The Corruption and Problems of Young People (2/3)

4. Reading and viewing destructive, un-Islamic material in books and magazines, on TV and the Internet

These types of materials make people sceptical about their religion and faith and drag them from excellent morality to the abyss of degeneration.   This  naturally  leads  to  unbelief  and depravity  if the young people  do not have  strong resistance  in terms  of  the  sound  Islamic  education,  mental  acuteness,  and sagacity that can enable them to differentiate between truth and falsehood  and between  what is useful  and what is harmful.

Being exposed to these kinds of ideas also turns young people upside down because it meets fertile ground in their minds for thinking without any hindrance; its roots strengthen and its stem solidifies. This is then reflected in their logic and their lives.

The solution to this problem is to immediately shift to writings and programs that inculcate the love of Allah and His Prophet (Peace be upon him) in one's heart and those books that help in actualizing faith and virtuous deeds. People should patiently persist in seeking out beneficial information because their souls will put up a strong fight against them in order to coerce them into reading what they were used to before and will make them feel bored and irritated at reading useful books.  An illustration of this is that of a person wrestling with his or her soul so as to force it to obey Allah but the soul instead insists on wallowing in falsehood and distraction.

There are many useful books that help in this situation, the most important of which are the noble Qur'an and its tafseer (commentary or explanation) written by scholars who base their exegesis on authentically-transmitted hadiths and unequivocal common sense. Equally important and useful are books on hadith, then writings of scholars that are deduced and inferred from the two above-mentioned sources.[1]

5. Wrong assumption of some young people that Islam imposes restrictions on liberties and suppresses human energy

This assumption leads young people into shunning Islam and regarding it as a retrogressive religion that draws its adherents backwards and prevents them from progress and advancement.

In order to solve this problem, the reality of Islam should be unveiled for these youth who are ignorant of it because of their inadequate knowledge of Islam, misconception of it, or both. A poet said:

One who has a bitter and diseased mouth

Will find cold and sweet water titter

When he drinks it.

Islam, in truth, does not impose restrictions on liberties. Rather, it regulates and perfectly controls them in such a way that one person's liberty will not collide with  another's  One  who wants absolute freedom will discover that he or she can have it only at the expense  of other people's  rights,  and if that should happen there will be a clash between the two. Anarchy will be the order of the day and immorality will be let loose.

It is for this reason that Allah calls religious laws hudood (limits). When the hukm (ordinance) of a particular issue is haram (forbidden), He (Glorified and Exalted be He) says:

“...These are the limits [set by] Allah, so do not approach them ...” (Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah, 2: 187)

Likewise, when an ordinance on an issue is essential, He (Glorified and Exalted be He) says:

“... These are the limits of Allah, so do not transgress them...” (Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah, 2: 229)

There is also a difference  between  restrictions  that these young people  presume  and the regulations  that Allah,  the All­ Wise  and All-Aware,  ordains for His slaves.

In view of this, the issue never should have arisen in the first place as regulation is a realistic matter in all spheres of this life and humans   by nature are submissive   to such laws. They   are submissive to the reign of hunger and thirst and to the order of eating and drinking. Hence, it becomes necessary for them to regulate their eating and drinking in terms of quantity, quality, and variety in order to preserve the health and safety of their bodies.

They are also submissive to the regulation of their social environment, adhering to the norms of their countries in their clothing and actions. They submit, for instance, to the accepted forms of dress, to the customary types of accommodation, and to traffic regulations.  If, for whatever reason, they fail to abide by these norms they will be considered in their societies as abnormal and odd and will be dealt with accordingly.

Therefore, life as a whole involves submission to certain regulations so that things can move along according to set goals. If submission to the social regulations is for the betterment of the society and prevention of anarchy,   no citizen should be dissatisfied with conforming.  Islamic regulations should also be expected for the well-being of the Ummah. How, then, can some people feel dissatisfied with Islam and feel that it imposes restrictions on liberties? This is but a lie and a false and sinful claim.

(Continued)