I've to admit I felt extremely guilty the day after I went clubbing. During the Friday prayers, the khutbah was about how western influence are brainwashing youths by permeating them with 'budaya kuning'.
It's good that the Imam reminds us of the negative effects of western influence by telling us the statistics of illegitimate children and people infected with HIV. Right, it's important to pinpoint the evil that surrounds us but it is also important to propose and organize alternatives.
I don't see how preaching without understanding the needs and feelings of youth can benefit either the imam or his intended audience. I'm sensing that the elderly religious community is rather selfish by only preaching without practicing proactive measures. Imagine:
God: How did you contribute to groom the next muslim generation?
Imam: We preach about their wrongdoings every week on Friday, we preach to them about them every chance we get to be with them.
God: Have you succeeded?
Imam: No but we did our part and they should do the rest of the work themselves.
God: Right.
Imam: So... can I like go to heaven now?
So how la like this? A church near the place I'm staying now organizes weekly meet-ups at their church. Every weekend, they'll be loads of cars parked along the neighbourhood to attend the services there. When I drove passed the church, there were picnics attended by families, basketball tournaments where all the teens hung out and friendly drawing competitions for kids.
Why can't our mosques do this kind of activities? Mosques should be hubs where muslims of various stages of life can interact, not a place exclusively for old farts and bums to pray their hearts out to die peacefully (if possible, on a good Friday while doing the sujud)
When youths are bombarded with judgements by religious authorities, in a blink they will avoid any religious related activities and embrace trends and cultures that readily embraces them back.
That's how things are nowadays and unless old religious farts realize this, they will be partially responsible for the deterioration of muslims youths.
7 comments:
Athcerly for me, if the goverment wants people of their case, the goverment should encourage mor mosques, temples and churches.
Once people go to mosque, temple or church they sorta forget the world of the living... just my opinion.
I therefore agree with you afiq. Tapi gomen yang tak nampak... If I were a politician, I would use more ustaz to help me make the umat more "mandom" (a very 80's word I know, what do people say in the ooze (00's)?- skema).
FLAME, FLAME, FLAME
mosques in the west do happen to be like community centers with many activities, maybe its because there's a stronger sense or need of brotherhood there. unlike in muslim countries, where its just so common and no one cares.
Afiq, can you please check the IP for the following on your cbox:
22/11/2008 04:09 was my comment
22/11/2008 08:05 was not my comment
22/11/2008 01:04 was not my comment
As you are, comments like that are out of character for me.
biasalah.. it happens all the time in my blog. I'm not worried. Why should you?
I think the religious authorities in Malaysia should change their paradigms in preaching the youngsters nowadays..
Youngsters today ain't like in previous time where they were less likely to get exposed with "yellow cultures" propagated by Western peoples. But now things are greatly different.. Preaching methods should be different too..
So, the authorities & Muslims should practise "down-to-earth" dakwah actively & try to understand the needs of youth. Mosque should be varied its activities & not constrained into spiritual activities only.. Of course, NO POLITICAL ISSUES TO BE CONCERNED HERE!!
shockresistant7 is right, it's different in the west, probably because they don't take the freedom to practice Islam for granted.
I concur on the point that the da'wah style and content should be different when you're addressing the youth. We've got different concerns, different problems and a different way of looking at things. That feeling that da'wah feels like it's more focused on the older generation? I get that too.
And I'm probably going to be a little generalising here, but sadly the truth is most people start turning their heads to Islam when they're older. Have you ever seen the masjid groups? I don't know about the men, but in our masjid, the women are all pretty much in their 50s and above. I guess that's why the focus tends to shift towards them.
You know the Yusuf Estes talks that were held recently? For every talk, it was a full house, filled with people of all ages. And he was good, he got the crowd rolling. The point is, I think the packed halls are an indication that we, the audience, we've got the interest to learn. We just need to right style to hit all the points home. We're looking for a different insight rather than the same droning voice discussing the same things, and I'm sorry, but if I hear the duties of a woman one more time without mentioning the duties of a man, I WILL flip.
You know Afiq, regardless of all the things I've just said, we DO have some good Muslim Youth programmes here. You just need to know where to look. They might not be much, but they're something.
It's a start. :)
Masjid2 di Singapura ada jugak yang menganjurkan acara untuk orang ramai (terutama untuk pemuda-pemudi muslim) seperti - berkelah, perlawanan bola sepak dan sebagainya.
Mungkin masjid2 di Malaysia ada acara sebegini cuma Afiq kurang tahu?
Post a Comment