'Nuff Said!

[Credit]

After much consideration and deliberation, I have decided to cease from using Nuffnang. And it's final. Yep. Alhamdulillah.

It all started a few months back, when Nuffnang published a few ads in my blog which made me very uncomfortable. One of them was an ad on this movie, can't really remember which movie was it. But all the main characters were women. And err, not very decently clothed women they were. Hoh.  

And another one was this deodorant ad for men. I think it was AXE or something. And surprise surprise, rather than showing a man rolling the deodorant on his armpit, the ad chose to feature a couple of rather sexy-looking ladies. You bet I was sweating profusely, sitting uncomfortably everytime the ad was featured in this blog. 

I did write a complaint to Nuffnang telling them my blog is somewhat Islamic, that I write mainly on Islamic stuff and hence, I was feeling queasy with such ads. I asked whether they could remove the ads and if I could actually filter the ads myself. Sadly, the reply I received was a complete no-no. They told me they don't really have the say when it comes to the nature of the featured ads. I found that funny; they own the goddamn site for heaven sake!

So I was going through this dilemma; should I stop from using Nuffnang? I felt like a hypocrite; I wrote mostly about dakwah stuff, and yet the ads shown in my blog seemed to disagree with me. I was prepared to be grilled by my readers; sooner or later, some of you guys would actually protest and point that up. But I was surprised that no one actually did just that.

The prospective for side income was quite impressive though. I had read somewhere that there were some bloggers who actually earned four to five figures just from the ads featured in their blogs! Walaweh! Thus, at the end, I decided to retain the ads. I guess I just couldn't resist it. And somehow or rather, there were no more saucy and racy ads being published in my blog. It was a relief for me.

Then, a few weeks back, for the first time, I finally reached the minimum RM50.00 in order to cash the Nuffnang income out. Without giving it a serious thought, I cashed it out. I'd be lying if I tell I wasn't happy and proud of it. But somehow, the guilt came back to haunt me. I wasn't sure if the income is truly halal, let alone tayyibah. Hence, the post 'Yang Halal Itu Osem, Yang Haram Itu Macam Haram.'

Then I got this comment, coming from this particular Inche Darus Interferon, who's got the same concern. So we eventually agreed that both of us would look around for arguments for or against income earned from the internet. We were stuck; we couldn't find any dalils or writings that explicitly highlight the status of the income earned via advertising in the internet.

Not until, another reader by the name of Mar, posted a link to Ustaz Zaharuddin's article on this issue. The article can be read here. Although USZA doesn't clearly state his stand on this issue, he does provide us with very useful guidelines indeed.

And after giving it much thoughts, I finally decided that it would be best not to feature Nuffnang's ads anymore, although most of the ads are okay and well, I'd reckoned can be categorised as halal.

On the authority of Al-Numan bin Basheer, who said : I heard the messenger of Allah say :

"That which is lawful is plain and that which is unlawful is plain and between the two of them are doubtful matters about which not many people know. Thus he who avoids doubtful matters clears himself in regard to his religion and his honor, but he who falls into doubtful matters falls into that which is unlawful, like the shepherd who pastures around a sanctuary, all but grazing therein. Truly every king has a sanctuary, and truly Allah's sanctuary is His prohibitions. Truly in the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if it be whole, all the body is whole and which, if it be diseased, all of it is diseased. Truly it is the heart." 

[Narrated by al-Bukhari]

You see, even though I might not have earned my income directly from those, err, rather promiscuous ads, still there were some elements of uncertainty, syubhah. So why want to let myself into trouble? I might be some day fall into His forbidden territory!

So today, with a quasi heavy heart, I officially bid you adieu, Nuffnang. And I'm confident Allah will replace you with something so much better, cooler and yes, awesome-r. Hoyeeaahhh!

Wink.

p/s: Inche Darus Inteferon, let's JV to form a surely halal- and tayyibah-version of Nuffnang, shall we..? 

-gabbana-

I still use Nuffnang's statistic service though. I thinks it's awesome and can be very useful. Hah!