Generation gap

( faslay bain ul nasl)

We gave the example of the prophet Abraham (pbuh) in the last chapter that he achieved such a greatness because of his true following of ALLAH.  With telling lies we lose trust.  Only truthfulness builds trust.   

Let us now move on to the generation gap, which causes a maturity gap between old and young.  We do see that very few young people ever go to mosque.  There is a reason for this behavior in youth.  Parents have  become so absorbed in their materialistic pursuits that they themselves did not remain practicing Muslims, nor did they pay much attention to their children’s religious education while they were growing up.  Thus the children disregarded the significance of Islam in their lives.  Children learn from us.  They also might have seen that we profess to be Muslims but we do not practice Islam.  While Quran says that, “O, believers do not say what you do not practice”.  We have become preachers to others while we do not practice what we preach.  So how do we close this generation gap?  First of all we need to have a place where all the past, present and future generations could get together in the same place.  The multipurpose halls adjacent to mosque could be used for such a purpose.  These could be used for social get together, discussions, teaching and learning with in the limits set by Islam.  Children have opportunities to be in the un-Islamic environment and they do learn all that, though we keep our eyes closed thinking that everything will be all right until it is too late.  We need to know whatever is happening to our children.  We have the example of our Caliph Omer (RA), who used to go around at night to seek out if anybody went hungry and said to himself that even if a single dog was hungry, he will be answerable on the Day of Judgment.   

He (RA) is the one who gave the concept of a welfare state and this is the concept which was adopted by the west to fight communism, however as soon as the communism was defeated the same west is now retreating from this concept and probably it will soon be gone.  Materialism and welfare are two different things. Due to this Islamic concept the Islam is being punished just like the communism was.  We need to be forewarned about this and saying that everything is fine is not right.  We need to have our “Noah’s Arc” ready for this escape.  We know that people who saw Noah (pbuh) building a ship on the land used to laugh at him and were taken aback when the flood came and it is written in Quran. 

Here we are living in an un-Islamic culture; however in our own homelands the situation is not any different.  Here in Canada we do everything in mixed male-female environment; however we become most strict in our own community's social gatherings.  What a hypocrisy is? We could be trying to fool ourselves by this behavior; however nothing goes away by just closing our eyes.   

We have heard about a bird whose habitat is at the riverbanks, just sticks his head in sand whenever there is a storm and gets buried under river sands consequently.  Such was the fate of this bird that it became extinguished.   This surely is not a way to live on. 

Let us learn from this example and try to bring the youth in our fold by closeness and understanding.  They would already have some understanding; however, we can help them further in differentiating between right and wrong in the Islamic ways.   Again these multipurpose halls next to mosques will be useful in this regard.  This atmosphere cannot be found in western educational institutes or hotel lobbies.   

For such mixing we have the saying of our prophet (pbuh) that, “it is better for a girl and a boy to see each other before marriage and it increases love between them”.  In our attitude regarding this we go to extremes of either not letting them see each other at all or let them loose altogether. Guidance in this regard is the saying of the prophet (pbuh).

I have seen this tradition in Bengal that, when a boy meets a girl for the purpose of matrimony then there is usually an elder woman of the family also present.  If he likes to marry her then he gives some present as a token of this accent.  This is fine, however the intent of the girl is also equally important and ignoring that is not right either and thus has become a one sided acceptance.  Islam teaches modesty in every thing.  We restrict our children not to meet freely within the community, while they have no such restrictions outside own community, is not the right attitude.  In Islam it is required that the women should not talk in a way that produces misunderstanding to the opposite sex, however they are not required to be aloof to the level of disrespect to others.  Since the suggested multipurpose halls would be adjacent to the mosques their sanctity will be respected in the social gatherings there.  This will help in reduction of the wrong customs due to the Islamic education there or at least will not be promoted in the public.  People will become more literate in Islamic education due to this environment and closeness to the mosque.  When children will play in the presence of the elders and youth, it will create an environment of happiness, which is in the essence of Islam, togetherness, and education.  This togetherness will cultivate piety and virtuous actions.