Muslim Youth Helpline

That's right! Now there's a 1-800 number (1-800-550-MYHL) anyone in the US or Canada (especially the youth) can call to get access to Muslim counsellors. It is an absolutely free and confidential service (no caller ID, call tracking,...) by Ajyal for Youth Development .

There's also a similar service for UK Muslims.

For those interested in supporting this wonderful initiative, there are lots of ways to get involved, some of which don't even involve donating money (for the starving students out there). Check them out here.

For more info, check out this post at MuslimMatters.

BA program in Muslim youth work

How cool is that ?! Can you imagine the long-term difference a program like this would make in our communities? Having qalified, full-time youth workers in every Islamic center and Muslim community organization...wow.

Although the UK and American Muslim communities are very different in some ways (ethnic background, economic status, education,...), I think both can make use of programs like this. May Allah (swt) bless your efforts brother Sadek Hamid.

Excerpts of interview with brother Sadek below:

Basically the idea for the course arose just over three years ago with my colleagues at the religious studies department at the University of Chester. They also have a Christian youth work programme running there for the last four or five years. As you know, Christian youth work is quite an established field in the UK. One of the professors on Islam was talking one day with the lecturer in Christian youth work, Richard Turner. Richard said, “Look, when I drive through Muslim communities, I see a lot of young people hanging about on corners and not getting up to much. Who's working with these Muslim young people?” That was the origin of the course. A thought and observation turned into an intention to develop something parallel to Christian youth work.

I started at the university as a doctoral student in 2004 and my own professional background is in youth work. It was great timing, alhamdulillah, in that sense. It has taken us to where we are today, in terms of having a fully accredited BA undergraduate programme which is the first and the only one of its kind in the UK. As far as we're aware, it's the only one in the world.

I think the biggest challenge is that not so much a resistance to youth work as having a religious perspective, it's actually an understanding of youth work itself and what it can do for a community's young people. I think apathy is probably the biggest challenge we face in that people – not only parents but young people themselves. At the moment, our community is in the state of – it's a mixed bag, isn't it? I mean we do have, no doubt, the second or third generation, we have an element that's very successful, that's integrated, that's confident, vibrant – it's moving on and making a contribution to society.

Full interview at altmuslim

(Hat tip: Muslim Recovery)

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Gathering of the Tribe

[col. writ. 6/19/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Ona Move! LLJA!

For what do we gather -- we youths and elders -- if not to try to find some clue to how to remake this world that is obviously going wrong?

Why gather, unless there is at least some hope that some words, some key, some insight may be gained that will glow like the proverbial light bulb over the head of the guy in the comics? But -- as an elder who was a revolutionary before he was 15, please lend your ear to my thoughts. I wish to share with you some ideas that I've always shared with young folks. I try to remind them that Huey P. Newton, who founded the Black Panther Party, did so at the tender age of 24. Twenty-four years old!His friend and co-founder, Bobby Seale, was only a few years older.

I say this to remind you, especially young people, of what young folks are capable of, when they put their minds and hearts to it. Huey didn't ask Martin Luther King, Jr. for permission. He didn't ask Malcolm X for his OK.Like most young people of his time, he talked to other young folks, and before you know it, a dozen young brothas and sistas were with him, trying to build the Party from scratch.

What's my point?Am I suggesting that this was/is easy? Or that, if Huey could do it, you could too?No. It would be dishonest of me, and dangerous for you, to do that.It's important to remember that old adage by Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."It's important for you to learn mistakes of the past, so that you can side-step them in the future.

Among the Ashanti people in West Africa, the following proverb is used: " A wise man who ceases to learn ceases to be wise."Study. Study. Seriously study our people's history of resistance, so that you can remake this world {that is} on the brink of chaos.Huey P. Newton studied the works of Malcolm X; he studied anti-Imperialist movements in Cuba, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He studied the writings of Mao, of Che, of Kwame Nkrumah and beyond.Then he put his studies into practice.

The great Frantz Fanon, a revolutionary psychiatrist who helped {in} the Algerian Revolution said, "Every generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, and fulfill it or betray it."That is your task. It can't be handed to you like a ticket.It must emerge from the inner recesses of the soul, from the red embers of collective and personal history.You must own it, and make it yours, by seizing the stage of history - by taking it.For, as elders return to their ancestors, the earth becomes the inheritance of the living.The challenge is great; the threats are daunting; but the promise of freedom, of true liberation couldn't be sweeter.

Thank you! Ona Move!From Life's Row, this Mumia Abu-Jamal

*******

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.

Free Mumia!

Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream

PewResearch Center today published on their website a survey on American Muslims. The results shows that "Muslim Americans are a highly diverse population, one largely composed of immigrants. Nonetheless, they are decidedly American in their outlook, values and attitudes. This belief is reflected in Muslim American income and education levels, which generally mirror those of the public." If you are really curious, check out the full 108 page report.

The full report is sliced and diced so many different ways, I will have to get back to this to comment.

