Challenges that a Muslim Youth Faces in University

“As-salámu 'alaikum wa rahmatul láhi wa barakátuh!”

“A-úthu billáhi minash shaytánir rajeem. Bismilláhir rahmánir raheem.
Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta’eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi,
Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Alláh, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhoo warasooluh!”

Amma Ba’ad:

Today I would like to welcome all of you, students, teachers, families and specially those who have traveled long distances to achieve their dreams and in the process will become a part of the youth on campus. I hope in sincerity, inshallah, that this orientation program will give you some insight of what a Muslim student’s life is at this campus and in this community, at large. I hope in sincerity, that today you will get to know the people who care about you and the people in whom you will see your own spiritual reflection. I hope in sincerity, that wherever you will move on from here, you will carry with you memories of a time well spent and a time well used in the a’boodiyah of Allah SWT.

When we look at the lives of the companions of the Prophet SAW, we will see many examples that will make us wonder about ourselves. We will see examples from the youth of that era that will make our hair stand on their ends.

Some say, that Muslims always talk about stories a thousand years old and they love to live in the past glory. Well yes that’s true. We do live in the past, but we don’t isolate ourselves in the past. We learn from our values, our mistakes, our accomplishments, our achievements and then move on to the next level which is to transform ourselves into a better human being. We read about the lives of the Saliheen, We smile on their humor, we weep on their sadness, we show emotions on their anger and hence we connect ourselves to their lives, for they spent lives in complete submission to the will of Allah SWT.

They were the people of great understanding of religion…. Which doesn’t mean that they spent all day reading books and collecting information.. they laughed, they joked, they used to pray together, they used to compete against eachother in various sports… but all that was done within the circle of Sharia, within the boundaries prescribed by the Word of Allah SWT. This reminds me of an incident…

INCIDENT OF NUAYMAN IBN `AMR (RA)

Once Nuayman went to the suq and saw some food being sold which appeared to be tasty and delightful. He ordered some and sent it to the Prophet as if it were a gift from him. The Prophet was delighted with the food and he and his family ate of it. The vendor of the food then came to Nuayman to collect the price of it and an-Nuayman said to him: "Go to the Messenger of God it was for him. He and his family ate it." .. The vendor went to the Prophet who in turn asked Nuayman: "Didn't you give it to me?" "Yes," said Nuayman. "I thought you would like it and I wanted you to eat some of it so I had it presented to you. But I don't have any dirhams to pay the vendor for it. So, pay, O Messenger of God!" The Prophet had a good laugh and so did his companions. The laugh was at his expense, literally, for he had to pay the price of the unsolicited gift. Nuayman felt that two benefits came out of the incident: the Prophet and his family ate food that they enjoyed and the Muslims had a good laugh!

Yes, they were people who knew how to have fun, but when it came to religious obligations, they were the first to sacrifice, they were the first to devote themselves, and they heard and practiced the word of Allah SWT like no other. Their day to day lives, habits, and actions were according the guidelines of Quran and Sunnah.

Allah SWT has commanded us in Quran that we spend time in His remembrance. He commands us to pray 5 times a day. Allah SWT also says in Surah Al Ara’af

وَاذْكُر رَّبَّكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ تَضَرُّعاً وَخِيفَةً وَدُونَ الْجَهْرِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ بِالْغُدُوِّ وَالآصَالِ وَلاَ تَكُن مِّنَ الْغَافِلِينَ

“And remember your Lord by your tongue and within yourself, humbly and with fear without loudness in words in the mornings, and in the afternoons and be not of those who are neglectful.” [7:205].

All these commandments are for a reason, to make us strong in our faith, to keep ourselves away from evil and above all to give us an identity. An identity that is true to the concept of servitude towards Allah SWT. An identity, that binds us all in the end together. As a Muslim student in this part of the world, this identity means even more to us because that’s how we are looked upon, judged upon, and ultimately recognized upon. Having established the fact that when you come to this society and establish yourself therein, the only thing that gives you a complete sense of presence and association is your identity as a muslim, we can now move on to some of the hurdles that may present some challenge to us in our life here.

