Guidance for the youth who waste their time traveling abroad and the like, and do not go to summer centers and charitable associations?
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The questioner : May Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) bless you and your knowledge, and make your knowledge beneficial to the Muslims.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good, and we ask Allah for that for everyone.
The questioner : O Allah, amen, and that He may gather us with you in a Paradise whose width is the heavens and the earth, prepared for the righteous. O Shaykh, please direct a word, may Allah reward you with good, to those who are roaming the streets and not going to the summer centers, especially since they have started, and the charitable associations are opening their doors wide, yet you find only a few. So please direct a word, may Allah reward you with good, especially to those who go to European countries to spend their summer there?
The Shaykh : By Allah, in any case, this is good guidance from you, may Allah reward you with good, and it included two things:
As for the first thing: it is traveling to foreign countries to spend this vacation there. We say: traveling to disbeliever countries or countries busy with sins, we say: it is not permissible. Why? For multiple reasons. The first reason: it involves wasting money on tickets, hotel fees or apartment fees there, or otherwise. So it involves wasting a lot of money. Make this money that you waste on these outings beneficial for you until the Day of Resurrection by building a mosque, or by helping your brothers among the mujahideen in Bosnia, among the mujahideen in Somalia, among the mujahideen in Kashmir, in the Islamic republics that were liberated from communism, or otherwise, if the money has become tight for you.
Second: it involves wasting time, because most of those who go to these outings do not go to call to good, or to teach the ignorant people, but rather to go here and there, and perhaps they go to things that are forbidden, there is no doubt in their prohibition. So in that is a waste of time, as well as a waste of money.
Third: one fears for his belief, his morals, his worship, and his family if they are with him.
He fears for his belief that he will say: How has Allah blessed these people with this luxury and this comfort, while they are disbelievers, and he is a believer? And his provision has been restricted for him. So he doubts: is faith better or disbelief better? And the poor man did not know that their good things have been hastened for them in this worldly life, and that this luxury is a paradise for them, because they will move on from it to punishment and Hellfire -may Allah protect us from it- and poverty for him, if he is among the believers, is considered a trial from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for which he is rewarded and given reward, and[Az-Zumar 39:10].
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, so he acquires [bad habits] from them.
As for it being a danger to his morals, it is apparent: because the people there, you find the woman displaying her adornment to the extreme of display, with blatant beauty, and perhaps she is perfumed and displaying her adornment, so she tempts those who are not tempted.
As for it being a danger to his family, it is also so: because if something is imprinted in the minds of the young ones from a young age, it does not change even if they grow up. So it happens that these young ones always remember this terrible state that the people of this town he traveled to were in.
As for our youth who are with us, I urge them to join one of three things: First: circles for memorizing the Qur'an, which are, praise be to Allah, 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, courses they call intensive courses, in which trusted scholars speak, and the youth benefit from them.
Third: summer centers. Summer centers are varied; they contain Islamic knowledge, Arabic knowledge, and also permissible arts, such as learning carpentry or writing and the like. They keep a person from wasting his time. Those in charge of them are among those we know have good in them, from those we know, and those we do not know, their affair is with Allah, but in all of it is good, if Allah wills.
So we urge them not to waste their time and let their minds become dull, or fall into the pitfalls of desires and corruption, and in the famous proverb that was said in verse:
"Indeed, youth, idleness, and wealth *** are a corruption for a man, what a corruption"
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good, and we ask Allah for that for everyone.
The questioner : O Allah, amen, and that He may gather us with you in a Paradise whose width is the heavens and the earth, prepared for the righteous. O Shaykh, please direct a word, may Allah reward you with good, to those who are roaming the streets and not going to the summer centers, especially since they have started, and the charitable associations are opening their doors wide, yet you find only a few. So please direct a word, may Allah reward you with good, especially to those who go to European countries to spend their summer there?
The Shaykh : By Allah, in any case, this is good guidance from you, may Allah reward you with good, and it included two things:
As for the first thing: it is traveling to foreign countries to spend this vacation there. We say: traveling to disbeliever countries or countries busy with sins, we say: it is not permissible. Why? For multiple reasons. The first reason: it involves wasting money on tickets, hotel fees or apartment fees there, or otherwise. So it involves wasting a lot of money. Make this money that you waste on these outings beneficial for you until the Day of Resurrection by building a mosque, or by helping your brothers among the mujahideen in Bosnia, among the mujahideen in Somalia, among the mujahideen in Kashmir, in the Islamic republics that were liberated from communism, or otherwise, if the money has become tight for you.
Second: it involves wasting time, because most of those who go to these outings do not go to call to good, or to teach the ignorant people, but rather to go here and there, and perhaps they go to things that are forbidden, there is no doubt in their prohibition. So in that is a waste of time, as well as a waste of money.
Third: one fears for his belief, his morals, his worship, and his family if they are with him.
He fears for his belief that he will say: How has Allah blessed these people with this luxury and this comfort, while they are disbelievers, and he is a believer? And his provision has been restricted for him. So he doubts: is faith better or disbelief better? And the poor man did not know that their good things have been hastened for them in this worldly life, and that this luxury is a paradise for them, because they will move on from it to punishment and Hellfire -may Allah protect us from it- and poverty for him, if he is among the believers, is considered a trial from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for which he is rewarded and given reward, and
Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account."
إِنَّمَا يُوَفَّى الصَّابِرُونَ أَجْرَهُمْ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍAs 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, so he acquires [bad habits] from them.
As for it being a danger to his morals, it is apparent: because the people there, you find the woman displaying her adornment to the extreme of display, with blatant beauty, and perhaps she is perfumed and displaying her adornment, so she tempts those who are not tempted.
As for it being a danger to his family, it is also so: because if something is imprinted in the minds of the young ones from a young age, it does not change even if they grow up. So it happens that these young ones always remember this terrible state that the people of this town he traveled to were in.
As for our youth who are with us, I urge them to join one of three things: First: circles for memorizing the Qur'an, which are, praise be to Allah, 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, courses they call intensive courses, in which trusted scholars speak, and the youth benefit from them.
Third: summer centers. Summer centers are varied; they contain Islamic knowledge, Arabic knowledge, and also permissible arts, such as learning carpentry or writing and the like. They keep a person from wasting his time. Those in charge of them are among those we know have good in them, from those we know, and those we do not know, their affair is with Allah, but in all of it is good, if Allah wills.
So we urge them not to waste their time and let their minds become dull, or fall into the pitfalls of desires and corruption, and in the famous proverb that was said in verse:
"Indeed, youth, idleness, and wealth *** are a corruption for a man, what a corruption"