Which is more beneficial for the Ummah: the youth or the elders?
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The questioner : Which is more beneficial for the Ummah: the youth or the elders?
The Shaykh : Neither can function without the other. The youth possess strength of resolve and energy, while the elders possess wisdom and deliberation. When these two are combined, matters succeed. If the matter is left to the elders, especially the elders of today—you know that Islam went through a period of extreme lethargy before twenty years or more—then now, praise be to Allah, it has begun to become active. If we had returned to the elders who were young at first and lived through that lethargy, nothing would have been right. Because they now think that this good youth movement is a new religion, and they openly say: "We found our fathers upon a religion, and what is this religion that you have brought? Where did you bring it from?"
Therefore, the Ummah cannot be right with only these, nor with only those. Even among the youth, some have an impulsiveness that ruins matters for them, and they do not perceive things as they truly are. This is also a major defect in the youth.
The Shaykh : Neither can function without the other. The youth possess strength of resolve and energy, while the elders possess wisdom and deliberation. When these two are combined, matters succeed. If the matter is left to the elders, especially the elders of today—you know that Islam went through a period of extreme lethargy before twenty years or more—then now, praise be to Allah, it has begun to become active. If we had returned to the elders who were young at first and lived through that lethargy, nothing would have been right. Because they now think that this good youth movement is a new religion, and they openly say: "We found our fathers upon a religion, and what is this religion that you have brought? Where did you bring it from?"
Therefore, the Ummah cannot be right with only these, nor with only those. Even among the youth, some have an impulsiveness that ruins matters for them, and they do not perceive things as they truly are. This is also a major defect in the youth.