Muslim Youth : A Glance at the Youth (Part 2)

The second type

The second type of teenager is

• One who is corrupt in his beliefs, irresponsible in his conduct, himself misled, ingulfed in vice; he does not accept the truth from anyone nor does he refrain from falsehood and he is selfish in his conduct.
• One who is stubborn. He does not yield to the truth nor does he renounce falsehood. He dos not care about his neglect of the rights of man nor the rights of Allah. He is a confused teenager bereft of impartiality in his thinking and in his behaviour. Likewsie he lacks balance in all his affairs.
• One who is conceited with his own opinion as if truth flows from his tongue. He, in his opinion, is free from mishaps, while others are a source of mistakes and slip-ups as long as they contradict his option.
• One who has turned away from the straight path in his deen and the accepted norms of conduct. The evil of his conduct has been made alluring to him. Therefore he regards it as virtuous. Thus he is the greatest of losers in respect of his deeds. These are the ones whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they presumed that they were doing good.
  
  He is an evil omen upon himself and a misfortune for his society, one who is driving his nation towards the lowest stage. He is a barrier between his nation and their respect and munificence, a lethal influence, difficult to treat - except if Allah wishes. Allah has power over everything.
  
  

The third type

The third type of teenager is

• One who is confused and doubtful. He recognises the truth and is content with it. He lives in a guarded society except that the doors of evil have opened up for him from every direction. This has created doubt in his beliefs, deviation in his conduct, weakness in his action, a foray from known practices and an influx of diverse falsehood. Thus he is in eternal thought and inner search. Opposing this influx or movement (of falsehood) is uncertainty. He does not know whether the truth lies in the prevailing idealogies or in the way of his pious predecessors and his safeguarded society. He is thus in doubt - sometimes he accords preference to one side and sometimes the next according to the strength of the influx of these thoughts.
• One who is passive in his life. He is in need of captivating strength which will guide him towards the enclosure of truth and the path of goodness. How easy will this not be Allah prepares for him a person who calls towards good, who is wise, knowledgeable and of good intentions?
  
  These types of teenagers are found in abundance. They obtain a smattering of Islaamic education but they acquire much more secular knowlege which conflicts with the basics of Deen either in reality or in their presumptions. Thus they are helpless between the 2 cultures. It is possible for them to gain liberation from this helplessness by establishing themselves upon Islaamic education and acquiring this education from it's original sources - the book of Allah (the Qur'aan) and the Sunnah (traditions) of Muhammad sallAllahu 'alayhi wa sallam at the hands of devoted Ulema (learned men) - and this is not difficult for them.