Exploring the root issues of youth silence and proposing compassionate steps – from family, society, and faith – to restore their vitality and purpose
By Syed Mustafa Ahmad
People often hear from all directions that youth are the crowning glory of a nation. What a strange thing a crown is. It sits on a person’s head and adds immense beauty. This quality fits the youth perfectly. They open countless chapters of true beauty and refinement in the palaces of civilisation.
In my limited reading, I have repeatedly seen it emphasised that the success of the youth is the success of the entire country. The Poet of the East, Allama Iqbal, also believed this. In short, our gardens derive their colour from the youth. But what will be the state when the very colour of the garden turns yellow? A hint of this is found in a poem by Kamala Das, where, describing the plight of her ageing mother, she writes that her once-youthful mother’s face is now overshadowed by wrinkles and the dark shadows of death. How has yellowness and helplessness cast their pallor on that shining face? I apologise if this analogy seems unreasonable, but selecting this poem from literature could enhance the effectiveness of my article. One must consider the readers’ taste and, considering all aspects, mould a well-organised and strong piece into words.
Coming back to the topic, I want to draw the readers’ attention to the fact that just as in the aforementioned poem, youth has been replaced by pallor; the same is the condition of many of today’s youth. I have found many youths afflicted by a strange, suffocating inner silence. In other words, today’s youth are living in a separate, silent world. Furthermore, a deadly silence envelops them to such an extent that a sensitive person is unable to reach the depths of the situation.
It is accepted that youth is a time of storms. Emotional immaturity, along with young age, can lead a youth towards silence. But conversely, if a silence is not natural but is the product of wounds inflicted upon that youth’s soul, wounds that strike at his very existence every day. A silence imposed by others contains so much noise within itself that all the silence of the world pales in comparison. A silence that holds profound depth within it, a silence from which emanates the stench of death and frustration, a bone-breaking silence that neither lets one live nor die. Caught between the collision of silence and inner turmoil, the youth are being crushed between the two millstones.
Now the question arises: what are the reasons for this pre-storm silence that has cast its shadow everywhere? Some reasons are briefly mentioned in the following lines.
The first reason is life running at the speed of light. Today’s life is racing away. In this rush, many youths have been left behind somewhere. They are separated from the caravan and aren’t even in a state to pitch tents in some distant wilderness. Hot winds are intent on stripping away their meagre clothing, but their caravan, oblivious to them, is running ahead in its own intoxication, far from their sight. In these circumstances, asking a youth the reason for his seclusion is nothing short of extreme foolishness. Memories of the caravan are reopening the wounds of the heart, and on the other hand, there’s no sign of the next caravan. In such a situation, it’s no surprise that the dark clouds of silence loom over the lives of the youth.
The second reason is unemployment. It has played the role of the final nail in the coffin. In today’s capitalist world, unemployment means being written off from the list of humanity. A youth who cannot earn, his life and death are the same. His death might be more appropriate because his living is depleting the world’s limited resources. It’s better that he dies, and valuable materials are extracted from his dead body to provide comforts for present and future generations. The miserable condition of an unemployed youth can be understood through Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, which shows how essential earning money is. A person is respected only as long as he is in a position to earn a few pennies. But the day he, God forbid, loses his livelihood for any reason, that day he truly understands the reality of worldly relationships, and then a dreadful silence clings to him. The thirst for money parches his throat, and a death-like silence shakes his very being.
The third and final reason is a society with a narrow mindset. If knowledge is definitively linked only to employment, its serious consequences emerge. If the purpose of education is merely to fill the stomach, any nation that commits this folly will remain on the lowest rung of development. Linking the fire in the belly and the thirst in the throat with something like education is like the dreams of a madman. When a youth begins to delve into the depths of education, at that very moment, the scorching fire of hunger turns his aspirations into a heap of ashes, and in this conflict, he gives up and falls silent. He begins to detest the rules of this traditional society. Even if he wants to, he cannot make anyone understand his feelings and thoughts. In these circumstances, heaps of silence spread their bedding for a lifetime, and then this youth considers escape from the tumult of the world as his success.
Now it is a crucial necessity of the time to remedy the pain of the youth. The most basic step that can be taken in this matter is to understand the youth. Instead of lecturing them on their condition, it is better to take some concrete steps for them. While sharing their grief, instead of asking questions that increase their sorrow or uttering unnecessary analogies, it is better to speak just a few words of love and sweetness.
Additionally, parents also have a responsibility to care for their young offspring. They should treat them with affection and wisdom. To bridge the gap that has emerged between parents and their youth, despite living under the same roof, a tone of utmost courtesy must be adopted. The folly of breaking the silence of the youth with noise can spoil a carefully laid plan. Only efforts to reach the hearts of the youth, adopting high standards of etiquette and propriety, clad in moral attire, and without taking the path of noise and clamour, can be useful.
Furthermore, religious leaders should also, while caring for the youth, seek such pearls from the springs of the Quran and Sunnah that bring refinement to the lives of the youth. Those pure Ahadith should be propagated everywhere, which increases the opportunities to become a true human being. How a person, emerging from sorrow and pain, can blossom should be explained in clear words in the light of other religious texts as well.
The government should also create an environment in which a ray of hope can awaken in the youth. Programs should be organised in educational institutions in collaboration with religious leaders, where topics such as how to navigate the thorns of life and how to reach the pinnacle of one’s true growth should be discussed.
The situation is critical, and the means of assistance are very limited. Taking on the form of a unified community, we can all engage in caring for the nation. Each of us, at an individual level, must also do our self-assessment and perform our duties towards the nation along with our personal responsibilities. As mentioned before, this path is filled with thorns, but with passion and zeal, we can bring about many changes in the lives of the youth.
sy***************@***il.com