“O Prophet of Allah. Forgive them. Pardon them, seek forgiveness for them, and consult them.” Isn’t that amazing? When someone makes a mistake what do you say? Well, “I don’t want to listen to your advice because you’ve made a mistake.” But still, even though they made a mistake, Allah commands the Prophet (pbuh), “No, consult them, still take their advice.” Even though young people might have made mistakes in the past, we can still take their advice and we can take their consultation.
This is something that even Omar (ra) did. He used to take Ibn Abbas to all of his meetings. Omar is this 50 year old man and Ibn Abbas is barely out of his teens. He’s 19-20 and he takes him along to all of his meetings and he consults with him that, “what is your idea? What is your advice? What do you think? You’re young, but what do you think?” That is the way the Prophet (pbuh) taught his companions to be. That is the way he taught his Sahaba to be, to take advice from everyone, even if they’re much younger because they can give you a perspective that you’ve never heard before.
As I was saying, it starts at the home that parents should make sure that they consult with their children. They should see what their children have to say. They should not shame and humiliate their children in front of others. A lot of time as parents, we fall into that. We shame or humiliate our children in front of other people. We cannot do that. That’s not a part of mercy. The Prophet (pbuh) said, “if you don’t have mercy, you’re not from us.”
Similarly, children will have to respect what your parents have to say. You have to respect. You have to hear them out. You can’t interrupt them. You can’t shout at them. You can’t get angry at them and break things or shout at them or whatever. You have to respect what they have to say. If you disagree, you have to disagree in the best of ways, in the most respectful way. And if you can’t manage to do that, then you stay silent. You don’t say anything. So it starts at the home. If the home is good, then the whole community is good. But if the home is bad, then the whole community turns bad. The home is the heart of the community.
The second thing that people say is, “well, what can I do with my children or with my youth?” There’s a lot of things that go on, but you actually have to go out of your way to ask someone. Ask the imam, ask the community members, go on the website, there’s so many ways for you to find out what’s going on.
So we ask Allah, that He guides us, that He guides our youth, that He guides our elders, that He guides our children, that He guides our parents, that He guides our grand parents. That He blesses us and that He forgives us for our shortcomings. We ask Allah that He helps us to follow the way of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). We ask Allah that He guides our community, that He helps our community, that He protects our community. We ask Allah that He accept our good deeds. Ameen.
عِبَادَ اللّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَيَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
Servants of Allah. Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.
اُذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ واشْكُرُوهُ يَزِدْكُمْ واسْتَغْفِرُوهُ يَغْفِرْ لكُمْ واتّقُوهُ يَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِكُمْ مَخْرَجًا
وَأَقِمِ الصّلَاة
Remember Allah, the Great – He will remember you. Thank Him for His favors – He will increase you therein. And seek forgiveness from Him – He will forgive you. And be conscious of Him – He will provide you a way out of difficult matters.
And, establish the prayer.