Why YM? A question which has been left unanswered in my head for too long. Why not MAS Youth, MYNA, or any other youth group? (May Allah SWT increase these youth groups in the benefit they bring to their communities). InshaAllah in this post, I'll go over reasons why YM works and why and how it has earned so much success since it was founded in 1991.A little over six years ago, I started coming to my local YM halaqa in Teaneck at 12 years-old. The main pulling factors for me were because my older brother used to go every Friday night to the masjid and he used to come back and tell me how much fun he had and how everyone used to go out to eat afterwards as a group and because I liked to be around older people (most of my friends to this day are older than me :D). It was later shown to me that Allah (SWT) had decreed that I would be involved with YM for the remainder of my teenage years, but I still hadn't figured out the answer to the question of all questions....why YM?
Why YM?
1. Community Involvement
This year, in 2009, I finally could put something in this empty spot of "why?" I realized that some of us had become products of what YM was working towards. I realized that YM wasn't suppose to send youth over to an Islamic university or madrasa, but rather, YM was suppose to make us people in our communities who are involved in constructing a better tomorrow for the future youth to come into our community. YM wanted us to get involved in our sunday schools and evening schools. It wanted us to be good role models and leaders for our communities. It wanted us to be sincere and dedicated Islamic workers. I finally realized the pinacle of YM's catch phrase "Facillitating the Youth in Becoming the Future."
2. Compatibility
One of the main reasons YM has been so successful throughout the United States is because they learned to put aside the cleche matter of "taking an AlMaghrib class" versus "taking a Zaytuna class." YM realized that differences of opinions will exist no matter what organization you work with and that it's important to instead focus on how to keep our Muslim youth in the masjid and out of the clubs. We used YM as our binding factor to help build better communities for our youth.
In April 2009, Allah (SWT) blessed me to help organize an online fundraiser for Imam Siraj Wahhaj with the help of Br. Tariq Subhani and the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA). Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, Imam Zaid Shakir, Imam Suhaib Webb, and Shaykh Faraz Rabbani had all come together by putting aside their differences of creed and jurisprudence to help the American Muslim community by raising funds for Imam Siraj Wahhaj. If they can unite for a better tomorrow, why can't we?
May Allah (SWT) increase YM in good and help them produce sincere and devout Islamic workers who wish to earn nothing but the please of Allah (SWT). Ameen.
Young Muslims - Brothers Promo Video
Young Muslims - Sisters Promo Video
Visit www.ymsite.com and www.ymonline.org for more info.
