The Prophet(peace be upon him) said, 'Take benefit of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before you are preoccupied and your life before your death.' The great scholar, Ayyoob as-Sakhtiyaanee (d.131H) said, 'From the success of a youth is that Allah guides him to a scholar of the Sunnah.' Indeed, it is a great blessing from Allah for a youth to be guided towards worship and be befriended by the righteous, since it is in youth that a person is most vulnerable to the temptations of life and liable to drift away from the Islamic Path. This becomes apparent when we look at society around us and we see that most of the worldly distractions, such as music, games, clubs, alcohol, drugs, gangs, fashion etc, all specifically target our young. Because of the great sacrifice that a sincere Muslim youth makes for the sake of His Lord, Allah (swt) has prepared for him great status and protection on the Day of Terror, as explained by the Prophet (saws) that: 'There are seven whom Allah will shade in His Shade on the Day when there is no shade except His Shade: a just ruler; a man whose heart is attached to the mosques; two men who love each other for Allah's sake, meeting for that and parting upon that; a man who is called by a woman of beauty and position [for unlawful relations], but he says: 'I fear Allah'; a man who gives in charity and hides it, such that his left hand does not know what his right hand gives; a man who remembered Allah in private so much so that his eyes shed tears and a youth who grew up in the worship of Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic'. (Tirmidhi)Ustadh Muhammad Alshareef has authored several articles and speeches on various issues in Islam, especially those related to the Muslim community in the West. He is a popular speaker in many Muslim circles in the United States, Canada, England and Australia.Having memorized the Qur'an at an early age he later graduated from the Islamic University of Madinah, class of 1999. He is one of the founders of Al-Maghrib Institute, which provides seminars on Islam across the USA and Canada in fourteen cities, and is the largest Islamic university-level educational system in North America. Al-Maghrib Institute is now established in the UK also, visit www.almaghrib.or

Video Tags: Brotherhood

Related Categories: