Why Study the Seerah of Younger Adult Companions?
Recently, I have been taking a critical look at pedagogy and different pedagogical methods. This spark of interest, I believe, was birthed as a result of the level of proximity I have suddenly gained with many young muslim adults in recent times. Having had some of these people share their struggles with religiosity, and what they identify as the possible causes of these struggle with me, I have been gathering and reading materials on child upbringing — specifically — since for most people, it all goes back to the type of upbringing they had and what went into it.
Since this has become something I'm passionate about engaging, I'm looking at writing vis-a-vis our lived experiences in Zango and what we have observed as Muslims growing up in these communities — our communities.
On my usual social media sojourns, I came across Shaykh Muhammad ad-Duwaish who has written extensively on Islamic Pedagogy, Education and Child Upbringing. This find I made on the wall of brother أنس عثمان who shares beneficial materials all the time — may Allah preserve him. When I chanced on the Shaykh, the work of his which first caught my attention was his Shabāb as Sahāba so I downloaded and started reading it right away.
In the introductory phase of this book, he answers questions regarding why there is the need to [write and] read [from] the biographies of the younger adults from the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم. Due to the profundity of the answers provided to these questions and the need to make them accessible, I have translated and modified these answers in the English language and presented them below.
Bear in mind that he only considers 25 years to be the final phase of young adulthood here.
Ad-Duwaish, while answering the question of why it is important to write on, research and read the biographies of youths from the Sahaba, says in his Shabāb as Sahaba:
" There is no doubt that reading from the biographies of righteous people — whose forebearers are the Prophet's (peace be upon him and his household) Companions — is an act that no disputer will dispute its importance and necessity. But a questioner can ask:
Of what use is singling out youths from the Companions to discuss and talk about at the expense of the others?
And this is a question that deserves to be answered in the beginning of this study. Indeed, discussing this topic has a number of benefits, some of which are:
(1) A young person may view himself to be in a perfect state of guidance, God consciousness, worship, making extraordinary efforts in seeking knowledge of the Shariah or striving in the path of Allah. He might as well be engaging in other virtuous acts and this may cause him to view himself as one who has surpassed his contemporaries and outshone the elderly or men in general. This may then be the entry point for the devil to throw pride and ungratefulness into his heart. This thus marks the beginning of destruction and misguidance — may Allah protect us from those.
But when he reads from the biographies of the Companions and acquaints himself with their states, he gets to realize that no matter what he does, there remain those who have surpassed and preceded him. This will then cause him to belittle his acts of worship and aspire to do more.
(2) Studying biographical works and real-life examples has a powerful impact on the soul. For they are the most effective and impactful examples and nothing explicitly points to this reality than the Qur'an's excessive narration of stories of Prophets and nations past. In these stories are examples of misdeeds for the purpose of cautioning people from them, and virtuous examples which serve the purpose of guidance.
All these are encapsulated in the Qur'an's narration of the story of the people of the city [Ashābul Qaryah] when the messengers went to them; and that of the companions of the cave [Ashābul Kahf]; and the companions of the trench [ Ashābul Ukhdūd]. Also, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وعلى آله makes mention of the story of the man who killed ninety-nine people, that of the companions of the cave [Ashābul Gār], the story of the young believer and many others.
(3) Belittling young people and viewing them as lowly have become a widespread phenomenon in Muslim communities. Considering them as kids who wield no weight nor value — and this is an issue that doesn't require any difficulty in detecting or realizing. In order to see this, participating in social activities is sufficient, or maybe, visiting a father in his home to witness from that visit how society views young people and deals with them. The effect of this [lowly] view is reflected in the youths themselves. So they station themselves where society views as their righful place and this only elongates their childhood span.
For this reason, when fathers read the biographies of young companions, the view they hold of their children will undoubtedly change and they will increase in aspiration. Having children read from these biographies will also push them to go beyond these [limiting] views that society holds of them.
(4) Modern Muslim society has today inherited from the legacies of defeat and underdevelopment — as a result of colonialism, among other factors — western understandings of child upbringing, which happen to be foreign to and farther from our society and values. This has now become a part of people's thought processes and thus, they've turned away from reevaluating and questioning those understandings.
Amongst these is "The View of the Adolescent". Western psychology only recognises frivolous behaviour and disrespect in adolescents. Since the concept of "Adolescent Crisis" gained grounds, all it knows about adolescence is misguidance and delinquency. This contagion has now been passed on to Muslims and they have inherited it like they did many others.
Studying the biographies of young companions who lived through this phase termed by Western Psychologists as adolescence provides enough evidence that a larger proportion of the problems faced by adolescents in our societies is as a result of our educational and social systems. By saying the above, we are in no way disputing the fact that adolescence has intrinsic traits and problems that are confined to it. Rather, the matter is neither like modern psychology presents it nor many parents view it to be. We're in dire need of sticking to Shar'i terminologies and thus should consider that phase a stage of (Bulūgh) or (At-Taklīf ash-Shar'ī). With these, rulings applying to remaining men apply to younger adults also.
(5) From the characteristics of a younger adult at this stage is (the ability to easily obsess). Hence, a younger adult gets attached and easily marvelled by different examples and the enemies take advantage of this characteristic and expose to younger adults a number of models that will enchant and captivate them — take modern pop culture and media space as examples.
This strong reception towards obsession at this stage of life wasn't created by Allah in vain. He neither created it to be problematic to man nor did He create it to, in its essence, pose as a source of danger to him. But just like all other strengths and responsiveness embedded in man's innate character [Fitrah], it serves its function by perfectly refining human character when offered the right direction.
For this reason, taking serious interest in exposing to younger adults these examples serves an important part of their innate character [Fitrah], protects them concurrently and makes available to them alternative role models other than sportsmen and actors among many others."
