Musleh Khan – Muslim Teenagers in Isolation

			Okay guys, so then why do you want to lower your body care to everyone? This millennial
recommendable Rahim Al hamdu, lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah he
sallallahu alayhi wa ala early, he was Herbie here to Marion logmar eliminare be million foreigner
when foreigner be married and 10 I was in Armenia carrying on, I'll be sure you suddenly with many
of the terminally Sonia qualities on them buried. So one of the things that I wanted to talk about
today, and hopefully allow all of us to think about and reflect on is just engaging teenagers, and
in particular during this whole isolation period. And it seems like this isolation period is going
		

			to go on for some time. And that could be like the worst catastrophic news, especially for
teenagers. Why? Because they're so used to, to being engaged and being connected to friends, and
even seeing meeting with friends. Most of the teenagers you talk to, if not all of them, just being
at school is all about being with friends. So when all of that's been taken away from them, or
restricted to some extent, it could really be unhealthy, both mentally and emotionally for
teenagers. So I want to share with you three things, at least from an Islamic perspective that can
help us keep our teenagers motivated during this isolation period, especially when they're
		

			restricted to seeing anybody else except their own immediate family within their house. So the first
thing is, keep young people busy. And that's really important, because a lot of the stress comes
from when they just don't have nothing to do, or they're just always bored. I mean, going outside,
like going to the lobby or going out into the driveway. I mean, that's really not going outside and
doing anything. And they're not able to go visit anywhere you can go to a mall, you can go to a
cinema, you can do anything. So keeping them busy. So you have to find things in your house that you
can do, that can keep young people constantly busy, give them a project of some sort, if you have
		

			yard work to do left, then go outside and do some yard work. Now where I'm getting all of this from
is that the general rule of thumb is that when you keep somebody just idling without focused on
anything to do, or anything to keep themselves occupied, what ends up happening, everything starts
to become boring. Or they'll just end up binging on YouTube or on their phones, and you know those
things, I get it, you know, we might be a little bit more loose when it comes to using gadgets
during this isolation period. But it's important that you keep those things also under control and
use this time to just keep busy with a lot of the things that you've been putting off for some time.
		

			And from an Islamic perspective, especially for the parents out there, this is the time where you
really try to keep your teenagers engaged in some kind of schedule, some kind of routine. So if
you've wanted them to memorize some color, and if you wanted them to study something, if you wanted
to them to review anything, this is the time to do it. It's not just about their schoolwork every
single day. But also, as we've always said in the past that one of the most effective things that
you can do to counter what they're learning in school to making sure that they also continue to
build themselves and learn about their religion, about who they are their identity, and preserving
		

			all of those things is counter it. So if you have five or six hours of just school time online, then
you need a couple of hours as well with some important time some a lot of time. Which brings me to
the second point, there has to be * of a time. So the first thing is all about keeping busy. But
the second thing that really keeps you teenagers in particular motivated is you have to have
halaqaat time. Now what does halaqaat time mean? Guys, this is the time where every single day you
have a moment where you as a family, do something Islamic, talk about something Islamic. You know,
one of the most unfortunate tragedies of teaching young people Islam is that a lot of parents will
		

			spend all their time and energy teaching teenagers, Islam, and they themselves the parents will
learn nothing.
		

			Me being an Islamic teacher, one of the biggest challenges I have with the young people. It's not
actually to teach young people it's not to actually keep them in a classroom and have them engaged
in what I'm trying to do. It's actually when I let them go home, and what they're exposed to and
what they're told and what they're not told when they're in when they're home with their families.
That's the biggest challenge because why I can't do anything to teach that or to influence that.
Because at the end of the day, they're under the control of whoever it is that they live with. So
that's fine. The point is, is that now when you have halaqaat time, you can take a lot of the things
		

			that you do as a family or you
		

			Believe as a family, I try to gauge that into what the poor and assuming that tells us to do. So
when we talk about the stories of the poor, and for example, if you take at least some halachot
time, when you're at the dinner table, when you're outside, when you're in the backyard, whatever it
is, and I've been doing this, and I can't tell you enough, how incredibly uplifting it's been for me
and mom and our kids, that sometimes we would just be sitting there, like, we'd be watching TV. And
then I would see something like a beautiful scenery or something, but I would show up on the screen,
and then I would pause the TV. And then I would tell my kids, I said, you know, this is what Allah
		

			says about trees in the poor and about the oceans and the poor. And we would see like beautiful
fishes and beautiful animals, because we love sitting there and watching Animal Planet. So we will
sit there and watch it all day. And then I will talk to them. And I say, you know, Subhana Look how
Allah designed this creature. You know, if we see ants, or the spider, we would talk about sort of
Milan Caboose, or we'll talk about that, and in the Quran. And then we'll talk about the story of
Solomon. And if they're just blown away, because they've never heard those things before, to be able
to connect what they see in real life to religion, we found was really important. You see, that's
		

			something that you're going to have to teach yourself in order to be teach your children that. So
you also have to be engaged in something. So for the parents out there, if you want your teenagers
in particular, to be encouraged and motivated islamically, during this isolation period, show them
as well, that you yourself as a parent are encouraged and motivated. And one thing that I want to
say on this subject is, is especially for the parents out there that you know, constantly pushing
the kids to learn their religion, but they themselves don't know how to recite any sort of
		