SALAT

The first and the foremost challenge that we will encounter here is the establishment of our salaat. It is a direct commandment of Allah SWT that requires us to establish salaat in all conditions. One has to realize that if we were to maintain our identity in this environment as muslims, we must switch from a passive contributor to an active contributor in our community. The environment at the school will test us at many levels where it will be required of us to provide explanations for our religious actions. We can no longer choose to be approached by others to establish the salaat, rather we have to assume this duty ourselves and take responsibility of establishing salaat. Some of our brothers are already engaged in these activities on the campus. We must contribute our share of effort towards this important cause, for Allah SWT says in the Quran:

إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلاَةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ رَاكِعُونَ
5:55 Your (real) friends are (no less than) Allah, His Messenger, and the (fellowship of) believers,- those who establish regular prayers and regular charity, and they bow down humbly (in worship).

Sometimes, there is a conflict between our salaat and the class timings, so you will see many of us sacrificing our classes to establish the salaat. Some of us are spending extra hours after school to make up for that missed time. An outsider may question us if it is worth it? But a believer knows it is all worth it, for if the Creator is not happy with us, nothing we achieve is of any value to us in Aakhira.

My example – salat on campus – people interested to know about it

WUDU

The next challenge you may face in the university environment is the pre-requisite of the Salaat, i.e. Wudu. We may not find the same facilities on the campus as we are used to in our own countries. We may feel shy or inconfident to use public washrooms on campus to perform wudu. Remember, our salaat is not for someone, not even for ourselves; rather it is to please Allah SWT. Allah SWT will reward us many folds for each action that we carry out in His path. It has happened to me many a times in public washrooms, where I have to wash my feet in the sink and somebody walks in, and gives me a look like “Whaaaaa?” So before they say a word, I say, “We need to be clean before we make worship, right.” And most of the times, they will smile and nod but there are a few times when they cannot understand. Sometimes they inquire and it becomes a reason to explain to others what the tenets of my religion are. In my heart, I don’t feel hesitant because my salaat is for Allah SWT and my wudu is to make that salaat as perfect as possible.

FASTING

Ramadhan is coming soon and to maintain the spirit of Saum on campus can be a little frustrating. On one side we are trying to keep ourselves away from the evils, and on the other hand we are surrounded by all kinds of distractions. In addition to maintaining our devotion to the remembrance of Allah SWT and salaat, we have some extra restrictions on us. We cannot raise our temper, we cannot involve ourselves in idle activities, we cannot use harsh words against one another, we keep ourselves away from eating or drinking or having any kind of sexual contacts, and on top of that we still have to maintain a social circle where people have to accept us as one of their own. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible either. A muslim’s life on campus is therefore a constant struggle against all these difficulties and each of these difficulties when conquered gives a new boost to the morale and a new confidence and a new strength to our faith.

The above are few examples of the challenges on a personal level and are related to physicality of our worships. There are some challenges that may be categorized as mental challenges or spiritual challenges.

IDENTITY:

In order to understand the challenges that you face or will face, we have to look upon our origin. We ought to know where we came from and what are we capable of. We ought to know our identity, define it and then live by it. All of us came from different countries with different backgrounds, where we never questioned as to what our identity is because it is never asked of us. Now people will question us, of who we are and to what we associate ourselves to? We will be asked of what we adhere to and why? We will be asked of why we follow such and such? There are many answers to these questions… because I am from Africa, I am from Pakistan, Palestine…. Or because I am an Indian or because I am an Arab or a Chinese… but before we can utter any word from our mouth we ought to think as to what is common among all of us that binds us together.. and that is Islam, our religion… suddenly all the shades, colors, creeds, nationalities, linguistic boundaries disappear when we are confident to call ourselves Muslims, our real identity suddenly shines and all our actions become self explanatory.

SOCIALIZATION:

Islam gives us a very strong perspective on the importance of socialization. The spread of the word of Allah SWT is achieved through socialization. We, as muslims must keep contacts with others surrounding us, for we may become the reason for the spread of the true Word, the Quran.


