‘Our youth are uncertain, irresolute, and at a crossroads’

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. The youth are brought out to take the divine message of Islam to various parts of the earth. Youth means the future; youth means that the Ummah stands the chance to regain its leadership role; youth means that the Ummah can be proud of its future. Muslim youth of today 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 society at paramount. Unfortunately, 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. Defeats and tragedies inflicted upon the Ummah today. Ummah is in need of brave, knowledgeable, sincere, and loyal Muslim youth. The Almighty will shade this youth who was raised in obedience to Allah on the day in which there will be no other shade: “There are seven whom Allah will shade beneath the shade of His Throne on the day in which there will be no shade but His shade (including) a youth who was raised upon the obedience to Allah.” (Part of a longer hadith reported by al-Bukhari (1423) and Muslim (1031)
Their unwavering efforts and dedication to the cause of Islam are never needed as badly as it is today.
In this article, I intend to assess the current state of Ummah, the tasks to be executed to help Ummah regain its glory, and the great roles Muslim youth need to play towards the revival of Ummah.
Today’s youth
When we take a look keenly at young people today, we find that they are religiously deviated, reckless, self-deluded, selfish in their conduct and ill-behaved, unwilling to accept the truth from others and hasten in spreading falsehood among the people. They are less committed and non-serious to their creator and are often found to neglect obligations that are due to Allah or those that are due to human beings. They feel proud of their opinions and show less respect for the opinions of elders. Their bad deeds rendered to them as good and they thus fall among the losers. ([They are] those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work) (Qur’an 18: 104)
They turn out to be a calamity to themselves and a misfortune to society. They are indulged in such activities in which the topmost is disrespect to elders including their parents, live in relationships behind their family and bad company as well. They become the cause to bring this Ummah down to the lowest of the low, hindering its way to regain its glory and honor. They have become a deadly disease, which is not curable except by the will of Allah alone, the All-Powerful.
Today’s Muslim youth are uncertain, irresolute, and at a crossroads. They need to be guided to the realm of truth and the righteous path. They are desperately in need of righteous, wise, knowledgeable and sincere preachers. Their education is done at the hands of those who mainly excel in worldly sciences that run contrary to religion, which, leads to their confusion. The only way to come out of this confusion is by focusing on Islamic education and learning it from its original sources, the Quran and the Sunnah, at the hands of sincere scholars.
The Ummah is being termed to be backward and aimless existence and hence causes major concern to sincere and constructive people of the Ummah. Education systems are suffering from serious problems of backwardness, widespread ignorance and illiteracy almost everywhere. The quality of education at all levels is dwindling.
The Ummah is therefore in dire need of reform, renewal, and revival. Given the seriousness of the threat it faces, and the degree of the crisis from which it suffers, one is able to easily understand the gravity of its situation and the urgency to put in the efforts needed to rescue it from further decay and suffering. The Ummah is, however, favored by a great deal of the wealth of goodness, the distinction of its vital being, the strength in its depth, its profound faith, its readiness to sacrifice, and its sincerity.
What needs to be done to revive the Ummah
The cause of Islam itself seems to be in danger. Darkness and gloom cast over the Ummah. The Muslim thinkers need to focus their minds crucially on the Ummah’s malaise and seek a countering cure. Never in Islamic history has the cry of Islamic cause been more needed on the intellectual level as it is today. There is an urgency to invest all of the energy into finding a solution to help Ummah overcome its decay.
There is no hope of revival of Ummah, unless we understand our past, learn the lessons from it, seek the source of strength by concentrating on its positive aspects and build upon them. Much time and energy have already been wasted on the negative aspects of our history. The Ummah cannot afford to waste any more time or effort on such matters. We are in dire need to regain our original vision, restarting our course, and again setting out on our way.
Seek useful knowledge and understanding, avoiding any means, which inherently contradict the objectives of our mission. We must reject the means that lead us into either meaningless or evil pursuits. We must ensure that the knowledge we intend to seek is sound in its principles, aims, and structure. The knowledge must be measured against the standards of Islamic teachings and principles; therefore, knowledge, which does not carry these characteristics, will be worthless.
