Current State of Muslim Youth

Many parents do not give importance to their children’s affairs except by providing them with food, drink, clothing, vehicles, and experiences of worldly life and physical appearance.

Shaykh Dr. Salih al-Fawzan حفظه الله

The respected scholar, Shaykh Dr. Salih al-Fawzan حفظه الله was asked about the current state of Muslim youth, and he answered:

These occurrences are connected to their causes. There are specific means that cause rectification. There are specific means that cause corruption. There are specific means that bring about dutifulness to the parents and specific means that bring about disloyalty to the parents. A Muslim must carry out those steps that will cause their children to be upright. Allah سبحانه و تعالى says:

My Lord! Bestow on them Your Mercy as they did bring me up when I was small.
Sūrah al-Isrā: 24

If the parents reach old age and need aid and service, then the child devotes himself to them, serves them, and provides them with whatever it is that they need because of His سبحانه و تعالى statement:

If one of them or both of them attain old age in life, say not to them a word of disrespect, nor shout at them but address them in terms of honor. And lower unto them the wing of submission and humility through mercy, and say: “My Lord! Bestow on them Your Mercy as they did bring me up when I was small.
Sūrah al-Isrā: 23-24

His statement سبحانه و تعالى, “as they did bring me up,” shows that parents must cultivate children upon goodness, rectification, and steadfastness so that they can serve them in old age when they are in need. The Prophet صَلّى اللهُ عليهِ وسلّم commanded parents to give attention to children’s cultivation at a young age. The Messenger of Allah صَلّى اللهُ عليهِ وسلّم said:

“Command your children with the salah when they are seven years old and physically reprimand them regarding it when they are ten years old and separate their beds.”

It’s well known that the Salah is a means to self-rectification, as Salah wards off prohibited and wicked actions just as Allah سبحانه و تعالى states:

And establish the prayer, Verily, the prayer prevents Al-Fahsha’ (great sins) and Al-Munkar (wicked deeds) and the remembering of Allah is greater indeed. And Allah knows what you do.

[As they command them with the Salah], they must also educate them regarding the obligations connected to the Salah, such as Wudu, purification, covering themselves properly, and the required conditions of the prayer. This is what upbringing should look like from a young age. When they reach the age of tamyeez (discernment), they are simply ordered to pray. When they reach ten years of age, they are told to pray, and if they are negligent out of laziness, they are physically admonished; “Physically reprimand them regarding it when they are ten years old.”

Additionally, children should be monitored in their sleeping places. Separate their beds as the Prophet صَلّى اللهُ عليهِ وسلّم has commanded. This will distance them from evil characteristics that corrupt their morality. This shows the importance of paying attention to children. It shows the importance of preventing mixing between genders which stimulates fitnah and evil desires. It is through this manner of cultivation that we raise children.

These then are the means of cultivating children. As for ignoring them until they reach an older age, as so many people do today, to the extent that the parent does not know their child, and now they want to benefit from them and experience their piety. They regret neglecting their cultivation. Now they wish to cultivate their children after they’ve reached a certain age, but they aren’t able, [as the poet says]:

إنَّ الغُصُونَ إِذَا عَدَّلْتَهَا اعْتَدَلَتْ وَلَا تَلِينُ إِذَا كَانَتْ مِنْ الْخَشَبِ

“If you nurture the branchlet at its roots, it’ll be firm and won’t lean when it becomes wood.”

They’ve missed the opportunity. The parent should start cultivating their child at an early age upon worship and good character. They should teach them Tawhīd and how to single Allah out with worship. There is no doubt that this is tiring and difficult, but they must be patient.

It is precisely this (difficulty and fatigue) that gives the parent a right of goodness and righteousness from the child, a right to which they cannot possibly give full justice. Instead, the child fulfills from these rights what they are capable of completing.

Many parents do not give importance to their children’s affairs except by providing them with food, drink, clothing, vehicles, and experiences of worldly life and physical appearance. But they do not concern themselves with cultivating their hearts and actions, even though this is the starting point and this is what is essential. As for [only] caring for their physical selves, this may prove harmful. It is cultivating the heart that will be beneficial. Parents should be cautious of this.

Children disobeying their parents has become increasingly commonplace in these times. Children even assault their parents, to the point that they may even murder them. This results from the parent’s failure to nurture their child upon righteousness and piety. The child sees the parent as a stranger. He is unacquainted with his religion and character, and upbringing. The parent has ignored him and wasted him away,

Instead, he is busy with worldly life, wealth, and employment. The child doesn’t know his own home except as a place of shelter and to spend the night, even though he is responsible for it and will be asked about it [in the hereafter]. The inhabitants of a home are shepherds over the house.

So, parents must pay close attention to this affair. Children must recognize their parents’ status and fulfill their obligations towards them. All of them, the parents and children, must give importance to the rights of the other.

May Allah give you all success in what He loves and is pleased with.

Author: Shaykh Dr. Salih al-Fawzan حفظه الله

Translated by: Abu Ilyas Abdul Hakim Robertson

Checked by: Abu Hafsah Kashiff Khan