21st century Muslim Youth;

Dealing Imminent Challenges,

Living purposeful lives!
March 18, 2019 by Zeeshan Sheikh
Challenges present an explicit impetus towards activity and towards
mobilizing our inner consciousness, but at the same time it requires
enough seriousness in dealing with those challenges we encounter in
our lives on a daily basis.
Challenges challenge our competence, our will power and our
dedication to strive, but if not meant with appropriate responses
disorder will follow and it will adversely effects ones competence, will
power, ability to strive and eventually self-respect. Interpreting the
above said in the context of Islam and Muslim youth which also suffer
from numerous challenges of social, political, ethical, religious
understanding and educational nature. This is an issue of multi-
dimensional aspects where the responsibilities we owe in response to
these numerous challenges is an indispensable parallel study. The
first imminent challenge for the Muslim youth of today is the
understanding of their environment, how they allow their environment
to harness their traits and their natural abilities, this is of psychological
nature and hence Islam places a high emphasis on the concept of
child psychology and the way children are brought up (Upbringing)
which is something parents have to take care about.
Recent psychological studies have also shown how the early
environment of a child effects his/her later stages of development in
the adolescence period. Alfred Bandura’s
Observational learning and modelling theory where the parent’s
actions and sayings act as model for child’s learning.
Good upbringing by the parents (cultivating good habits, discipline,
self-control, kindness, respect for others, time management, Good
communication) the intrinsic values of Islam will definitely help Muslim
youth in understanding their environment when they enter in higher
stages of life.
Second challenge Muslim youth today faces is a political ones the
misrepresentation, misinterpretation and even misquotation of Islam
Where Western media plays a central role in escalating such irrelevant
debates, creating a feeling of distress and alienation among Muslim
youth. The spread of islamophobia after 9/11 added fuel to the fire
distressing further Muslim youth across the World, the recent Brutal
and gruesome attack on the Muslim Mosque in Christchurch New
Zealand has also shocked the whole Muslim Community and
frightened them of this selective targeting Muslim youth had to
reconcile and deal with the attribution of terms like fundamentalism,
extremism and Islamic radicalism towards his/her Religion i.e. Islam.
This is an ongoing mess where Muslim youth need to come forward
actively, engage with people and depict the true teachings of Islam as
enshrined in Quran and hadith. This challenges points towards another
challenge that is the correct and true understanding of different
aspects of Quran and hadith, Islam political thought, social system of
Islam, modern relevance of Islamic thought, the historicity of Islam, the
concept of jihad in Islam, rights of women etc. Unless and until the
Muslim youth is not well equipped with the knowledge required to
contend these areas he/she will be marginalised, supressed
intellectually and even made passive in every possible manner.
The next challenge for Muslim youth is to deal effectively and make
oneself cognizant of the way distorted things are ascribed towards
Quran, hadith (sayings and approvals of Prophet PBUH), Islamic
history, tradition and glorious periods of Islam like Golden age of Islam
the intellectual awakening that happened during the Abbasid period of
Islam the profound research in the fields of science, philosophy,
astronomy, mathematics, astrology, geography, medicine etc. Muslim
youth is supposed to derive inspiration from such periods. The
medieval polymath distinguished personalities like ibn haytham
(physics, optics, and astronomy), ibn khaldun (sociologist, political
philosopher) al-Khwarizmi (maths, astronomy), al zahrawi (surgery,
medicine, and psychology), al-Biruni (historian, astronomer), Ibn-
nafees (blood circulation, medicine)
Ibn-sina (medicine, philosophy), -
al kindi (astronomy, maths, philosophy), al-Farabi (philosopher,
medicine)
Al-Ghazzali (philosophy: harmoniser of Greek philosophy with Islam)
Ibn-Rushd (Philosopher, medicine, the greatest commentator on
Aristotle) etc this legacy of Islam needs to be cherished, celebrated
and revived in the present times by the Muslim youth itself.
The next challenge pertains to inculcating the true spirit of Islam in
themselves ,remembering their pursuits of excellence are directly
under the supervision of Almighty Allah the more meaningful lives you
live the more strong and empowered you will find yourself by the grace
of Allah, then there is an underlining unified solution which projects
out of the above arguments , the more disciplined our souls ,the more
balanced our habits the more we refrain from different kinds of
Superfluous distractions the more strength we will find in ourselves to
combat all sort of challenges and embark on a life of purpose!
Reflect & realize.

For Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said:

“The greatest jihad is battle your

own soul to fight the evil within
yourself”
So Muslim folks it is highly important to internalize all these things,
reason out well with them and actualize them in your lives.
It’s important to understand the inter-relatedness of the issues.
Dealing with challenges needs strength and strong will ,the strength
and strong will comes out of discipline (Disciplining desires, thoughts
,emotions and actions) the steadfastness in discipline comes from
avoiding all sorts of distractions we are presently entrapped in like
social media excesses, hyper-glamorous environment ,useless games
,inclinations towards time wastage(comfort zone), temptations, movies,
YouTube etc. Remember youth modern psychology says what you
most expose yourself to it grows inside you and changes you within ,
it may later control you as well, Focus correctly , Focus on your Growth
and development do not harm your intellect, thoughts, studies and
careers as they may be
Yielding you the displeasure of your parents in which lies the
displeasure of Allah (I seek His Refuge)
Prophet (pbuh) Said:

“The beauty of a Believer’s Faith (imaan) is; he refrains

from all such things which are of no concern to him”

Hence when you cultivate discipline in your daily lives you began to
improve your habits in a right direction, a direction of maximum
productivity and fulfilment that will surely lead to the life of
Purposefulness …..!
A life I argue about here.
May it be so (Ameen)
May Allah bless you in this great task and may you set gold standards
for the incoming generations of our ummah…………….Barakallah