“Provide me with 1,000 old people, and I will be able to  pull out a tree from its roots. Provide me with 10 youth, and I will be able to change the world” – Sukarno

Youth that has been defined by our predecessors are a group of people who are below the age 40, depending on the country. Youth can also be perceived, by some groups, as those who are full of vigour, possess myriad skills and motivated by their vision and guided by their mission.

Dr Siddiq Fadzil (2014) said: “If you converse with an old people, do not ask them of their vision, instead ask them of their experiences. If you converse with an old people, do not ask them of their experiences, ask them instead of their vision”.

History has proven time and again that youth are one of the main contributing factors in any country’s revolutionary period; be it as a pressure group or the main cause.

From the story of Tariq Ibn Ziyad being the commander of the Muslim army during his teenage years, the success of Al-Fateh in conquering Constantinople, the revolution of Serbia by the Otpor Organisation – an organisation founded by 10 youth – and many other stories from the youth.

The world has been waiting for the re-emergence of these groups of youth that will bring about a change in this ill-ridden world. So what is it exactly that characterises and shaped the worldview of these youth until they can create a legacy that is told for years to come? We from the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students have identified four characters or “isms” that should be practiced by the youth to survive in these times of tribulation. The four characters include; idealism, activism, intellectualism, and spiritualism.

Before I continue on further with the topic at hand, it is better that we address the more pressing matter which is what is “ism”? According to the Macmillan Dictionary, “ism” is defined as a theory or set of beliefs. In other words, we can also say that “ism” is how one’s faith is in living their life.

With that in mind, let us proceed with the first character which is Idealism. Idealism stems from the words “ideal” and “ism” – of which we have known the definition for. Idealism demands that one strive for a situation or condition that can be considered of the utmost perfection for the benefit of others. One must have a vision of what they wanted to achieve, and motivation to further fuel their action added on top of the vision they envisioned. For that, it is important for youth to develop the ideologies that they want to adopt and to practice throughout their lives.

If Idealism entails the youth to have their own ideology of what they wanted to pursue, Activism is the act of actualising that ideology in the form of action and commitment. It is not enough to only have the vision; one must also experiences what the reality of the community is. Through activities organised by community services etc., only then can one know what the community is facing and in what ways can we help the community. One cannot claim that he knows everything without truly going to “ground zero” themselves.

Intellectualism is the fuel for one’s thinking capability and the depth of perception that one has. Everything starts with knowledge, and will end with knowledge. To further strengthen the importance of knowledge, the first command of the prophet Muhammad is to “read”, which implies that the first thing that we have to do before anything else is to gain knowledge. One can never know the sufferings of the people without knowledge, will never know how to change the circumstances without knowledge, will never know how to inspire others without knowledge etc. Still, the most important of all is that one has to have the knowledge on how to guide the knowledge that one possesses to the righteous path.

Though I put spiritualism as the last of the four characters, it actually implies that out of the previously discussed characters before, spiritualism is the deciding factor whether one will guide his ideology, action and intellect to the correct path. Islam teaches its believer to always adhere to the eternal command of Allah: “amar ma’ruf wa nahyu munkar”. In essence, this principle of upholding righteousness and prevent wrongdoing is the guiding post of Muslims and will forever be. Without spiritualism, one can also excel, but the excellence that one gained, will not be the excellence that is required by Allah.

As what have been mentioned earlier on, these four characters are what we from the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students have formulated with the hope that the youth can practice throughout their daily lives. The challenges faced are increasing day by day and we have seen that the current youth generation are not ready to take up the reigns of leadership. This is very troubling indeed.

Saidina Ali once said: “To forecast the future of any particular country, observe the youth of that country”. If we are not able to prepare the youth for the challenges to come, I fear that we will lose in this race of globalisation and we will lose our place in the overall history.

In light of the above troubling matters, we present to you our vision of the most ideal youth that will be able to survive in the upcoming world which is, those who have practiced – though maybe not fully practiced, at least a bit of every aspect – the four characters previously mentioned: idealism, activism, intellectualism, and spiritualism. – November 10, 2015.

Muhamad Nur Iman
vice-president of the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students (PKPIM)
2015/2016 session

*This article has been published in The Malaysian Insider,
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/youth-agents-of-change-muhamad-nur-iman