social media has turned envy into a constant state rather than a passing emotion.
You wake up and check Instagram. Someone got engaged. Someone bought a house. Someone is on vacation in Dubai. Someone’s child won an award. Someone lost weight. Someone got promoted. And with each post, a little bit of gratitude leaves your heart and a little bit of resentment enters.
The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, taught us: “Look at those below you and do not look at those above you, for it is more suitable that you should not consider as unimportant the favor of Allah.”
But social media is designed to make you look at those “above” you constantly. It shows you the highlight reels of others’ lives while you’re living your behind-the-scenes struggles. It creates an impossible standard that makes you feel perpetually inadequate.
And when you’re ungrateful, Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, removes His blessings. Not necessarily the things themselves, but the barakah in them. You have a spouse but you’re not satisfied because someone else’s looks better online. You have a job but you’re not content because someone else’s seems more impressive. You have a life but you’re not grateful because someone else’s appears more exciting.
This constant state of discontentment is spiritual poison, and social media is the syringe injecting it into your heart daily.
The Relationships It’s Destroying
You’re sitting with your family, but your eyes are on your screen. Your spouse is talking to you, but you’re responding to comments. Your children need your attention, but you’re watching someone else’s children on TikTok. Your parents are getting older every day, but you’re too busy following strangers online to sit with them.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, emphasized the rights of family, the importance of maintaining ties, the obligation to give them your time and attention. But you’re giving those precious resources to people you’ve never met and never will, while the people who actually matter are being neglected.
How many meals have you eaten while scrolling? How many conversations have you half-participated in while checking notifications? How many moments with your family have you missed because you were virtually somewhere else?
And the saddest part? You can’t get those moments back. When your parents pass away, you can’t rewind time and put your phone down to actually listen to their stories. When your children grow up, you can’t recover those years you spent physically present but mentally absent. Those moments are gone forever, traded for content you don’t even remember consuming.
The Solution: Digital Tawbah
Here’s your action plan to reclaim your akhirah from the digital destroyer:
Delete or severely restrict the apps. If you can’t control yourself, eliminate the option entirely. Your eternal soul is more important than staying “connected.” The truly important people will reach you through calls and messages.
Set strict boundaries. No phones during prayer times. No phones during meals. No phones in the bedroom. No phones during family time. Create phone-free zones and times in your life.
Track your usage. Most phones have screen time trackers. Look at the data honestly. Would you be proud to show those numbers to Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, on the Day of Judgment?
Replace scrolling with dhikr. Every time you reach for your phone out of habit, say “SubhanAllah” 33 times, “Alhamdulillah” 33 times, “Allahu Akbar” 34 times instead. Turn dead time into worship time.
Pray before logging on. Make it a rule: You must pray your current obligatory salah before you can open any social media app. Watch how quickly your prayer times improve.
Fast from social media. Take one day a week, or one week a month, completely offline. Experience what it feels like to be present again.
Ask yourself: “If I die right after this, would I be proud?” Every time you open an app, ask this question. It will transform your usage immediately.
The sun is about to rise. You’ve spent the night reading about how social media is destroying your akhirah. Now you have a choice: close this article, open Instagram, and continue the cycle, or make a genuine commitment to change starting this very moment.
Your akhirah is slipping through your fingers with every scroll. Grab it back before it’s too late.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational and spiritual reflection purposes based on Islamic teachings from the Quran and authentic hadiths. For specific religious rulings or personal spiritual guidance, please consult with qualified Islamic scholars.