Advice to Youth Regarding Idle Time and Unemployment
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
What do you advise the youth who have been consumed by idle time and unemployment? I do not mean debauchery, but rather staying at home eating, drinking, and sitting, which has caused a weakening of their religious conscience, the hardening of their hearts, and their confusion?
Answer:
We advise them to fear Allah, seek knowledge, and turn to the Qur'an for study, reflection, and understanding. They should also turn to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and learn it in schools and mosques. They should gather with good brothers and keep the company of the righteous, so that they may discuss the Noble Qur'an and the Pure Sunnah with them.
They should also have work that benefits people. If they do not have jobs, they should strive to find work, such as factories they can run or companies they can establish, thereby benefiting themselves and others, while maintaining their fear of Allah and being eager to obey Allah and His Messenger.
As for staying at home for sleep, laziness, and weakness, this is not befitting of a believer. He should have ambition and energy, seeking work in which he can do what benefits people and himself, such as farming, factories that benefit people, or establishing companies that benefit people. There should be benefit for the people and for him, filling this idle time and eliminating the idleness that harms him and does not benefit him.
Question: Now, Shaykh, if he enjoining good and forbidding evil in the streets and cafes, does that waste his idle time?
Answer: This is part of obeying Allah and His Messenger. If he has knowledge and zeal, his moving around the streets, enjoining good, forbidding evil, and calling to Allah is a great deed, a righteous deed, and it eliminates much of the idle time.
What do you advise the youth who have been consumed by idle time and unemployment? I do not mean debauchery, but rather staying at home eating, drinking, and sitting, which has caused a weakening of their religious conscience, the hardening of their hearts, and their confusion?
Answer:
We advise them to fear Allah, seek knowledge, and turn to the Qur'an for study, reflection, and understanding. They should also turn to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and learn it in schools and mosques. They should gather with good brothers and keep the company of the righteous, so that they may discuss the Noble Qur'an and the Pure Sunnah with them.
They should also have work that benefits people. If they do not have jobs, they should strive to find work, such as factories they can run or companies they can establish, thereby benefiting themselves and others, while maintaining their fear of Allah and being eager to obey Allah and His Messenger.
As for staying at home for sleep, laziness, and weakness, this is not befitting of a believer. He should have ambition and energy, seeking work in which he can do what benefits people and himself, such as farming, factories that benefit people, or establishing companies that benefit people. There should be benefit for the people and for him, filling this idle time and eliminating the idleness that harms him and does not benefit him.
Question: Now, Shaykh, if he enjoining good and forbidding evil in the streets and cafes, does that waste his idle time?
Answer: This is part of obeying Allah and His Messenger. If he has knowledge and zeal, his moving around the streets, enjoining good, forbidding evil, and calling to Allah is a great deed, a righteous deed, and it eliminates much of the idle time.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.