A Guiding Word to Those Who Spend Their Vacation Wandering the Streets or Traveling to European Countries
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Honorable Shaykh! We ask you to give a word of guidance to those who spend their vacation wandering the streets and sitting on the sidewalks, and who do not go to the summer centers or the circles for memorizing the Noble Qur'an, and also to those who go to European countries to spend their vacation there. May Allah reward you with good.
This is a good request from this questioner. May Allah reward him with good.And it includes two things: As for the first matter: it is traveling to foreign countries to spend this vacation there. We say: Traveling to disbeliever countries or countries immersed in sins is not permissible for several reasons. The first reason: it involves wasting money on the cost of tickets, hotel or apartment fees, or otherwise. It involves wasting a great deal of money. So, make this money that you waste on these outings beneficial for you on the Day of Resurrection by building a mosque, or by supporting your brothers the mujahideen in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or in Somalia, or in Kashmir, or the mujahideen in the Islamic republics that were liberated from communism, or in other forms of good and righteousness.
Second: It involves wasting time; because most of those who go to these outings do not go to call to what is good, or to teach the ignorant people. Rather, they may go to do forbidden things whose prohibition is clear. Thus, it becomes a waste of time and money.
Third: One fears for a person's creed, his morals, his worship, and his family if they are with him.
He is feared for in his creed that he will say: How has Allah blessed these disbelievers with this luxury and this comfort, while he is a believer? And He has restricted his provision. He wonders whether faith is better or disbelief is better? And the poor man did not know that their good things were hastened for them in this worldly life. This luxury is Paradise for them; because they will move on to it to punishment and Hellfire—may Allah protect us from it. And poverty, if he is among the believers, is considered a trial from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for which he is rewarded and given reward if he is patient.Allah the Exalted said: [Surah al-Zumar: 10] .
And as for it being a danger to his worship: He may accompany people there who do not care about prayer, or the remembrance of Allah, or drawing near to Allah. He will acquire their characteristics, and they will turn him away from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer.
And as for it being a danger to his morals, that is apparent: Because there he will find the woman displaying her adornment to the extreme, with blatant beauty, and usually she is perfumed and displaying her adornment, so she tempts those who are not tempted. And there is no modesty and no religion, so it is easy for him to slip behind desire.
And as for it being a danger to his family, that is also apparent: If the young ones have something imprinted in their minds from their youth, it does not leave them when they grow up. So it happens that these young ones always remember this terrible state that the people of the town they traveled to were in.
As for our youth in this land, I urge them to join one of three places: First: circles for memorizing the Qur'an, which—praise be to Allah—are available in large cities and villages.
Second: Joining the mosques in the circles of scholars who study knowledge, as there are—praise be to Allah—since two years or so, courses in the cities called intensive courses, in which trusted scholars speak, and the youth benefit from them.
Third: Joining the summer centers that are run by men trusted in their knowledge, their thoughts, and their morals. The summer centers are varied; they include Islamic legal knowledge, Arabic knowledge, and also—permissible arts, such as learning carpentry or writing and the like. They keep a person from wasting his time.
So we urge our sons to join one of these three places so that their times are not wasted and their minds do not become dull, and they fall into the pitfalls of desires.And in the well-known proverb that was said in verse:
Indeed, the youth, idleness, and wealth are a corruption for a man, the greatest of corruptions.
This is a good request from this questioner. May Allah reward him with good.And it includes two things: As for the first matter: it is traveling to foreign countries to spend this vacation there. We say: Traveling to disbeliever countries or countries immersed in sins is not permissible for several reasons. The first reason: it involves wasting money on the cost of tickets, hotel or apartment fees, or otherwise. It involves wasting a great deal of money. So, make this money that you waste on these outings beneficial for you on the Day of Resurrection by building a mosque, or by supporting your brothers the mujahideen in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or in Somalia, or in Kashmir, or the mujahideen in the Islamic republics that were liberated from communism, or in other forms of good and righteousness.
Second: It involves wasting time; because most of those who go to these outings do not go to call to what is good, or to teach the ignorant people. Rather, they may go to do forbidden things whose prohibition is clear. Thus, it becomes a waste of time and money.
Third: One fears for a person's creed, his morals, his worship, and his family if they are with him.
He is feared for in his creed that he will say: How has Allah blessed these disbelievers with this luxury and this comfort, while he is a believer? And He has restricted his provision. He wonders whether faith is better or disbelief is better? And the poor man did not know that their good things were hastened for them in this worldly life. This luxury is Paradise for them; because they will move on to it to punishment and Hellfire—may Allah protect us from it. And poverty, if he is among the believers, is considered a trial from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for which he is rewarded and given reward if he is patient.Allah the Exalted said:
Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account."
إِنَّمَا يُوَفَّى الصَّابِرُونَ أَجْرَهُمْ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍAnd as for it being a danger to his worship: He may accompany people there who do not care about prayer, or the remembrance of Allah, or drawing near to Allah. He will acquire their characteristics, and they will turn him away from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer.
And as for it being a danger to his morals, that is apparent: Because there he will find the woman displaying her adornment to the extreme, with blatant beauty, and usually she is perfumed and displaying her adornment, so she tempts those who are not tempted. And there is no modesty and no religion, so it is easy for him to slip behind desire.
And as for it being a danger to his family, that is also apparent: If the young ones have something imprinted in their minds from their youth, it does not leave them when they grow up. So it happens that these young ones always remember this terrible state that the people of the town they traveled to were in.
As for our youth in this land, I urge them to join one of three places: First: circles for memorizing the Qur'an, which—praise be to Allah—are available in large cities and villages.
Second: Joining the mosques in the circles of scholars who study knowledge, as there are—praise be to Allah—since two years or so, courses in the cities called intensive courses, in which trusted scholars speak, and the youth benefit from them.
Third: Joining the summer centers that are run by men trusted in their knowledge, their thoughts, and their morals. The summer centers are varied; they include Islamic legal knowledge, Arabic knowledge, and also—permissible arts, such as learning carpentry or writing and the like. They keep a person from wasting his time.
So we urge our sons to join one of these three places so that their times are not wasted and their minds do not become dull, and they fall into the pitfalls of desires.And in the well-known proverb that was said in verse:
Indeed, the youth, idleness, and wealth are a corruption for a man, the greatest of corruptions.