A guiding address to school students on the occasion of their return to school.

Question:
Next week, our student sons and daughters will return to their school desks, marking the beginning of the educational process and the return of students to school. What is your advice to our student children at the start of this academic year?

Answer:
Answer: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. We ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) to make this year, and every year that passes for the Muslims, a year of good and blessing, security and faith. We advise our student children to fear Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) and to guard their time for the pursuit of knowledge in its various stages. They should beware of distractions and the trials and evils that are spread through the media prevalent among people, for these are time-wasters and they spread things that poison the mind. Therefore, our youth, their families, householders, and male and female teachers should cooperate in righteousness and piety, and they should advise their male and female students to adopt correct ideas that align with the Book and the Sunnah, and with the good conduct followed in the country. They must guard the students' time for what benefits them, for the student is a tool in the hands of the teacher, and the teacher directs him as he sees fit. Therefore, male and female teachers must fear Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) and fulfill the trust placed on their shoulders, for the Muslims have entrusted their children to these teachers and have placed their trust in them. They must fear Allah first, and live up to the good opinion the community has of them, and perform what Allah has obligated upon them of guidance, advice, and direction, with sincere intention for Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He). For they are the guides, the role models, and the trustees of the children of the Muslims. Therefore, they must all fear Allah and cooperate in righteousness and piety. They must warn the children against foreign ideas and anything that changes their orientation, for this is a time of trial and evil. But with reliance on Allah and dependence on Him, and sincere advice, Allah will make matters easy and provide assistance. (And whoever relies upon Allah – then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose), (Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due). They are a trust on the necks of these teachers. May Allah guide them and keep their steps steady. Let the teachers be a good role model for their students, so that they may be advisors. Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) said: (Be men of firm conviction, teaching the Book and studying it). The "Rabbani" is the scholar who acts upon his knowledge; this is the Rabbani scholar. We ask Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) to make us and you among the sincere Rabbani scholars who raise the children of the Muslims upon the sound methodology, and to protect the children's minds from the entry of these nonsense and falsehoods that are spread here and there to poison the minds of the sons of the Muslims. For media and education are the tools that direct the Muslims, students and people alike, to be those who fulfill what Allah has entrusted to them and what the community has entrusted to them. They should be righteous and sincere, and they should be guides and counselors. They should be a role model for their students in truthfulness, trustworthiness, sincerity, guarding time, and not wasting time in things that conflict with their religion, the security of their homeland, and anything that undermines the security of the community. They should be a good, beneficial, pure, and sincere tool. We ask Allah to assist everyone and keep their steps steady, and to protect us and them and all the Muslims. This land, the land of the two Holy Sanctuaries, the land of the oneness of Allah, the qiblah of the Muslims, the heart of the Islamic world, bears a great responsibility because it is a good role model and because what issues from it spreads throughout the Islamic world. The entire Islamic world is oriented toward the land of the two Holy Sanctuaries, where the sanctuary of faith is, where the revelation descended, and where the qiblah of the Muslims is. Therefore, they bear a greater responsibility than others. The matter centers on these two aspects: media and education. Let these two sectors be a source of good, a platform for guidance, advice, and direction, for they are the place of trust for the Islamic world in the east and west of the earth. We ask Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) to protect our security and our faith, and our stability in our homelands, and to avert from us and the Muslims all evil and what is disliked, and to restrain from us the might of those who disbelieved, for He is the most severe in might and the most severe in punishment.