Masjids without teenagers

Reality will remain the master of all, and studying will remain the source for gaining the best information and the clearest impressions. Moreover, openness will remain the most important instigator to renew awareness, fatwa, vision, and plan. We may disagree on the causes of what we see and in its consequences, as we might disagree in the way we read and understand it, but the readiness to admit its results is very important.

I pondered over the conditions of our masjids in a number of countries, and I saw something worth to stop, search, and cure which is the small number of boys, adolescents, and discerning children who attend mosques. When a child reaches seven or eight years old, he becomes discerning [can distinguish between right and wrong], and when he reaches the age of thirteenth, he becomes an adolescent, and when he reaches twenty one, he becomes young.

The Arab and Islamic societies are fangled communities where people under the age of twenty make up half the population which is a very high percentage when compared to what exists in other nations. If we go back to the issue of the attendance of children and adolescents to masjids, we will find that their attendance is few. I do not exaggerate if I say that the attendees are only 10% of the total. Of course, we should exclude masjids that contain sessions for teaching the Qur'an, for these have a special case, but the phenomenon should be worrying because the frequency of visiting masjids is very important to refine the human spirit and to renew his covenant with Allah (Glory be to Him), with the Muslim community, and his neighbors. On the other hand, deprivation of these visits indicates many negative matters. It is obvious that we are suffering a huge cultural attack that will lead to the dislocation of many things that we thought they were outside the scope of doubt and controversy. Given that children and adolescents are still in the stage of mental and psychological formation, they have been seriously affected by foreign cultural attacks. The Internet and satellite broadcasting have provided a lot of pornography seen by teenagers who send them to one another via various means of communication. That was accompanied by the business of many parents who neglect to guide their children; I do not want to explain what is obvious, but what I want to say is: The conditions of our children are not pleasant, and if we do not exert a lot of efforts to care for them, the result may be the loss of an entire generation!

The problem is not in fact limited to the reluctance to offering Salah in masjids, but the viewing indicators for the Islamic satellite channels indicate that a very small percentage of teenagers tend to see them, and most of them watch indecent channels!

This means that the issue is not a concession given for the purpose of not attending congregational Salah or following a jurisprudential doctrine which is flexible on this issue, but the issue is behavior and moral attitude, which is a source of risk.

What should we do?

1- I know that swimming against the current is uphill, and all great reformers moved in unfavorable conditions, but by honesty, determination, and trust in Allah (Glory be to Him) they could make big and important changes in reality, and it is not correct to surrender to immorality and the fear of change.

2- The beginning of each treatment is embodied in the sense of the problem, recognition, shedding lights on them, and building a full awareness about it. Callers and mass media which are interested in the reformation of adolescents and youth should help in that.

3- We have to be certain that we will not be able to attract the new generation by our old means, therefore we must renew the role of masjids to be more than a place of Salah, but to become a cultural center that offers many important cultural activities, perhaps of those activities are the following:

A- Extra tuition in difficult materials, provided by skillful teachers for middle and high school students, hoping for the reward from Allah Almighty.

B- Adding free areas to masjids where some entertaining and useful games are found which attract children and gain their admiration under the supervision of virtuous tutors which I have seen in one of the countries and have seen its positive impacts.

4- Wide media campaign should be done to urge parents to take their children to masjids and to urge other worshipers to welcome discerning children and adolescents, honor, and care for them.

5- Executing extensive interviews with boys and young men about the importance of congregational Salah and guiding them to some methods that help them to stick to Salah.

6- Encouragement, attraction, awareness, and persuasion are the correct and appropriate means to recover the dear values and good behavior which we have lost.