Bismillāh ar-Rahmān ar-Rahīm
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Did the title shock you? Well, it should.
I was reading this news article about the increasing number of young girls drinking in London. Girls as young as 11-15 are participating in this habit. Studies have shown that drinking affects the ladies in far worse ways than it does to men. In the article, they mention:
“London assembly’s report also revealed that young people from the Muslim communities are now drinking far more.”
“This raises concern that these recent increases could be the start of an ongoing trend.”
The London’s scrutinizing body also warned that the phenomenon among the Muslim community has its complications.
“Because alcohol is not a part of the traditional culture in these communities, young Pakistani and Bangladeshi Londoners may be more likely to conceal their alcohol misuse, and may be less likely to seek help for alcohol misuse.
“Their parents and carers may be less equipped to identify problem drinking, and less informed about what to do if their child is misusing alcohol, or develops a dependence on alcohol.”
Does that make you wonder about the situation in our community? Do you have friends or know of friends who drink? Since clubbing and pub-crawling has increased in popularity and has become one of the major options when it comes to entertainment in recent years, this also means an increase in exposure to alcoholic beverage to those youths who engage in such activities, Muslims or otherwise.
I don’t have access to statistics about drinkers, much less on Muslim drinkers, but as much as I want to husnu-zhon (harbour good thoughts) about my fellow youths in Singapore, this seems to be wishful thinking rather than husnu-zhon.
I have lost count on the number of times I read of someone’s Facebook status complaining of a hangover, come across a picture of old friends smiling at the camera, bottles of alcohol on the table (I tell myself they just happen to be there, it didn’t belong to any of those in the picture, but what other excuses can I find for them when the picture is accompanied by a caption that says “The night we went drinking” followed by a date and a location as proof of their “merry behaviour”?).
What do we do about this situation? It is serious and it is very real. We can go on promoting events and classes and camps but my brother said to me recently, “I always see the same people at these events.” Precisely! This is not to boast about my moral superiority but this is to highlight an actual occurrence that is happening to my friends and acquaintances and one which worries me.
Imam Hasan al-Banna visited night-clubs during his time to befriend the Muslim youths and they eventually became pious Muslims who formed the Muslim Brotherhood at that time. Do we have a similar Hasan al-Banna now? Someone of his calibre and influence who can persuade our brothers and sisters who spend their nights at clubs?
What do we do? What do we do?
May Allah guide us all!
Wabillahi Tawfeeq wal-Hidayah,
Ameera Begum Aslam
We have ‘Da’is’ who go to nightclubs and eventually become one of them (terbalik!). As I heard a China Muslim guy say, “3 Muslims – good Muslim, 2 Muslims – half Muslim, 1 Muslim – no Muslim”. It means that if you’re in a company of many Muslims, you’ll remain as Muslims. But if you’re the only Muslim in your group of friends, then you’ll eventually be like them.
So i guess, to do likewise as Hasan Al Bana requires a very strong iman indeed. But then again, is this the correct way to do it (for the layman who wants to invite)? To know, we have to learn Fiqhul Dawah. We cant just jump the gun when we do Da’wah as it requires knowledge on how to do it too, agree?
I watched Sheikh Khalid Yaseen’s lecture and its very interesting. He does this kind of work (gg to dirty, rowdy places to do dawah and clean up the streets), but he does it with a group of STRONG Muslims. He surrounds himself with big-sized Muslim bodyguards and go as a group to remind people not to do anything haraam. And this is very effective according to him, also if you were to look at it from a psychological form of view (“THEY mean business” as opposed to “Whos this guy who wants to remind me what to do and what not to do?!”!). Also, doing as a group is safer to remind each other to safeguard our imaan before being influenced in return.