Although there are many things that harm our youth badly in today’s world, two of them are the deadliest. Our youth are directly influenced by the corrupt media, and are blindly following the astray trends of society. Music is common among them and is not considered to be a sin at all. It is considered to be ‘Halal’ and thus many youngsters are choosing to be musicians, singers or lyricists. Watching movies, dramas and TV shows is completely acceptable in our society. Even though they contain immoral, vulgar, lewd and illegal material according to the Quran and Sunnah. The next generation is proudly choosing to be actors, VJ’s, RJ’s and all other media persons.
When something evil is done mistakenly and knowing it to be a sin, man can repent and drop it, he does not become completely astray and following the right path is still an option for him to opt on the right path. These are the people who believe that they are living a sinful life and must change themselves as soon as possible or at least before their deaths (when will it arrive? nobody knows).
This person is much safer, closer to the right path and less astray because they can repent and seek atonement. On the other hand, there are youngsters in our society, our youth, our future generation, who have to take matters of this world tomorrow; are sinning and are thinking that they are doing a good job. They sin and say that they did not. How can they repent when they do not accept their sins? They think that their actions are acceptable leaving no room for atonement. How can they ask their Lord for forgiveness if they do not consider their actions to sin?
Praise be to Allah the Almighty awareness is increasing amongst youngsters about their sinful behaviour. Many of them are saying goodbye to their sinful lives and coming towards Islam (submission to the Almighty). But thir numbers are still too few. There is progress, but very slow. Our youth is addicted to sin, even if they decide to quit for Allah, their addictions drag them back towards their old habits. It is hard to cure addictions. Young people have difficulties releasing themselves from their grip. They need serious help.
Our youngsters are going astray and their souls are being destroyed by Satan’s machines, two of which are very powerful; 1. Video Games. 2. Pornography. Many teenagers are directly involved in either both or one of them. Both of these satanic activities slowly kill the soul. They kill the inner human being and make our youth a soulless robot, who dances to Satan’s tunes.
Boys who spend a lot of their time playing video games are weaker in studies and angrier than those who do not. Video games make people lazy and not wanting to do any kind of work. Perhaps video games are the most efficient time-killers. Time spent in video games is completely useless and can go on to become major sins which can reach up to Shirk in some video games like the Elder Scrolls series, Runescape and ‘Divinity: Original Sin’ series. This is because these games contain idol worship and magic both of which are clearly prohibited. Players of these video games have to get involved in these activities in order to proceed and gain extra advantages in the game.
Unfortunately, we take all this very lightly and hope nothing bad would happen. We do not consider this to be sinful and just let it go. We are completely wrong, they are big sins even if they are in a video game. If the time we spend in playing video games is saved and spent in productive activities, we could do wonders. We could utilize our time which is being wasted – and earning us sins – playing video games to earn the bounties of this world and eternal paradise in the hereafter.
Another mind-blowing fact about video games is that our children are playing games made for adults, games with a ‘Mature’ or ‘18+’ rating. Little children are playing games like the GTA series, which have drugs, sexuality, violence and foul language in their content. Can you imagine what harm they do to young minds? They learn bad things directly from video games, while their parents are unaware.
Video games have social side effects. Young boys affected by them become violent, irritable and irascible. Some of them develop Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Then they cannot focus anywhere save video games. Further, a gamer misses his daily prayers. They develop disrespect for their parents to such a point that there are reports of children killing their parents in cold blood for video games. Their hearts our empty of Allah’s remembrance. They forget Allah. And those who forget Allah, Allah makes them forget themselves.
Video games are destroying our youth and we need to control it. They can be played but with strict regulations. Children must avoid adult games and adults too must not play video games more than five hours a week.
The second biggest or perhaps the biggest youth destroyer is pornography. It is the biggest industry of the world in this era. So naturally it is very big in Pakistan too. Nowadays it is very hard to find a person who is not exposed to pornography. Our children and teenagers are getting exposed to this satanic activity at a very young age, and the rate of exposure is increasing every day. Many of them are addicted and it’s becoming a part of their routine and is getting harder to let go.
It was not long ago that pornography was underground. People used to bring magazines and videotapes secretly and stealthily. But now the internet and smartphones have made this weapon of Satan outrageously easy to get with no cost at all, it is free of cost, you just need a smartphone with internet. Therefore people are bound to get addicted to it devilishly.
I do not need to remind you of the atrocities that befell in our country involving children, little girls and boys. May Allah, our Lord save us from such foul vulgarity. Pornography is rapidly destroying our youth, and we are practically doing nothing about it. Young people download pornographic films and keep them on their portable devices. This enables them to do the satanic act anywhere anytime. This also allows them to share with others over social media. Youngsters should be educated about the evils of pornography, and how it destroys not only individuals but the whole society.
This evil corrupts its users mind and make them anti-social, depressed and angry. Their behaviours change drastically after getting addicted to sexually illicit materials. People become lazy and do not want to go out of their homes. Addicts stop taking interest in their work. They want to be left alone most of the time so that they can fulfil their devilish addiction.
It was such a relief when PTA decided to block sites with sexually explicit material, but how successful has this decision been? Addicts can easily find their way around the block. Or go to a video store and buy their favorite videos there illegally. Pornography is also the cause of developing paraphilia in our society. There are reports of necrophilia acts in Pakistani media. Homosexuality, child abuse and incest can be easily found in our society. It is possible that all these crimes and perversions have their roots in pornography.
Pornography makes people commit crimes to such an extent that in American jails there is no criminal who is not addicted to it. The case in Pakistan might not be much different. People become animals, perhaps worse than that, through this addiction. Evil gets inside them and they start committing felonies in which they depict the acts shown in such videos. Its combination with video games makes matters worse, especially with games like the GTA series.
Dr Philip Zimbardo has explained in his TED talk why boys are falling behind girls in studies. It is because boys are addicted to video games and pornography. He says that boys play video games all day long and when they are tired they take a ‘porn break’. In the famous game of Dota 2, players regularly make fun of disconnecting players by saying that they are watching pornography.
Our society is being rapidly changed by these two super-weapons of Satan. We have to take action to stop this evil, but how can we stop our children when we ourselves are addicted to it? Men are lured towards pornography for instant gratification of their perverted sexual desires. What else is needed to destroy families and then the whole society? Only Allah’s mercy can save us. Only God consciousness can save us. We need to make the accessibility of video games and pornographhy harder for our offspring, and provide a better replacement in the form of healthy activities like sports and arts. Martial arts is a combination of sport and art. It is, when combined with spirituality (5 daily prayers and recitation of Holy Quran every day), perhaps the best way to fight our devilish tech-based temptations.
We need to take our children out from the addiction of video games and pornography and put them into the love of living this life for Allah. This is the time to start acting, for the people of awareness. We must save those who have been gripped by Satan through technology i.e. internet and screens.
