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Halal Entertainment: What to Do Instead of Scrolling

A practical, enjoyable list of wholesome alternatives to mindless phone use — activities that nourish your soul, sharpen your mind, and align with Islamic values.

Nafs Team

March 2, 2026 · 6 min read

The Empty Feeling After Scrolling

You’ve been on your phone for forty minutes. You put it down. And you feel… worse.

Not tired exactly. Not relaxed. Just vaguely hollow, like you ate something with no nutritional value. The apps delivered stimulation but no real satisfaction.

This is the paradox of mindless digital consumption: it fills time without filling you. And it crowds out the things that actually do fill you — connection, learning, movement, worship, creativity, nature.

The good news is that the alternative to scrolling isn’t austerity. It isn’t sitting in a bare room with nothing to do. There is a whole world of genuinely enjoyable, halal activities that leave you feeling better than when you started — not worse.

This is your list.

Spiritual Alternatives (That Are Also Genuinely Enjoyable)

These aren’t replacements out of obligation. Done right, they become things you actually look forward to.

Read Quran with a tafseer you find accessible. Not as a recitation exercise — as a reading. Choose an English translation and commentary (Ibn Kathir, Nouman Ali Khan’s style content, or Maariful Quran) and read a passage slowly. Think about what it means. Let it sit. This is one of the most intellectually satisfying things a Muslim can do with an evening.

Learn a new surah. Pick a short surah you don’t know well and spend 20 minutes memorizing it. The feeling of having a new piece of Quran in your heart is genuinely rewarding.

Study Islamic history. The life of the Prophet (peace be upon him), the rightly-guided caliphs, the great Islamic scholars and civilizations — this is some of the most compelling history ever recorded. Books like The Sealed Nectar (Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum) read like a biography that genuinely grips you.

Listen to a lecture series. The best Islamic scholars of this generation have hours of content available. Listening to a 30-minute lecture on your drive, during a walk, or while cooking replaces passive consumption with genuine learning.

Make dua with presence. Not the rushed dua after salah. Set aside 10 minutes, sit comfortably, and talk to Allah. Bring your list. Be honest. This is deeply soothing in a way that no app can replicate.

Physical Alternatives

The body was given to you as an amanah. Caring for it is ibadah.

Walk. This is underrated. A 30-minute walk without your phone — or with only adhkar audio — clears the mind, resets the mood, and counts as worship if done with the right intention.

Cook something from scratch. Not meal prep as a chore — cooking as a creative act. Pick a dish you’ve never made before. Follow a recipe. The focus required to cook well is almost meditative, and the result is genuinely satisfying.

Sport and exercise. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer.” Swimming, martial arts, running, weightlifting, football — choose something you actually enjoy. Exercise you dread is hard to sustain.

Gardening. Growing something, even in a small pot on a windowsill, is quietly profound. Tending to living things is one of the oldest human activities, and it has no algorithm trying to keep you engaged.

Much of our phone use is a substitute for human connection. But the substitute is far inferior to the real thing.

Call someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. Not a text — a phone call. Pick one person each week and call them. The Prophet (peace be upon him) emphasized maintaining the ties of kinship as one of the most important acts a Muslim can do.

Host or attend a gathering. Dinner with friends. A family game night. A halaqah study circle. Human beings are profoundly nourished by in-person gathering. The pandemic reminded us of this; we should carry that lesson forward.

Play a board game or card game. With family, with roommates, with your children. There’s a reason board games are having a renaissance — they provide genuine engagement, laughter, and connection that screens cannot replicate.

Have a real conversation with your spouse or children. Not while doing something else. Sit together. Ask questions. Listen properly. This sounds simple and yet most families report doing it less and less.

Creative and Intellectual Alternatives

Humans are not just consumers — we are creators. Our most satisfying experiences are often when we make something.

Start a journal or a letter-writing practice. Writing is one of the most powerful tools for self-understanding. You don’t need to be a writer. You just need to be honest. A journal entry even once a week, reflecting on your deen and your life, builds a kind of internal clarity that no amount of consuming content can provide.

Read a book — a real one. Physical books engage the brain differently than screens. Reading fiction develops empathy. Reading non-fiction expands your understanding of the world. The Prophet (peace be upon him) received the first revelation with the command “Iqra” — Read. The Muslim tradition is one of deep engagement with knowledge.

Learn a practical skill. Woodworking, calligraphy, baking, sewing, photography — skills that produce something tangible. The satisfaction of making a thing with your hands is qualitatively different from watching someone else make a thing on a screen.

Study Arabic. If you don’t already read Arabic, learning even the basics transforms your relationship with the Quran. There are free apps and courses. Even 15 minutes a day over a year produces real results.

Nature-Based Alternatives

We were not designed for air-conditioned rooms and glowing screens.

Visit a park, forest, river, or coast. Leave your phone in your pocket. Look around. The Quran repeatedly calls us to look at the signs of Allah in creation: “Do they not look at the sky above them?” (Quran 50:6)

Sit outside after Fajr. Before the day begins, spend five minutes outside watching the sky lighten. This is one of the most peaceful and spiritually orienting things a person can do, and it costs nothing.

Take your worship outside. If possible, read Quran in a garden. Make your evening adhkar on a balcony. The natural world is not separate from deen — it is full of His signs.

How to Actually Make the Switch

Reading this list won’t change anything on its own. You need a specific plan for specific moments.

The key insight is this: you need to replace the urge, not just suppress it.

When you feel the pull to scroll, you need an alternative ready — something that requires low activation energy. A book on your nightstand. Quran already open on your phone’s Islamic app. A walk route you already know.

Make the halal option as easy to access as the harmful one. Nafs helps with this by surfacing your ibadah goals at the exact moments when you’re most likely to reach for your phone instead.

The goal isn’t a life with no entertainment. It’s a life where your entertainment actually leaves you better than it found you.

Nafs helps you replace mindless scrolling with meaningful ibadah — automatically tracking your goals and making the halal choice the easy choice. Download free today.