For the sake of Allah

There was a pious man among the Banu Israel who always remained busy in the worship of Allah. A group of people came to him and told him that a tribe living nearby worshiped a tree. The news upset him, and with an axe on his shoulder he went to cut down that tree. On the way, Shaytan met him disguised in the form of an old man and asked him where he was going. He said he was going to cut a particular tree. Shaytan said, “You have nothing to be concerned with this tree, you better mind your worship and do not give it up for the sake of something that does not concern you.” “This is also worship,” retorted the man. Then Shaytan tried to prevent him from cutting the tree, and there followed a fight between the two, in which the man overpowered the Shaytan. Finding himself completely helpless, Shaytan pleaded for mercy, and when the man released him, he again pressed, “Allah has not made the cutting of this tree obligatory on you. You do not lose anything if you do not cut it. If its cutting were necessary, Allah could have got it done through one of his many Prophets.” The man insisted on cutting the tree. There was again a fight between the two and again the man overpowered Shaytan.

“Listen,” said Shaytan, “I propose a settlement that will be to your advantage. You are a poor man, a mere burden on this earth. If you stay away from this act, I will pay you three gold coins everyday. You will daily find them lying under your pillow. With this money you can fulfill your own needs, can oblige your relative, help the needy, and do so many other virtuous things. Cutting the tree will be only one virtue, which will ultimately be of no use because the people will grow another tree.” This proposal appealed to the man, and he accepted it.

He found the money on two successive days, but on the third day there was nothing. He got enraged, picked up his axe and went to cut the tree. Shaytan as an old man again met him on the way and asked him where he was going. “To cut the tree!” shouted the man. “I will not let you do it,” said Shaytan. A fight took place between the two again but this time Shaytan overpowered his contender. The man was surprised at his own defeat, and asked the old man the cause of his success. Shaytan replied, “At first, your anger was purely for earning the pleasure of Allah, and therefore Almighty Allah helped you to overpower me, but now it has been partly for the sake of the gold coins and therefore you lost.”

-original author unknown

Seven Qur`anic Habits We Should All Emulate

"We relate to thee their story in truth: they were youths who believed in their Lord, and We advanced them in guidance: We gave strength to their hearts: Behold, they stood up and said: "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth: never shall we call upon any god other than Him: if we did, we should indeed have uttered an enormity!" (Al-Kahf 18:13-14)

Here are seven habits for highly successful Muslim youth, derived entirely from the Qur`an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Be Truthful
Casting the telling of truth and the fate of the truthful in terms of profit and loss, Allah Most High tells us in the Qur`aan:
"This is a day on which the truthful will profit from their truth: theirs are gardens, with rivers flowing beneath their eternal Home: Allah well-pleased with them, and they with Allah. That is the great salvation, (the fulfillment of all desires)." (Al-Maa'idah 5:119)

The Prophet Muhammad (saws), said:
"Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. And a man keeps on telling the truth until he becomes a truthful person. Falsehood leads to al-fujur [wickedness, evil-doing], and al-fujur leads to the (Hell) Fire, and a man may keep on telling lies till he is written before Allah a liar." (Bukhari, 73: 116)

Be Trustworthy
When we say Allah is the Most Trustworthy, we are coming to terms with the fact that Allah Most High will never let us down, will never leave our side. He, Most High, says about someone who willingly accepts Islam,
"Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah Heareth and Knoweth all things." (Al-Baqarah, 2:256)

Have Self-Restraint and Be God-Conscious
Perhaps the most difficult challenge while navigating adolescence is to restrain oneself from falling victim to one's desires - especially one's lower desires. We are reminded by Allah Most High:
"And no one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and self-restraint, none but persons of the greatest good fortune." (Fussilat, 41:5)

An interesting parallel is that, throughout his Qur`an translation, the late Abdullah Yusuf Ali translates taqwaa as self-restraint. While taqwaa is most commonly translated as "God-consciousness, " one realizes without much effort that the height of self-restraint is full and complete understanding that one is indeed conscious of one's duty to one's Lord.

Be Thorough
To be thorough stems from a desire to be perfect to the extent that this is humanly possible. Seeking perfection in our actions and speech from an early age helps us to develop a keen eye, not only for thoroughness in our own life, but also for thoroughness in the lives of those around us.

We read in the Muwatta of Imaam Malik "Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, 'I was sent to perfect good character" (Hadith 47.1.8).

Be Focused
Developing the habit of being focused ensures that you are awake, alert, and totally motivated to work on and complete the task at hand, whatever it may be. Among the best ways to develop focus is to practice praying with deep concentration to the extent that you are almost unaware of your surroundings.

Allah Most High tells us in the Qur`an that the believers are "those who humble themselves in their prayers" (Al-Mu'minun 23:2)

Be Punctual
The last thing we should attribute to Islam is the notion that its teachings somehow make us late, slow, slugging, and anything but punctual. One of the central pillars of Islam is prayer, and Allah and the Prophet Muhammad (saws) have given us clear reminders that we are to establish prayers at their due times.

When `Abdullah asked "which deed is the dearest to Allah?" the Prophet Muhammad (saws) replied, "To offer the prayers at their early stated fixed times" (Bukhari, 10.505).

Be Consistent
Apart from all the habits listed above, perhaps the one that is sure to help you become a highly successful Muslim youth is that of being consistent. One cannot be truthful one day and a liar the next; one cannot be trustworthy in one instance and totally unreliable in the next; and so on for each of the other habits.

Indeed, the Mother of the Believers `A'ishah narrates that "the most beloved action to Allah's Apostle was that which is done continuously and regularly." (Bukhari, 76.469).

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Originally written by Altaf Hussain.

Altaf Husain is a social worker in the United States and has been a contributing writer to Islam Online since 1998.