Yaser Birjas – The Importance Of The Youth
AI: Summary ©
The importance of youth in Islam is highlighted, including struggles with older Jews and the importance of young people in protecting their rights and values. The speaker emphasizes the importance of pursuing personal and financial goals to achieve a better life, including finding good mentors in the community to help young people achieve their goals. The speaker also highlights the need for strong moral and political stance to ensure everyone is protected and empowered, as well as finding good mentors to help young people achieve their goals.
AI: Summary ©
They're doing nothing,
nothing beneficial. They're very selfish. They only care
about themselves. But, subhanAllah, when we see the
wave
bring positive change to this community and this
society, Insha'Allah.
Brothers and sisters, when we come to the
subject of youth, in Islam it's very important
it's mentioned in the Quran and the sun
of the Prophet
what they're capable of doing if they have
the right teaching,
they can do miracles.
When
the elite communities or the elite groups of
the society
at the highest level is corrupt, just like
what happened in Mecca, the way it was
also in Medina at the time of the
prophet
Who were those people who can embrace Islam
first?
Who were those people who came to the
prophet
and given their shihad and sacrificing everything for
the sake of Allah
It was the youth, the younger ones.
Because the older ones, they had so much
to lose.
They had influence,
they had money, they had power, they had
so much to lose.
And they were resisting that change as it
was coming their way. They would not stand
for justice. They would stand for their personal
benefits, whatever brings benefit to themselves.
But these Jews, subhanAllah, they just bring that
change because they still haven't developed much that
they could lose.
So they are very altruistic in that nature.
I want to talk about the importance of
the youth in our ummah.
So at least, as a Muslim community,
we make sure that we give them the
proper guidance so that when this change comes,
comes
positive to the whole world
Brothers and sisters in the Quran, Allah
highlights
some of the and also some characters
in the Quran
with their age group,
with their age group. So Ibrahim alayhis salam,
Allah described them in the Quran, Ibrahim
represents an entire nation.
Like he is one man, he is one
man in the face of the entire nation,
like he's equivalent to an entire Ummah. How
so? Because of his character, because of his
ahlah, his mala, and his principles and values
as well too,
and the mission
that he was commissioned for. And then
when the story began between him and his
people, his people were among, at that time,
in Mesopotamia,
the greatest nations
that had all the power that you can
imagine at that time. And obviously, there were
so many people profiting from that, the elitist
society of that community,
but they were now bringing people to worship
the idols,
false gods.
And they were benefiting from that.
So therefore Ibrahim
of course is not following that example, and
he was debating with his people.
But there was that moment when he took
an action
to go and destroy these false idols.
And then when the people, they came and
they saw what happened, they were wondering what
happened, who did this to our gods?
Can you imagine
asking that question if it said, who did
this to our gods?
Gods could not even defend themselves.
We heard about a young boy, a young
man,
the word was fata in the Arabic language,
which means a young man in the youthful
age.
We heard a young man named Ibrahim.
He was talking about them.
So bring him. So let's
talk about what happened here. And they brought
him, and we know the story of Ibrahim
But out of all the qualities
that Allah
highlighted about Ibrahim in this ayah, what did
the people remember of him? Being a young
man,
a principled man who stands for justice
even against his all ummah, his all actually
nations and people
And Allah
protected him. The other example that was mentioned
in the Quran, the example of
the young people that you recite every Friday
in Surat Al Kahf.
Allah
speaking about them. They are a group of
young people in Nahum Fitiya.
What was about them? They believed in their
Lord
And Allah said, And we increased them in
guidance.
They were
young, they have strong iman, and Allah showed
them the way.
And because of that, they became miracles for
the nations to come until the day of
judgment. And we read their story every single
Friday in Surat Al Kahf.
What was so special about them? They were
young people who believed in Allah
and Allah increased them in guidance.
Another example Allah
brings to us the story of Musa
and his his disciple, Joshua, Yusha Abin Noon,
that Musa, when Allah
tested Musa to go and look and see
for himself, learn, to go and learn from,
Al Khidr. He took with him his own
student,
and the Allah subhanahu nurtured
his
to us his quality,
Musa
Fata,
when Musa spoke to his young disciple, young
assistant,
let's go look for this man and go
on a journey of seeking knowledge,
because he knew on a journey like this,
I need someone who is capable of helping
me, someone who is capable of doing things
I cannot do. The young people,
they're brave.
They take risks that adults sometimes don't take
those risks. They make too much calculated risk
that they become timid to take actions as
a result of that. But these young ones,
they will
take that risk.
