Guiding Youth to Focus on Learning the Correct Creed

Question:
The first question concerns the youth. The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, it is observed that in these recent times, the youth are neglecting and losing interest in learning the creed, studying it, reviewing it, and paying attention to it, while they are preoccupied with other matters. What is your guidance for these young people?

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. May Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. As for what follows, I advise the youth, and others from every Muslim, to focus on the creed first and before anything else, because the creed is the foundation upon which all deeds are built, in terms of acceptance and rejection. If the creed is correct and in accordance with what the messengers (peace be upon them) brought, especially the Seal of the Messengers, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him),
then all other deeds are accepted with the correct creed, provided that these deeds proceed from pure faith for the sake of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) and in accordance with what Allah and His Messenger have legislated. If the creed is defective, or if it is a misguided creed based on customs and the imitation of fathers and grandfathers, or if it is a creed of shirk (associating partners with Allah), then all deeds are rejected and nothing of them is accepted. This is because Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) does not accept from deeds, words, or actions anything that is not pure for His noble sake and correct in accordance with the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Whoever wants salvation for himself and wants his deeds to be accepted, and wants to be a true Muslim, must pay attention to the creed. He must know the correct creed, what contradicts it, what opposes it, and what diminishes it, so that he builds his deeds upon it. This is not achieved except by learning it from the people of knowledge and the people of insight. He must receive his creed from the scholars who received their creed from the Salaf (the earliest generations) of this Ummah (the Muslim community). Therefore, every Muslim must focus on learning the creed and knowing it, and knowing what contradicts it and what diminishes it. Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) said to His Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him): . Al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) titled a chapter saying: "The chapter on knowledge before speech and action," and he cited this noble verse: , where Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) began with knowledge before speech and action.
Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) says: I seek refuge and [by] the Time. Indeed, man is in loss, except for those who have faith and do righteous deeds and enjoin one another to truth and enjoin one another to patience. He arranged safety from loss upon four matters. The first matter is faith, which means correct belief, righteous deeds, and good words. The conjunction of righteous deeds with faith is from the category of connecting the specific to the general, because deeds are included in faith. They were connected to it out of emphasis on them. The third matter is "enjoining one another to truth," which means calling to Allah, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong. When they first took care of themselves and knew the path, they called others to it.
Because the Muslim is obligated to call to Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), to enjoin what is right, and to forbid what is wrong. And "enjoining one another to patience" is this fourth matter: patience with what they encounter in the path of that, of fatigue and hardship. There is no happiness for the Muslim except if he realizes these four matters. As for focusing on general cultures, journalistic matters, the sayings of people, and what is happening in the world, a person only looks into these after he has realized tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and realized the creed, and looks into these matters in order to know good from evil, in order to be wary of the evils and misleading propaganda circulating in the arena. But this is after he is armed with knowledge, armed with the correct creed, armed with faith in Allah and His Messenger. As for entering the fields of culture, journalistic matters, and political matters while he is ignorant of his creed and ignorant of the matters of his religion, this does not benefit him in any way. Rather, this occupies him with what has no benefit for him, and he is unable to distinguish truth from falsehood. Many of those who were ignorant of the creed and focused on these matters went astray and led others astray, and confused people because they did not have insight, they did not have knowledge by which to distinguish between what is harmful and what is beneficial, what is taken and what is left, and how to count. Therefore, the error and confusion occurred with many people because they entered the fields of culture and politics without having knowledge of their creed and insight from their religion, so they considered truth to be falsehood and falsehood