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Teens
Living The Deen
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Trusting Allah vs. Filling
Void with Entertainment
If we [the teens] put our
trust and faith into something false and take something
false as our protector, we'll be setting ourselves up for
failure and disappointment.
We must put our trust in Allah and have faith that He will
protect us and guide us on the straight path.
Islam
may not seem thrilling
and everyone these days seems to be
looking for a thrill, something to excite them and make
them happy. Movie stars and athletes have become glorified
and are taken as role models.
On the surface, to the untrained eye,
they appear happy, beautiful, and perfect, but away from
the cameras and deep in the night, they question their
purpose and fill their void with drugs and alcohol.
Much like a flower, they are weak and ungrounded.
Following Islamic rules may
not seem thrilling and exciting on the surface,
but it is a fool proof way to achieve
long term happiness and peace of mind, unlike the instant
gratification that may put a smile on someone's face for a
minute, but eat away at his heart for a lifetime!
- By Sr. Sumaiya Beshir,
Ottawa, Canada
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*Crazy Ideals of
Teenagers*
Teenagers are idealists-- they want to change the world,
and make it a better place. These are not bad
ideals, and it is a great pity that
adults have forgotten their own ideals in a rat-race of
daily life. You, the parent, may have ended up as
just a hard-working non-entity in some quiet niche in life;
a teenager who is a real idealist may
end up as a famous person, a reformer, a politician, an
aid-worker-- who knows. The future lies there before
them.
It is
therefore a foolish parent who tries to ridicule and
trample on that young idealism. If it is consistent
with Islam, it should be fervently encouraged, and not set
at nought. It is parents who have
retained their own standards, who take an active interest
in the teenager's idealism and wild dreams, and who are
able to talk about them freely, are most likely to be
affective against pernicious influences. There is
plenty of sad evidence that it is those teenagers who
seriously feel disadvantaged, or who believe that there is
no hope for them in their future society, who turn to
delinquency. Hope and dreams are
precious things. Let no parent deliberately crush them.
Source:
"Living with Teenagers", Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood,
pp. 55-56, Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd.
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