Allah, the prophet
in the hadith, he mentioned many many stories
for us, salawatullah,
and
also highlighting the importance of this age group,
my dear brothers and sisters.
One of the famous stories was also documented
in the Quran,
the story of the young boy.
The young boy who was traveling between the
king and
the disciple
or the monk in the cave,
and is known as Ashab ul Uhdud, the
people of the trench.
He was a young man as he was
going between the king's place to meet with
a sorcerer, and on his way back home,
he stopped by that cave to learn from
that monk. He found guidance, he found Allah
realized all the things that he learned from
that eluded society in that town is just
false teachings,
false gods.
And the moment of test, he found that
goddess to be true and he was tested
and Allah
made him an example for the whole world.
Because of 1 young man, an entire nation
became Muslim.
They believed.
This is how much change
young people can bring, The Prophet
he told us about this.
Make sure to take the benefit of 5
things before 5 things strikes you.
Like, take advantage of 5 good things
in your life
before other 5 things take over. He says
your life before your death.
You are living on a borrowed time.
When you were born, your expiration has already
been determined by Allah
So it's just it's a matter of it's
up to you to take death as an
obstacle,
as an obstacle, which means you start getting
desperate, there's nothing I could do so you
just become dead, do nothing. Or take it
as a challenge.
And I'm gonna beat that moment by doing
the best and get the best out of
my life, InshaAllah.
So that's for everybody. But then he said
your health before you get sick.
Your free
time, you have so much free time on
your hand before you get so busy,
your youthful age before you become old.
That time you need to use it wisely.
And your wealth and your times when you're
wealthy and prosper
before times of challenge and poverty.
In another narration, in another hadith, the prophet
said that every individual
will be standing before their lord
and they're gonna be asked about 5 things.
And of these 5 things, he says,
That your life, how you spend it, and
then exclusively he took out of your life,
your your time and this life.
Your youthful age, how it was consumed, what
did you consume it with?
I'm asking those adults who are past the
age of 40, because by the way when
it comes to defining Shabaab
or Fatiya in the Arabic language, it goes
from in the thirties and twenties
and young age.
So that's all of it. It's part of
being youthful.
Because the prophet
saved his mission when he was 40
But he was being prepared all these years.
So now I'm asking those who passed the
40 years ago, if you look back and
try to calculate those 20 years of your
life,
when you hit twenties until you came close
to forties,
what did you do? Something that you will
be proud of, that you will leave a
legacy behind you.
I'm not talking about your personal life. Talking
about what did you do, what did you
add to this world.
Because if
you do not add anything, you're just an
addition in it.
You're an extra thing.
What did you leave? A legacy that you'll
be proud of and if you haven't done
much, then you still have time as long
as you're breathing, You can make a big
difference. If not you personally,
then you can influence somebody.
You can help and sponsor someone. You can
make sure that those generations that come after
you and after me will have
access to a better life and
more things
useful to the world. You see, Rasulullah
he cared about the youth very much.
One time he came out
he saw a group of young people,
a group of young people who came visiting
from out of town.
You know, that was a time
after the after the conquest of Mecca. Some
descent some just say it was between the
between during the time of the truce between
Mecca and Medina.
So they took advantage, and they came now
to Medina to meet Rasulullah, h a s,
whom they've been hearing about all these years.
Seeing the prophet more frequently, and one day
the prophet
seeing them in the masjids sitting there, they
looked bored a little bit.
So he sat with them and he starts
talking to them
at a very personal level.
Tell me about the people you left behind.
Like, are you married? Do you have kids?
Who did you leave behind you? And they
start talking to the prophet he was talking
about their personal life.
And then he says, look,
when you're done, alhamdulillah, from here, wrap up
your stuff, get yourself ready to go back
home and stay with your families.
Like he was caring for them
and he said after that
He spoke directly to the youth. He goes,
if you're capable financially and physically to get
married, he said, you should do so.
Get married.
What it means exactly, the prophet is telling
people, look, be serious in this life.
Be serious in this life.
You need to grow up,
you need to mature, and you need to
move on.
So instead of escaping away from the responsibility
of this life
and the responsibility that Allah has put on
you as a human being on earth, you
need to actually pursue those responsibilities.
And that's one of them as well too,
to procreate
and produce and make sure we have the
generation that will take care of the last
Muhammad creation
after our time. Brothers and sisters, there's so
many things that we could learn, we could
say about the importance of youth in our
in our communities.
