Tom Facchine – Advice For Our Muslim Youth

			Okay, so advice I would give for the Muslim youth. Number one is be really aware of your influences,
okay?
		

			Because a lot of stuff that happens today, this day and age, the influences happen without you even
realizing it, right. So you spend time on social media, you got different social media accounts, you
go to school, you got sports, you got extracurricular activities, whatever else you're doing. All of
these are like channels of influence, right. And there's no avoiding all of them, right, but you've
just got to stay aware, you've got to stay awake, you can't fall asleep at the wheel, so to speak.
And you've got to realize, at the end of the day, that if the majority of the people that you spend
your time around, and that's people that are both in your phone and outside your phone, right, or
		

			have a certain disposition, or even have a certain sign, kind of like, belief, or non belief, maybe
they're atheists, or maybe they're or whatever, that that's going to influence you in some way. Even
if it's only that it's going to make it seem more normal to you, right, because these are the things
and the people that you interact with and see every day. So you should be just really, really
conscious about all these sorts of people that you're surrounding yourself with.
		

			If you don't have any Muslim friends, if you don't have any sort of like counterbalance, like
Islamic influence, that's a good one, right, it's gonna be really, really hard to set down your
anchor and be you and to keep who you are. And to keep your faith and to keep your kind of your
thing going, it's going to be really, it's almost like your anchor is pulled up, and you're just
going to be drifting at sea, and you're not even going to realize it. Right. So that would be the
first thing I would say. Second thing I would say is that don't let anybody ruin Islam for you.
Right, don't let anybody else and their poor behavior or their ignorance or their abrasiveness or
		

			their aggressiveness, or their
		

			cockiness, or whatever, don't let them ruin Islam for you. Islam is not about the people. Islam is
not about what the Muslims are doing. Islam is about what a law said, and what the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi. Salam said, right, and you have your relationship with your Creator. And there's
going to be crazy people in your life that think that they know something, or think that they're
going to be able to,
		

			they want to prove something to you, or they want to prove you wrong or something like that. Don't
let them ruin your relationship with your Creator, your relationship with your Creator is way bigger
than your relationship to that person, or even to that entire community. And the third thing I would
say to Muslim youth is just be patient. Be patient. You know, one thing that the devil tries to do
to us to get us to jump to get us to sin or to get us to, to act out is to convince us that we're
always going to feel the way that we feel right now. Or that it's going to get worse. And that's not
true. It's not always going to be that way. You're going to want to do things. The neffs wants to do
		

			things when you're 19. When you're 21, you're 21
		

			that are hasty that are going to be problematic for you that are going to hurt you or hurt people
that are around you. And if you can just hold on for a little bit until you're married until you're
a little bit older until you graduate, whatever. A lot of times things are going to work themselves
out. You're not going to feel the same way in five years that you felt that you feel now. Right, the
things that you want to do, your whole perspective is going to shift. Right? So that's what I would
say. So what were they
		

			watch your influences. Be aware of them. Make sure you've got a counterbalance for some sort of
positive Islamic influence somewhere.
		

			Don't let anybody ruin your relationship with a law and be patient