Living as we do in this post-industrial age, it is easy to fall prey to the misperception that our lives are somehow qualitatively better than at any other point in human history. We gloat over the marvels of transportation and technology at our disposal. We take for granted the effort that goes into keeping a supermarket stocked. We pat ourselves on the backs for the "progress" society has made, and cast a jaundiced eye upon our predecessors. And we assume that prevailing societal norms are somehow more appropriate than those of ages past, simply because they are newer.

However as Muslims, we know differently. We know that Allah (swt) has given us a benchmark, a standard of excellence that is timeless. In fact, it is a basic understanding of Islam that the further we move forward in time, the farther we distance ourselves from the touchstone example of Islam given to us by the Prophet Muhammad (saaws) and his companions 1400 years ago. And the reality of this distancing should be a frightful proposition for us as contemporary Muslims, living in environments that are, in many instances, designed to distract us from the very thing Allah (swt) has put humans on earth to do; namely, to worship him.

With this contextual understanding of the times in which we live, we can examine the way we lead our lives and identify areas in which we might need refinement. And what better time of the year to clean our spiritual houses, as it were, than during this holy month of Ramadan, a time when we are asked to focus more solidly on our religious duties and shelve the various frivolities that often occupy our lives the rest of the year.

As far as frivolities are concerned, entertainment is high on the list of activities we can do without for the 29/30 days of fasting. Unfortunately though, entertainment has become so firmly ensconced in our lives that many of us cannot tear ourselves away from the movies, television programs and music that feature so prominently in our daily routines.

Thanks to electricity and the 40-hour work week, we find more than ample opportunity to fritter away countless hours. We forget that until the early part of the 20th century, most people rose at the crack of dawn, worked their fingers numb all day doing back-breaking labor, ate a well deserved meal, maybe read a little bit and then collapsed from exhaustion, only to repeat the routine the next day. 

But nowadays, Muslims find all sorts of excuses to feed their entertainment addictions. In the Muslim world, there are special evening television programs that air each night of the month of Ramadan. Here in America, there hundreds of cable and satellite channels to chose from, radios blaring, and movies playing. And the lure is often too great. This is unfortunate, because entertainment, when unchecked, has a deleterious effect on the human mind. I personally never realized exactly how warping entertainment can be, until I didn't have it at my disposal.

While living and working in the Middle East some years ago, I found myself in the position of being without a satellite dish, without a radio and without a solid understanding of Arabic. As such, the world of entertainment was closed to me. So I began to spend more time at the local mosques and actually spent a great deal of time with the many new friends I had made. Imagine spending time with actual people instead of the fictitious television characters that we often substitute for the real thing.

After a year of entertainment deprivation, I had read several books, learned a good deal of Arabic and made some lasting friendships. Television, music, movies and the like were suddenly not as important. But the real measure of my time abroad was to come when I returned to the United States.

No sooner had I settled back into my apartment in California, I began to realize just how damaging entertainment can be. Watching television, it occurred to me that many of the women looked almost naked, many of the men were reduced to being nothing more than lusting sexual beasts, and most of the language was vulgar and irreverent. But I could only see this, because I had literally tuned out for so long.

The danger of living in the midst of such entertainment is that after a while, the mind accepts it, and we stop realizing that so much of what there is to offer is so full of unacceptable material, that we as Muslims should, at the very least, hate these sorts of thing in our hearts.

For those that disagree with me on these detrimental spiritual effects, there are also the physical side-effects of entertainment. Take television and movies, for instance. There are studies that show that while a person is fixated on the screen, an increase in alpha waves can be detected in the brain, signaling a near catatonic or comatose state. And parents wonder why they can't get their kids to listen while the television is on.

In other studies, time in front of the television has been linked to obesity, especially in children.

So however one chooses to analyze this issue, it can be argued that trimming back the popular forms of entertainment can have a net positive effect. And since this is the month of Ramadhan, the month of Qur'an, Tawbah (forgiveness) and restraint, we as Muslims can at the very least moderate ourselves in an attempt to reap the blessings that Allah (swt) has promised us.