There is no doubt that the company of friends influences the formation of our characters. For this reason, Allah's Messenger SAW, said, "A person is influenced by his companions religion, so watch who your companions are." (Abu Dawood,
Tirmidhi)

This influence is acquired from two aspects: 1. The first is acquired in the company of relatives, neighbors, school and all those with whom a person is compelled to spend time.2. The second type of influence is acquired within more religious company which is likely to meet those who are less concerned. Though they pray and fast, they are less serious in carrying the message of Islam, dawah, sacrifice, etc. And if a person's faith is weak and is inclined towards desire and negligence, he will find comfort in this company. The effects of this influence become apparent through certain factors that include doing things he never used to do before. He begins considering those on the deviated path as examples in life and as a result, he starts imitating them saying, "If he can do this, why can't I?" He begins to please others at the expense of pleasing Allah by performing actions never done before or abandoning some good deeds. He abandons, for example, praying sunnah, or starts showing up late for congregation salaat, starts getting used to watching and hearing forbidden things- as a result, he even stops forbidding the evil. All this is no doubt a consequence of weak imaan and the influence of either a bad company or a group who are less serious with Islam and more inclined towards desire.

If the companions are pious and muttaqi, then chances are, we may also keep our faith strengthen. If the companions are involved in the evil practices, the chances will be that we will indulge in those practices giving a blind eye to the commandment of Allah SWT. The peer pressure can drive people far and beyond and when one realizes, then there is only regret. One should therefore make sure that the circle of friends that one chooses is of the Saliheen and Aabideen so that the company itself becomes the remembrance of Allah SWT.

CONFUSION BETWEEN RELIGION AND CULTURE:

Because of our varied background, we are sometimes confused about which of our customs originated from the teachings of islam and which of them came from our culture. Sometimes, we believe that a certain action that we have been accustomed to in our countries is a teaching of our religion, but we find out by doing a little research that those actions and habits actually originated from our culture and have nothing to do with the teaching of Islam. This confusion is not only limited to our muslim friends, and sometimes we see that lot of non muslims on the campus are in the same confusion when they meet us muslims. They have trouble differentiating if a certain thing that we do is from our religion or from our culture. For example, one may ask me if my outfit is a requirement by Islamic law, so I can clarify to him, that I am required by my religion to wear loose clothing and style may vary from one muslim country to another. Or if one asks a muslimah sister, “Is this Hijab a requirement by Islamic Law?” Then she would explain that, It’s a religious requirement for a muslim woman to cover her hair, although the style of the hijab may vary from one muslim country to another. In order to differentiate between the two we must be clear about the commandments ourselves. We must be clear about the difference between the teachings that came from our religion and the customs that were given to us by our culture.

STEREOTYPES

While maintaining our muslim identity on campus, we may from time to time run into people who have certain stereotypes against muslims. This may be due to the current Media distortion of the Islamic image, or due to some other reasons, but one does experience it from time to time. The only thing that helps us to defend ourselves in such circumstance is our faith and the conviction that this is a test from Allah SWT. Although at first it may be a negative experience but one can use the situation to explain our point of view. Most people who stereotype us realize that they are too quick to judge us and that there is more to Islam than what they have been watching on the television.

Example – salat in the mall – tim hortons. – ready to fly – whats wrong down there dear –

These are just a few example of challenges that we may face in our university environment. One has to think of how to rise to these challenges. There is no quick solution to any of these problems but there are couple of things that we can do to confront them.

UNITY & COMMUNICATION

We must at all times have open communications between our muslim friends. This will give us a sense of comfort that there is somebody who shares the same struggles. Also it will give us a sense of association, since we have the same religious background. We will know whats going on in the muslim community and vice versa. It will give us an avenue to share our problems and voice our concerns regarding our personal matters as well as anything that is troubling us.

I am sure there are a lot of things that I have not touched base with in this speech that were important, but I took the liberty of bringing out the key points regarding the challenges that a muslim youth faces in the universities. If you think that there is something that I missed, or something that should be discussed, Inshallah bring it to our weekly halaqa, we all would love to discuss it

Wa Aakhuru Da`waana Anil `7amdu Lillah i Rabbilaalimeen.

September 2005