You know, when the Prophet
he gave dua for 10 years in Makkah,
and few people embraced Islam, but a lot
of them were young.
A lot of them young like Musa Abi
Umayr
ibn Abi Alai Wa'an. Umur Abi Khattab was
young at the time as well too. Many
of them were young people. And by the
time the prophet was getting ready to go
to Madinah, who invited him even to come
to Madinah?
There was also a young group of people.
They were very enthusiastic to support this new
dawah,
that new chain that brings justice to everybody
for them. They saw opportunity of khairan there.
The night when the prophet
was still in Makkah during the had season,
what we know in history as Bayatul Aqaba
Al Kubra. That was the Bledg, the second
Bledg
around in that mountain range in Madinah.
So that close to that ridge, they went
there and they met with the prophet
secretly at night.
Al Abbas, the uncle of the prophet comes
with him.
And then when they came and he he
met this delegation right now that represents the
people of Madinah, there are about 82 people,
80 men and 2 ladies.
And they were there
talking to the prophet
about they're ready to receive him there in
Madinah, like,
we're ready for you. Come, join us.
We will support you.
The irony is that Al Abbas, the uncle
of the prophet
he looked around in the faces of these
people in the darkness of that night and
the light that they have in their hands.
He looked at their faces and he realized
that many of them were young people,
and he kind of was worried about his
nephew.
So he told him, he said, listen to
me, because do you know do you have
any idea
what exactly you're trying to do? Like, you're
going to be provoking the entire Arabian Peninsula
against you.
You're going to be basically poking into that
wasp back to the nest.
You're going to hit the whole people against
you.
He is safe with us, because he is
safe with his family, he is safe with
his tribe. Regardless of what he's going through,
he's still safe over here.
Are you sure you're capable of doing this?
Can you protect him?
So al Abbas, when he started hearing from
these young people,
one after the other one, at least the
representative as they were speaking,
that gives him peace and tranquility, because he
realized it's not just any young people.
The eloquent speech,
the strength, the power, the determination,
the confidence
they were showing in the display, they're willing
to take that risk,
a risk that all of us today, alhamdulillah,
are privileged to be able to say, la
ilaha illa Allahu Muhammadu Rasoolah, because of which
we are saying la ilaha Muhammadu Rasoolah today.
They took the risk
even though everybody was telling them this is
dangerous.
You can't be doing this.
But they just needed the right guidance and
they found it.
They got the guidance from Musa ibn Umayr
when he was sent with them the year
before and then the years after from Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Brothers and sisters,
these young people they can do a lot.
And when everybody becomes complacent with this unfortunate
situation that is happening in the world, the
whole world, even Muslim countries today,
are just completely, completely
neglecting and ignoring what's happening in their own
Ghazda and just waiting for it to end,
Somehow waiting for something to end.
But you have now the young people say,
you know, enough.
Adults, unfortunately, not taking responsibility,
they're not being mature enough to take responsibility,
and we hear politicians
today every now and then, they come out
with statements that are gross statements, SubhanAllah,
disgusting.
And it shows how coward they are. And
then you have these young ones coming out
and saying, you know what, enough is enough.
May Allah protect them.
Brothers and sisters,
youthful age again is not necessary just by
the number.
You can still be above that age, and
you can give that support like many of
the Sahaba
in Mecca and in Madinah. May Allah
make us among those who always stand for
justice
My dear brothers and sisters,
my message now is for the youth themselves.
If you count yourself one of them, what
are the most important tool qualities that you
really need in order for you to count
as one of those righteous ones like Inna
Fityatul Amanu Gurabbim? These are truly
young people who truly believe in Allah Subhanahu
wa Ta'ala.
And Imam Ibn Taymura He's
quoting Imam Ahmed Rahimu Allah when he was
asked about the young people.
He says, those people who always
abandon that which is inappropriate,
like they have the courage to have an
upright character.
And he need 2 qualities for this, he
says,
You need to have these two qualities. As
Allah
says Those who have fear of Allah
and they forbid themselves from going in that
which Allah
has forbidden.
These two qualities are very important,
that you have taqwa of Allah first and
foremost because if you have that, you become
above everybody else. And then
good manners that whatever that you do, the
purpose principles you hold, you'll always convey them
in the best way possible, again, with principle.
That is extremely important, and with that, you're
going to definitely need to come and ask.
Ask those who know, who can help. You
can't just act, you only have to have
mentors to help with that inshaAllah and
make sure to find good mentors in the
community.