Against the ongoing case of youthful transgressions
By: Samah Saci
Tags: Youth, Thoughts, Islam, Religion, Illumination

Guidance, an oft sought favour among Muslims and a focus of the septenary Fatiha, arrives in many forms and is needed to degrees that vary alongside our wavering faith. Regardless of our self-professed level of piety, we are taught to continue seeking guidance with the telos of righteousness and ultimately of eternal paradise. While it is therefore fair to assume that praying for the guidance of a particular group is a virtuous act and a conduit for social good, a problem arises when the leaders of our community focus considerably on one particular group, namely the youth, whilst failing to highlight the blemishes that tend to especially afflict the older generations. In fact, this is not only evident within formal spaces of worship and centres of knowledge, but also within smaller community circles and even homes. At the same time, the serviceable shifts that are undertaken by the youth and that are fundamental to Islam are rarely recognized by the same group of people.

The youth are often portrayed as following a collective blueprint centred around drugs, alcohol and other classic notions of self-destruction which together present the idea that they are religiously bankrupt and in need of far more guidance than their older counterparts. Meanwhile, it’s rare, if it even exists at all, to hear about the religious and spiritual struggles that are unique to the older generations.

To touch on one common example, older folks are far more likely to follow the cultural norms of their upbringing even if these norms oppose their religious obligations. On the contrary, this is an area where many of the youth have flourished by taking it upon themselves to question and explore the perimeter which rightly separates culture from religion, even if this boundary opposes their nurtured ways. Of course, this concern of overlap is frequently voiced by Muslim leaders, but the concern, which threatens fundamental aspects of our religion, is not conveyed as one that especially afflicts a particular group. This is not to say that youth are unscathed from incorrectly merging the realms of culture and religion, just as adults are not removed from problems with drugs and alcohol. It is merely to illustrate that a problem which hugs the line of adulthood more than it does youthhood is not conveyed to demonstrate this reality while the antithesis is always featured.

It is discouraging to be part of a congregation that repeatedly refers to you, the youth, and your need for guidance as though you are not part of that very congregation and almost as though you are religiously inferior. Cloaked with an air of unintentional supremacy, you are made to feel like a passive spectator of your religion. I can imagine the pressure of adequately preparing the future generation of Muslims, but periodically referencing the youth’s need for guidance, and alienating them in the process, is not constructive nor is it fair.

On the same side of the fence lies our community’s disinterest in the spiritual and social reform that the youth are pursuing. Rather than immediately accepting every religious act at face value, the youth are returning to the Aristotelian why that is encouraged by our prophets and our holy scripture. They are also permeating important educational spheres, such as the arts, humanities and the social sciences, that have largely departed the Muslim community in favour of the hard sciences and engineering. If the weaknesses of the youth ought to be displayed, then their progress and curiosity should likewise crawl on our communal screens.

In writing this, I am not suggesting that we dissect our community into narrow age groups before airing out their respective dirty laundry. I am also not suggesting that we forgo examining the state of our community or that we abstain from raising concerns with the fear of bruising each other’s ego. Any such suggestion would be absurd and terribly irresponsible. Rather, we should renounce the double standard that repeatedly summons the youth for their distinguishing misdeeds but fails to confront the common offenses of older generations, instead framing them as broader societal problems affecting everyone equally. What should supersede this outdated standard is a system of knowledge sharing and communal responsibility that recognizes the youth as active participants who belong to the fabric of Islam rather than to the oblivious threads that hang on the edge.