We need to put an end to the blame-game. The assumption that young adults are corrupt just stands aloof without making any effort to correct them. This eventually results in having lost hope in their reform and consequently hating them or being afraid of them. Without understanding their condition, it is wrong to conclude that all young people are corrupt, a situation that has the potential to tear society apart. It is the duty of the elders to hold positive attitudes towards them. By doing so we can avert a danger that encircles society from all hexa sides.
There is an acute need to remove the estrangement and alienation that exist between elders and youth. It is the duty of the elders to sense responsibility towards the young people. A great responsibility rests upon the shoulders of young people. They run the risk of being further isolated. They are direly in need of the elders’ sincere guidance and supplication from Allah to show them the right path and make them a torch of guidance for humanity. Young people, on their part, are also required to hold their elders in high esteem. Their views should be respected and directives should be accepted for they have tremendous experience from life realities, which youth lack. So, the wisdom of the elders must be added to the energy of the youth to achieve the desired outcome by the will of Allah.
Youth is the most productive time of a person’s life. It is a stage of great change and hope for the future; yet, if not guided properly, it may potentially turn out to be fraught with many crises. Youth is the backbone of the society. They carry the future of their nation on their shoulders. Today, the entire world is in dire need of young minds to resolve various socio-economic problems of the world. And today’s youth has what it takes to be the leader in all the fields of life.
The youth should keep a balance in their lives and work wisely. It is certainly not appropriate for them to waste any opportunities at their disposal, but rather utilize them rationally such as to benefit the Ummah.
Today Muslim youth is passing through a critical time. They run the risk of being led astray. Today cases of deliberating maligning the Muslim community and insulting their faith are very common. Everything Islamic is being challenged today; the perfection of the Qur’anic text, the veracity of the Sunnah, the comprehensiveness of the Shari’ah, and the glories of Muslim achievements with an aim to create doubt in the youth’s mind. It is therefore pertinent for youth to equip themselves with the spiritual stamina necessary for resistance in order not to succumb to this conspiracy. It is essential for the young people to learn about Aqeedah, well before they get introduced to the practical aspects of the religion. The youth equipped with resolute faith can potentially remove all the doubts and answer all the questions pertaining to religion. If this aspect is ignored, it is most likely that the end result will be frustrating.
It is incumbent upon the youth to represent Islam by action. They need to be more practical when it comes to faith, conviction, sincerity, and following the Sunnah. They must not occupy themselves with speech alone, but demonstrate it with action. Allah, the Exalted, says: “0 you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do? Great is hatred in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do.”
Understanding the objective of life is the prime responsibility of youth
Understanding life and its true objective defines one’s actions. It is particularly distressing that today’s youth do not know the objective of their lives, and thus are seen roaming on the street doing nothing, indulging in video games and haraam relationships that are girlfriend-boyfriend culture and whatnot. They seem to be convinced that their life’s mission is to live a life free of any responsibility. They must be the “Youth with a mission”. They have a great task to contribute to Islam by giving their time, energy, talent and money. Youth have an important role to play to strive to bring about a change in society. The youth is the stage of life when one should attain adequate knowledge about Islam and the knowledge for the upliftment of Islam and utilize time and talent effectively.
This hadith is demonstrate profoundly that free time and health are the precious bounties given by Allah (SWT). In Surah Al-Asr, Allah (SWT) also emphasizes the importance of time. But what we see today is that the majority of the youth do not use them for the right purpose, rather they waste their time doing things.
What is deeply concerning today is that the youth of today are clueless as to what responsibilities and priorities should they have in their lives. It must be borne into the mind of Muslim youth that they are responsible in front of Allah for relaying His Religion. As Almighty calls us Muslims the best nation brought forth for mankind, because we are chosen for this cause by the Almighty mentioned in the Ayat: {“…you enjoin the good, forbid the evil, and believe in Allah…”} (Al ‘Imran; 110)
Having no objectives in life results in the wastage of time and energy. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: “There are two blessings which many people lose: (They are) health and free time for doing good.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6412)
The writer is pursuing MBBS at Astana Medical University, Kazakhstan. He can be reached at [email protected]

Arif Akbar Mir