Answer
Short Answer: As a young Muslim you will find great happiness in life by trying to keep that balance between all the different aspects of your life, knowing that you will be pleasing Allah by doing them all with the right intention. If you are at school or college, you need to devote a great part of your time to study. There is a time for football and there is a time for study.
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Salam Dear Mohammad,
Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
Just asking such a question shows your sincerity in wanting to be a good Muslim. May Allah reward you in this world and the next.
Any community that invests in its young people has a definite future.
Young people are the future. Someone once described young people as “the hope of tomorrow.”
In Islam, then, the young people are the ones who will take the message of Islam forward into the next generation. Without them, the message of Islam could not be heard in the future.
Muslims show great respect to their elders. Old people have a special place for Muslims.
We show great reverence and love to our parents, for example. We listen with infinite attention to what our scholars and our mosque leaders tell us.
But young people have their own role to play, too, and older people should take great care to see that they are helped to develop as good Muslims and good people.
You are right to suggest that it has something to do with balance. All people need to achieve the right balance in their lives between work and relaxation and the duties of their religion.
For Muslims, though, everything done with the right intention can be a form of worship. All things can lead us to Allah, if we allow them to.
Let us be honest and say right at the start that people make a lot of mistakes when they are growing up. This is part of what growing up is.
But people make mistakes, too, when they have grown up and so should not be too harsh on young people for not quite getting things right all the time.
They need to be very understanding and very forgiving when young people make mistakes. Young people, too, should be very forgiving of themselves when they fail to live as they want to.
The important thing is to try and learn from the mistakes and try not to do them again.
Good Time Management
So, what is the right balance we are looking for?
How should Muslim youth divide their time?
If you are at school or college, you need to devote a great part of your time to study. This does not mean being “bookish,” but it does mean making the most of what Allah Almighty has given you.
The chance of a good education is denied to millions throughout the world. They would love the chance to go to school or university, so that they can read and write and make something of their lives. Those who do get the chance of education, should not waste it.
There is a time for football and there is a time for study. If we do not really like studying, we need to realize that it is a duty we must do.
We have been given gifts and talents by Allah Almighty and we must use them. Not to study is to say to Allah that we care nothing for his gifts.
A Muslim student, then, should be recognized for the way he or she works hard in class and for the way he or she is polite and respectful to teachers and to other students.
Allowing others the privilege of getting on with their studies is just as important as getting on with our own.
The Social Sphere
As well as being seen as good students, though, Muslim young people should be seen as people who know how to enjoy themselves.
Outside the classroom or lecture hall, the Muslim young people should relax to the full.
People should be constantly amazed at how Muslims make the most of every opportunity. Not only do they work hard at their studies, they should say, but they know how to have fun.
In the same way, outside the school or college environment, Muslim young people should be known for the way they treat their parents.
When your mum shouts for you to come down from your room for dinner, do you ignore the shout and wait another ten minutes, or do you go down straight away?
Someone once very beautifully described to me how one day he visited the grave of his father and cried bitter tears that he was not now able to respond to his father’s call any more. How prompt we should be in obeying our parents.
This respect should be shown to our neighbors and elders, too. In fact, Muslim young people should try as best they can just to be good Muslims. By doing this they will get the balance right and give such good example to those around them.
Establishing the regular routine of praying five times a day, not only when your dad asks, “have you prayed yet?”, but because it is part of your life, is most important.
Muslims pray. They should be known as men and women of prayer. Creating this habit of Prayer when we are young is what will help us when we get older.
It might seem as though being young is almost too much to cope with, since we are being asked to do so much, but Muslims are called to be the greatest nation on earth, the greatest people.
Being young is a privileged way of growing to become that great person. Take care in your dealings with other boys and girls. Use the guidelines that Islam gives us for interacting with others.
These rules are there not as a burden, but to help us one day find the right person to settle down with and marry. People are not to be used as objects, but should be shown the greatest respect.
All people on earth are looking for happiness. In asking how to be happy, you are asking what all people want.
As a young Muslim you will find great happiness in life by trying to keep that balance between all the different aspects of your life, knowing that you will be pleasing Allah by doing them all with the right intention.
And what about the rewards?
Well, apart from growing up a well-balanced, well-educated person who knows how to work hard and how to enjoy himself when the time is right, you will also grow up a good man, respectful of others and fearful of displeasing Allah Almighty.
Even these were not reward enough; you will also earn the pleasure of Allah. What greater reward could there be than this?
I hope this answers your question. Please keep in touch.
Salam.
(From Ask About Islam archives)
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