u/alamshaaz

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Hello, my Muslim brothers and sisters. I’ve been thinking a lot about the topic of music, movies, TV shows, and entertainment in general, and I’m genuinely looking for some guidance.

From what I’ve read on websites like IslamQA and from discussions on Reddit, my understanding is that music and certain forms of entertainment are generally considered haram, while movies or shows may be permissible if they don’t contain things that are haram, such as music or inappropriate content. However, it feels like almost everything today contains music even random gaming videos, educational/infotainment videos, advertisements, etc.

I’m not trying to argue that music is halal or find a way to justify it. My question is more about how a Muslim is realistically supposed to deal with this when music and other forms of entertainment are practically everywhere.

Another thing I struggle with is feeling disconnected from my friends, including Muslim friends. They often make jokes or references based on trending movies, shows, memes, or other forms of entertainment, and I sometimes have no idea what they’re talking about. It can make me feel isolated and, honestly, sometimes even boring or left out.

People often suggest things like going for walks, spending time with family, reading, exercising, etc. Of course, these are good things, but I’m specifically wondering about entertainment. What can a Muslim actually do for fun and relaxation in the modern world while still trying to stay within the boundaries of Islam?

I’m asking this sincerely. I’m not looking for an answer that simply tells me “everything is haram” or “just avoid it.” I want to understand how other Muslims deal with the temptation to fit in and participate in modern entertainment, especially when avoiding it completely can make you feel disconnected from everyone around you.

If anyone has struggled with this themselves, I’d really appreciate hearing how you dealt with it and what helped you.

JazakAllahu khairan.

I chose Computer Science because I was always good with computers, but I never expected things to turn out like this.

My college wasn't even tier 3 it was tier 4-5. There were basically no classes—just exams.(BCA)

During the first 1.5 years, I joined a coaching institute for an O Level course. Looking back, it feels like a complete waste of time. I still remember the teacher saying, "A good-looking font is called Font Awesome," even though I already knew Font Awesome is a font/icon library, not a font itself.

For about another year, I worked random jobs. One of them was writing AI-generated content in the admin panels of websites for my relative's small web development startup. It was unpaid. At the same time, I kept jumping from one YouTube course to another.

It took me almost two years to realize that watching a 6-hour Python tutorial doesn't make you a Python developer.

Then I found The Odin Project during my final year of college. That was the first time I actually understood the difference between learning programming and just learning syntax. It completely changed the way I looked at coding.

I'm a slow learner, though. I couldn't finish it in six months or even a year, and to be honest, I wasn't always consistent either. By the time I started, I only had about a year left before my final exams. During that time, I completed the Foundations course and Intermediate HTML/CSS, and I was working through the JavaScript section.

Now I feel like I don't have the luxury of continuing at that pace. I finished my final exams two months ago, and everyone expects me to get a developer job. The problem is... I don't feel capable enough yet.

I don't know what to do anymore. It feels like I messed up.

I honestly feel lost