The Internet Showed You Their Highlights—and You Started Hating Your Reality

We live in a time where society can make good things look bad and bad things look normal. Somehow, showing love has become something people feel they need to hide. A man may genuinely love his wife but be afraid to express it because he has been taught that showing affection makes him “weak.” A woman may deeply love her husband but feel the same pressure to hide it. And social media can make this even worse. We see carefully selected moments from other people’s lives and begin comparing them to the entirety of our own reality. We see the trips, the marriages, the luxury, the romance, the happiness, and forget that we are often looking at a highlight reel, not the complete story. Islam teaches us sincerity, gratitude, modesty, and that our hearts should not become prisoners of what people display. There is nothing shameful about loving your spouse. There is nothing weak about showing affection to the person Allah has made lawful for you. And there is nothing wrong with being grateful for a simple life that doesn’t look impressive on social media. Don’t allow the internet to become the standard by which you measure your marriage, your happiness, or your worth. May Allah protect our hearts from being deceived by appearances, give us spouses who love and appreciate one another, place barakah in our marriages, and help us recognize truth even when falsehood is made attractive. Ameen. 🤲🏽