			basic when it comes to the Quran. This is particularly important for them that remember that Allah
subhanaw taala will ask you first about what you've done for the sake of Allah, what you've done in
the in the religion, as the Hadeeth can goes on. And it says, a woman who said, What do I know who
Leona piano to solder, the first thing that the person is asked about on the Day of Judgment is
their prayer. Now, what scholars took from that is you're asked about the acts of worship, that have
everything to do with you, not with anybody else. So the fact that when you're praying, you're
praying for yourself, all the cloud and the door as you do that for yourself. And so that's the
		

			first thing you're being talked about. And if it is good, then the rest of your Hey, SAP or your
accountability will be good. But if it is not, that would be a reflection of what the rest of the
accountability would be. So parents also take this time for yourself to improve yourself, to learn
some of the things that you've been pushing your kids to learn, now, maybe is a good time for you to
learn a little bit of that too. And the third and the last thing that I want to leave you with in
sha Allah huhtala is of course, so we have the first thing of keeping them busy. Number two was *
of a time Calico literally means a circle. So coming together and discussing something Islamic. And
		

			the third is most important as well in that is having some social time, some downtime with the
family. So yes, this is where we have just a good time, whatever it is that you want to do with
gold, go for a drive. If you watch a movie, if you just sit at home and play some games, I don't
know, whatever it is that you do for fun. Profit IE salatu salam spent a lot of his time teaching
companions, you know, he would allocate certain companions to teach certain things, he himself would
teach certain things. And he would allocate a time in a day to do all of this. But there was also
stories of him that he would wrestle with his companions, he would race with some of his companions,
		

			even some of his wives, he would be sitting there and he would just race with them, and they would
just have a good time. There are stories of him and a shot of the Alomar. And they will be sitting
together and you know what they would do? They would just talk, what are they talking about anything
and everything. It was just downtime. And he would sit there and he shouted the alarm he would come
and she would tell tell him the profit. It was from all the people that she talked to that day and
what they were all talking about. And just he would sit there and he would listen to all of that.
And they would have their own garden. So they would have an area right by the Prophet's Masjid where
		

			they would just go there and they would have some alone time they would sit, they would walk around,
they would play they would do whatever it is that they want. They just had this nice social time
where it wasn't about teaching. It wasn't about getting serious about anything. And a prophet alayhi
salaatu wa Salaam used to do this with all of his companions as well. There are stories of him in it
out of the Allah one where they used to wrestle one another and literally see who could pin the
person down to the ground first, and he would do this with other companions as well. And again, all
for fun, and some of them they were describing the winner process and it was over like if he won.
		

			You could see his molar Tate teeth meaning he would smile
		

			He would laugh so much that you could see, you know, the back of his mouth. And that's really,
really beautiful. It just gives us a perspective, especially for a lot of the Muslims that maybe
find it difficult to just smile once in a while to be happy to share some of that joy and some of
that humor with family, especially teenagers. This is the time where you can break some of those
barriers, where if you have a difficult time getting through and talking with teenagers, if you have
a difficult time asking them like how was your day, but they're not telling you anything, you know,
you're not, you're not the first person they're thinking about, you're not the person that they're
		

			going to come to and call them your friend, you're not the person that they're going to open up with
all of their secrets do? Well, this is the time to break down some of those barriers and just be
yourself parents. So the onus is a lot on the parents than it is on the teenagers. Because remember,
at the end of the day, when teenagers act this way, where they want to be isolated, they want to be
secluded, they want to do their own thing, they're plugged into their phones, they're just keeping
in touch with friends, and so on. They're kind of doing what teenagers do. And so for us, as
parents, now we have to be able to see through that and know how to engage and just talk to them in
		

			a way that doesn't make them feel like they're terrible people, that they're always doing something
wrong. And so with these three tools, insha Allah, it would help motivate us to get through to them
and to be able to encourage them in a good way not to judge them not to make them feel bad not to
make them feel horrible, and put them down, etc, etc, I want to say to the parents that are
listening to this is just keep in mind that a lot of the young students that you trust me to teach,
these are some of the things that come back and tell us teach teachers that you know, it's really
hard for them to talk to mom or dad or both. It's really hard, they have a sibling, but they're
		

			always fighting. So these are the things that I want to come back to you and say, you know, I'm not
just pulling this out of left field that this is actually coming from young people themselves. And
these are the things that they ask us and they tell us that this is what's happening. And this is
how it makes me feel when I get home. I'm always being you know, told to do this do that I can't sit
down. And even if I do something, I'm never shown any gratitude, nobody appreciates what I do and so
on and the list goes on. So these are some things that inshallah can help us get through that. So
number one is of course, to keep them busy. Number two is to have adequate time to have a time where
		

			you're actually just talking about something beautiful, that's appealing to you that you love about
Islam. And number three, of course is family time. When you're not doing anything serious, you're
just having downtime between you and your kids. I hope that helps guys all of this is found in the
poor enemy and so now tomorrow inshallah we'll continue with our reflections but other than that, I
hope that helps. So if you have any questions you can by all means send them to me in this.
		

			This watching we'll call it the comments line and I'll try my best to get to them in sha Allah in
the next presentation. Okay, the next webinar, take care of you one may Allah subhanho wa Taala
protect you. As you all know, I don't like to keep these videos long. So I hope that that is enough
for now. Take care, guys, cenomar alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh