By Babatunde Jose
The question of youth in Islam, culture, faith and generation gap, is a very demanding topic and very much in the realm of contemporary social issues. It is a new age phenomenon that goes beyond established traditional religious beliefs and transcends all religions, not only Islam. It is a topic that does not lend itself to set ideas of traditional religious socialization that involves the transfer of belief and faith from one generation to the other.
The first immediate question that comes to mind is: Who are the youths we are talking about? We are here talking of a generation that were born some 20 to 30 years ago; 60% of the population in many countries of the world are under the age of 25; here in Nigeria the figure is 62%.
This percentage tells a story of need and of where the opportunity is for the faith. People under 25 are the most open to the faith and it is a time in their lives when they are setting their world view. Numbers also talk about an opportunity to connect the emerging generations with the faith.
Are we prepared and ready to take up the challenge? Are we prepared to look at how we can connect with this younger generation? It is just about impossible to comprehend these figures because they represent so many people—a billion or two.
But the figures are there and they require a response; a generation that were born into the ‘Pentecostal Revolution’; a generation that were born, long after the Muslim Students Society had come of age; a people born when the religion of Islam had become synonymous with fundamentalism and terrorism; a generation born into an era of irreligiosity and the questioning of old belief systems; a generation born into the computer and internet age with all its attendant exposure to the new information age; a generation that was not born in the age of ‘ile kewu’, but whose contact with Islam is the IRK subject in the school curriculum; a generation that is more literate, more aware and better informed and more cosmopolitan than most of their Imams and Ustaz; a generation that is more questioning and less docile than their fathers; a group that does not accept the ‘mumbo jumbo’ of established religion without questioning; a generation of sceptics that does not see life through the myopic prism of their fathers.
There is no doubt it is a generation in ebullition and a non-conformist generation. It is a generation that does not lend itself to being easily moulded like plastic.
This generation constitutes a great problem to the tenets of established religion, especially Islam with its tendency to regulate totally the life of its adherents from cradle to grave.
It’s a generation that possess a great dilemma for the fathers of the faith. No doubt they pose a problem because they are not taken in by the dogmatism of religion, in particular Islam with many of the rituals that are more attuned to ancient times, and which have refused to change with time with many of its mode of worship enmeshed in medieval times and the youth of today are finding it difficult to reconcile with the old ways. Unfortunately for the youth, Islam is a religion that has its rituals cast in iron and there is no chance that it would bend. This accounts for the non-attractiveness of the faith to the youth.
Today, the churches and mosques are filled with old generation worshippers rather than the youth. With more issues to occupy their daily lives, it has become a herculean task to attract the youth to the path of faith.
Agnosticism bothering on apostasy is common feature of the new age. Peer group influence and the rapid breakdown of family values is weaning many of our youth from the traditional faith. Youths are the main game-changer. It goes without saying that prevailing attitudes among this demographic will continue to shape the faith map in the future.
According to the Pew Report, a United States Research body, “One of the most important factors in the growth of the ‘none’s’ (that is, the religiously unaffiliated) is generational replacement.” “As the Millennial generation enters adulthood, its members display much lower levels of religious affiliation, including less connection with religion, than older generations, “the report says.
We are talking here of a generation that wear their hearts on their sleeves, a generation that is as complicated that push against established and accepted practice of normality. A generation that is struggling to make choices in a world where there are so many more choices than their parents ever had.
A generation that demands freedom in everything they do; that loves to customize and personalize; they are the Net generation that believe in scrutinizing products, promotional efforts and corporate practices; a generation that wants entertainment and play at the same time in their work; they are the collaboration and relationship generation; a generation in a hurry that is in need of speed with a vast flow of information between friends and colleagues; they are the innovators rather than the inventors; they are the questioning generation with a culture peculiar to themselves and different from that in which their forbearers were born and grew into.
Yet, Islam does not give room for dissent not to talk of questioning. The Friday Sermon and the occasional Asalatus do not offer question and answer opportunities. However, this is not limited to Islam alone as the same could be said of the churches too. They, therefore, do not lend themselves to the yearning of the youths who are bound to ask questions.
There is therefore a great need to study and appreciate this generation in order to understand where they are coming from. In terms of religion, this is a generation that is ready to flow with their age, hence we experience a lot of decamping from parental faiths among this generation.
As it is in Islam, so do we find it in Christianity: Children born and bred into Catholicism or Anglican churches are decamping en mass to join the new age Pentecostal churches, while many born into Islam are today joining their peers in the new movements.
What are the attractions of these new age movements that preach prosperity and miracles? How can we prevent a wholesale decamping of our children? The answer to this poser is not farfetched. The attraction of new age religion to youth is that it offers them a freedom which the orthodox religions such as Islam and Christianity do not offer. The old religions are regarded as being too restrictive, dogmatic and unbending.
Despite the translation of the Quran into various local languages, services are still conducted in a strange and foreign language which majority of members cannot understand nor comprehend. Even where many have learnt to read the Quran by rote, the meaning and simultaneous translations become a problem. The result is that members rely on the Alfa to translate his reading or recitation. At any given time, many of those in the mosque do not understand what the Imam leading the prayer is reciting.
Yet, the Catholic Church overcame this same problem when it instructed its churches to conduct services in local languages. This makes membership more meaningful and inclusive. Like the Quran, the first Bible was written in a strange and restricted language, Old Hebrew, later Aramaic, Greek, and then Latin.
The dogmatism of Islam would not allow the conduct of services in any language other than Arabic. But Islam is not the only religion that is dogmatic in its ritual, worship, service, ceremony, rite, observance, celebration, ordinance, office, sacrament, solemnity and ceremonial: Orthodox Christianity is still like that.
Another issue has to do with the arrangement of the Quran which is not easy to follow as it is not compartmentalized like any other scripture. It does not render itself amenable to the restless spirits of youths who want a direct shot at God’s words. The truth is that they find it easier to read the Bible, hence, the ease with which the apostates jump ship.
But, even at that, the Quran has survived 1,400 years of fidelity, without change or revision. It is a great credit to the keepers of the faith; unlike the Christian Bible or better still Bibles that have not only additions and subtractions, revisions, and rewrites but also versions. The same cannot be said of Islam’s holy book.
Dos and Don’ts are too many. This is the complaint of the lazy congregant. They therefore seek accommodation in new age religions that are more liberal in their attitudes to youth peccadilloes. Here, they sing and dance and engage in non-segregated fellowships and other forms of activities. Even the seating arrangements in religious gatherings are not segregated like you find in Islam.
Unfortunately, we as leaders are not making efforts to accommodate youth culture. There was a time when it was erroneously believed that Islam is against singing and dancing. Yet, we see video footages of Arab communities, drumming, singing, and dancing.
In my old school at Ijebu Muslim College, Ijebu Ode, singing Arabic Hymns at the morning assembly was a daily ritual accompanied by electronic organ. This music segment of the school assembly enlivened the morning gathering and was much loved by students. Islam needs more of such innovative ideas to arrest the attention of our youth in the schools, from primary to secondary. It was the late Lefty Salami in one of his Sakara beats that sang “Ara Mecca njo, ara Mecca nlulu, bi’lu o besinje, ijo ‘ole besinje”.
Looking at the problems of youth and the attendant consequences for the faith, and what it portends for the religion, there is no doubt much lies in our relationship with our children and how we mould them into the larger society. Much depends on parental guidance, understanding and credible socialization. We need to give the younger generation the right leadership and direction.
We are the role models Allah created for them and it would be a gross dereliction of our sacred duty for us to fail in giving them direction. It is not only starting with the five daily prayers; we also need to give them training in the right path so that in the end they will grow into becoming good ambassadors of the Umma.
Many parents have abdicated their role and are not worth being called parents. They drink, fornicate and engage in lewd and immoral living very unbecoming of fathers and mothers. Some so-called mothers even sag their dress and encourage their daughters to do the same. They ‘costay’ their breasts and dance the dance of shame at parties to the seeing of their children. Such mothers cannot bring up good Moslem children.
Among us are some fathers who are known not to practice the tenets of Islam as prescribed by the Quran and Sunnah; yet they want their children to grow up as good Moslems. How many of us take our children to the Masjid for prayers? How many of us lead our family in prayers daily; particularly morning and evening prayers when we are at home?
How many of us insist that our children must attend Jumu’ah prayer on Fridays and Tafsir during Ramadan, not to talk of encouraging them to fast. There are some of us who believe that a glass of red wine is good for the heart; why won’t our children take ‘shepe’ when we the fathers imbibe Guilder? We are responsible in large part for the fate of our children. May Allah guide us aright.
Barka Juma’at, Ramadan Kareem and a happy weekend.
First part of a Ramadan Lecture to members of NASFAT, Ipaja Branch.
