Today, Ummah is in need of brave, knowledgeable, sincere, and loyal Muslim youth. Their unwavering efforts and dedications for the cause of Islam never needed as badly as it is today. The youth are the future of this Ummah, they are the flag bearers of Islam who carry the message of Islam to the next generation worldwide. Youth means the future; youth means that the Ummah stands the chance to regains its leadership role; youth means that the Ummah can be proud of its future. Muslim youth at the moment will be the leaders of the Ummah tomorrow. This is a role for which they ought to be prepared, by their families, educational institutions, and the society at large. Societies in all human cultures give a great deal of attention and importance to their young. It is a fact of life that the time of youth is universally considered to be the time during which a person’s physical, mental, intellectual and moral faculties and potential attain their optimum level of development and application. This is the reason that makes youth the prime target of all ideological, political and cultural forces and state machinery aiming at the advancement of certain patterns of social organisation or particular systems of mass control and domination. A twentieth century Muslim writer, Mustafa al-Rafi’ee, describes the time of youth saying, “Youth is strength, for the sun does not brighten the afternoon as much is it does the morning. In youth there is a kind of life with which death seems to sound like sleep; and during its youth a tree brings forth its fruit, while after that all trees give nothing but wood”. When we use the phrases “Qur’anic generation” and “Qur’anic youth”, we refer to the concepts of the Qur’an which one desires to reflect on with respect to the actions of youth, whether these are doctrinal concepts, notions of worship, ethical concepts, or basic action concepts. For this, we require that the youth open themselves to the Qur’an through contemplative study, in such a manner that there are Qur’anic directives based on motivational, reflective study, not barren directives based on imitation which seek a literal understanding of the text. Islam, as embodied in the Qur’an and the teachings and life of the Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, appreciate and emphasise the value and importance of young people. The Qur’an says: “Allah is He who created you of weakness, then He appointed after weakness strength, then after strength He appointed weakness and grey hair. , . .” (Al- Qur’an 30:54). This is taken to be the most succinct and direct reference to the three main phases of a person’s life; childhood, during which one is weak, dependent and helpless; youth, during which one is fully developed, free to act and think and full of strength, vitality and energy; and old age, when a person reverts to being helpless and depending on others-into a state of complete weakness with the faculties dwindling and the energy fading away and vitality receding and failing rapidly. The Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, was known to frequently seek Allah’s refuge from amongst other things, old age. The Prophet is also reported to have advised the Muslims to “make use of your youth before your old age . . .”, and to have mentioned seven people whom Allah will, on the Day of Judgment, protect under His “shade” including “. . . a young man who grew up in devotion to Allah. . . .” We also find that the Qur’an and the Prophet indicate that all through the history of Allah’s message to man, from the time of Adam to that of Muhammad (pbuh), it was the youth who played the major and decisive role in upholding the word and the Shari’ah of Allah. The Qur’an related that when Prophet lbrahim, peace be upon him, challenged the non-believers of his time he was a young man, and no aalim has acquired his knowledge except during his youth. Prophet Yusuf, peace be upon him, is also said to have been appointed a minister by the ruler of Egypt, to take charge of the country’s financial affairs during a hard period of a severe famine when he was thirty, according to lbn Kathir. Prophet Yahya, the Qur’an says, was given “the wisdom while a young boy.” (Al-Qur’an 19:12). And the same applies to several other prophets and messengers, Allah’s peace be upon them all. The Qur’an also relates the story of Ahl al- Kahf, the Sleepers, who ran away from their families and their people in order to be able to practice their belief in the One God, and keep their devotion to Him and protect themselves from the evils of a Kafir society. Allah took care of them by directing them to the Cave and sending them to rest, sleeping for three hundred and nine years. This group, the Qur’an describes as “fityatun”, (a synonym of the word shabab which means youth or young people) who believed in “their Lord” and Allah “gave them more guidance”. Ibn Kathir comments that young people are far more responsive to the truth and more apt to heed the call than the old ones who had gone too far astray and were accustomed to non-belief. Thus, he continues, the majority of the Prophet’s followers were young people. Experience and study show that there is a maximum level of human activity and vitality during one’s lifetime, after which a person continues to live and draw from the achievements, knowledge and experience of his youth, and very little that is original and new can be incorporated into his aptitudes and skills; one merely develops and improves on those youth-acquired skills. This period of optimum ability in one’s life is referred to in the Qur’an as bulugh al-ashudd, reaching full age, and is said to fall between the ages of thirty and forty years (Al-Qur’an :15) and is considered the age at which a person reaches full maturity and becomes qualified to assume and receive the highest and most demanding duties and responsibilities; a number of Prophets were appointed to prophethood on reaching their ashudd (7:22; 28:14), including the Prophet Muhammad himself, the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, who was called to Prophethood at the age of forty. Ibn Kathir’s statement that it was mostly the youth who responded to the call of Islam at the early days during its early days is supported by the hadith which reported the Prophet’s saying: “I have been sent with the pure and natural religion, to the youth (who) had backed me while the old had opposed me”, as well as by the brilliant examples of the large groups of young people who followed Islam and carried it to all corners of the world.
It is an often forgotten or overlooked fact that Islam was almost from the start influenced by and identified with youth, the first male to believe the Prophet and give him support and believe in Islam was a ten-year-old boy named Ali ibn Abi Talib (R.A). Almost all of the first followers of the prophet were below the age of forty. The leaders of Quraish used to appeal to Abu Bakr (R.A) not to recite the Qur’an in front of his house in case he tempted “our young men” to becoming interested in Islam. They knew the value of their young, and realised the fact that young people are always prone to change and liable to be influenced by new ideas. Throughout the Makkah period it was men in their youth who upheld Islam and carried it fully in face of all the odds, while the elder members of society resisted its spread and progress and posed an ever growing threat to its followers. At Madina also it was young people who were first responding to the Prophet’s search for support and adherents. The Prophet used to take young people above the age of fifteen to battle with the army. It is also known that the Prophet assigned a number of key positions and responsibilities to young people. When the first delegation from Madina accepted Islam the Prophet sent back with them a young man by the name of Mus’aab lbn ‘Umair to teach them the Qur’an and Islam. Shaykh Al-Kandahlawi in his book, “Lives of the Sahaba”, relates that the Prophet used to have twenty young men from the Ansar with him at all times, whom he would send to various missions and for various purposes to attend to his affairs. The Prophet during his later days was preparing an army, the biggest Madina had even seen, including such senior Sahaba as Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, with ‘Usama to face the Roman empire, however, passed away before the army could leave Madina. Abu Bakr, his successor, went ahead with the plans to send the army keeping ‘Usama in charge of it. Some older Sahaba expressed a certain amount of dissatisfaction at ‘Usama’s choice as the leader of a 3,000 strong army, but the Prophet asserted that “Usama was well up to the task”, and he was proved right. Amongst women also, the youth played important roles in the building of the Muslim Ummah. Asma, daughter of Abu Bakr, played one of the most vital and daring roles in the history of Islam during the uncertain and dangerous episode of the Hijrah, the Prophet’s escape from Makka and immigration to Madina. Her sister, Aysha (R.A), who was also a wife of the Prophet, emerged as an authority on Islam during the time of the Khilafah. The army leaders who led Muslims into Iraq; Persia, Egypt, North Africa and Spain were several below the age of forty. Muhammad Ibn Qasim conquered Sind in India when he was seventeen. In all fields of learning, religious and secular life young men have had profound influences upon the whole history of the Muslim Ummah. Imam al-Ghazali began teaching at the age of twenty-eight and became the most renowned and celebrated scholar of his time before he reached thirty-four years of age. The Turkish Sultan Muhammad the Conqueror assumed the Khilafa at twenty-two and conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) at the age of twenty-four. The recent and contemporary history of Islam too, produced a number of young men who have left their mark on the history of Islamic da’wah. The dire consequences of the absence of Islam as the governing system of today’s society are manifesting themselves in all aspects of our lives. There is nothing more painful than seeing our youth grow up amidst a non-Islamic atmosphere leading, in some cases, to Muslim youth losing their Islamic identity, their values and even their Deen. A young muslim youth who should have been in the school, college or in the play ground is seen in the battle field or martyrs graveyard? Why? Who is responsible? We know Islam prohibits violence and Jihad is opposing/resisting the evils within oneself and the struggle to be against sin/corrupt. Environment plays a key role in conditioning the personality of a child. Contrasting with the story of Abraham and Ismail in the Quran story of Noah and his son. In the former, there is obedience and submission; on the other, rejection and rebellion. We observe that son of Noah (A.S) was more under his mother’s than his father’s influence and his mother was very much a part of corrupt community. When one examines why some youth deviate, a simple but terrifying fact is brought to light – most of the time, the cause is the influence of the friends that surround them. The task of choosing the right friends and companions is essential to preserving our identity. Befriending righteous and virtuous Muslims is one of the prerequisites for staying on the Straight Path and pleasing Allah (swt). Allah (swt) says: “Friends on that Day will be enemies one to another, except al-Muttaqoon (i.e. those who have Taqwah).” [Az-Zukhruf, 43:67] Although most of us would strive to maintain our Islamic identity within our family, we sometimes overlook whom our youth are associating with when they are outside the house or on the computer. Islam has given us a road map to navigate through our lives in order to succeed both in Dunya and Akhirah. Maintaining the correct atmosphere is vital for a Muslim to be able to avoid deviation from the right path. Islam prohibits of Backbiting, Slander, Envy, Jealousy & Grudges. It teaches us save yourself and your family from hell fire. No doubt this is not easy as Shaytaan may come in different forms to disturb you and your family. The type of atmosphere that exists amongst some of the youth today is corrupt and this type of atmosphere only serves to agitate the nafs of people and can potentially lead them further away from Islam. Corrupt community may take away a prophets family from him without any resistance. It is absolutely necessary for human being who is a believer to select the atmosphere in which to nurture well his faith. A youth should not place himself in a situation where there is the pressure of sentiment and the material things which may cause him to be negatively influenced. And when he finds himself in such an atmosphere, he must flee, freeing himself from it. Today, the sad reality is that the youth are “lost” – they lack direction and they are in dire need of real Islamic leaders motivated by Islamic cause, to follow. It is worthy to know that the Muslim youth has larger role to play to restore the glory of the Ummah. The youth of today must rise to the challenges and accept their responsibilities with truthfulness and sincerity,and use all the means available to them in confronting the challenges before Ummah. The Muslim youth are the future Islamic leaders, so it is very important for the youth to understand Islam. Youth doesn’t last forever so we must make good use of it before it is gone. We have to ensure that we follow the footsteps of the great Muslim youth of the past who were luminaries of humanity. It is reported that Prophet’s wives described his morals as: “His character was the Qur’an.” Our character then should be the Qur’an, so that it will be possible for the people to see in our lives and conduct, the functional embodiment of it. The youth is the “make it” or “break it” stage of our life. May Allah (swt) help the Muslim youth to understand and follow Islam in practical life?
( The authors regularly writes on Islamic topics exclusively for “Kashmir Horizon. Views are their own) [email protected]