Young People in Intellectual Trauma

In fact, the importance of this study can be understood from the fact that there are so many young people today in intellectual trauma. They do not really know what to believe. They have really no idea what is correct and what is not correct. What is happening is that the majority of Muslims today, growing up in a Muslim house, only assimilate the real basics that are taught at home by their parents: make ṣalāh, fast during the month of Ramaḍān, namāz paṛho, rozah rakho; Allah is one; and certain other basic beliefs. But when it comes to a more complex understanding, to deal with some of the questions that arise out there, some of the problems outside, it is very difficult. That is not understood by the common youth growing up in this society, especially in the West.

Then they go to university. Even for a student not taking a course on philosophy, or on any discipline related to it, there are going to be philosophies that are assimilated, that are propagated in the classroom, because they are part of the system: Western civilisation is primarily based on the Greek system, or the Greek philosophy. A lot of these concepts have filtered through, including some of the modern philosophies like psychoanalysis, and evolution, and so on. These things are rampant. These things are all around us. They are heard about and discussed. We have no idea how to deal with them, though.

So what happens is that when a person gets into that environment, they sometimes come out not really knowing, unless they are very closely associated with the ʿulamāʾ, are willing to ask the right questions, and get the right answers and the right guidance. It is an intellectual trauma. People have been known to lose their faith; and not necessarily people from families who are not very religious, but people from religious families. There is the account of one particular family who travelled about two and a half hours to bring their daughter to speak to a scholar. The family was such that they had actually moved from another country back to England, just so that they could put their children in Islamic school for a number of years. They really did a lot. And now this girl does not want to believe in Islam. She has some major questions. There is another account, very similar to that, of a young man whose brothers are becoming ḥāfiẓ of the Qur'an. So there is a lot of intellectual trauma.

That is why it is very important nowadays for those who are curious about this subject, who have curiosity in their minds, who are inclined to thinking. There are two types of people; more than two types of people, in fact. But one is the person who is going to play football all day, who is going to watch football, every match that comes on, and that is all they are worried about. They do not really think about what is going on in the dunyā. They are not really concerned about the intricate aspects of how to think about certain things. All they are worried about is this form of sport, and pastime, and pleasure.

Then there is the other person, who does not want to engage in that kind of thing, but wants to engage more in thought: likes to read, likes to ponder and think, likes to discuss things and talk about the topics that are going on. These things concern that person. Both of these people have some critical points in their lives. The one is wasting a lot of time. The other is not wasting time in that regard, but has this propensity, or rather this possibility, of actually falling into intellectual problems: problems that relate to thought, philosophy, ideas; what one should think about this or that.

That is why an advanced understanding of Islamic ʿaqīdah is very necessary today. It is not necessarily for everybody. Things like this will not appeal to some people, and that is absolutely fine. As long as the īmān is firm, that is fine.