YouthX | God & Me

There has perhaps never been a more challenging time to be a young muslim than today. The new norms of social media, high-tech gadgets and AI threaten purity and imagination. When morality and sanctity are ridiculed and profanity and lewdness celebrated, we must come together as a community to protect from this disturbing inversion of reality. How do we balance integration with the preservation of identity? This session will discuss practical methods in which we can establish safe spaces for our youth and raise them to be upright and conscientious and confident adults.

All of our personal and social problems are rooted in the states of our hearts. Just as the body has ailments that force us to the doctor, the heart also has ailments that should force us to the doctor. Traditionally, purification of the heart was a central focus of Muslim civilization. Manuals, texts, glosses, and commentaries fill our libraries with the strategies, techniques, and methods for purifying hearts. Many Muslims don't have access to this rich tradition of spiritual healing that could, if rediscovered and used, heal our persons and societies from many of the destructive forces impacting us. This session will discuss some of the dominant ailments of the heart and the strategies the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and our tradition provide us with to address them.

Multiple Personality Disorder is categorized as a serious psychological pathology. Yet all of us deal with the multiple identities of life: son, daughter, mother, father, aunt, uncle, husband, wife, Arab, Pakistani, Canadian, Egyptian, Liberal, Conservative, male, female, employee, owner, consumer, seller, etc. With globalization ascendant, these identities have increased. Some Muslims have a difficult time being Muslim and being Canadian post October 7th, with its government’s blindness and lack of moral courage by supporting the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza. Can we have multiple identities that don't create personal dissonance that leads to pathology? Is it simply the human condition, or are we increasingly displaying signs of social and personal pathology? What is the guidance of the Qur'an and Sunnah on this matter? When the Prophet fought at Hunayn, he chanted, "I am the Prophet and that is no lie; I am the son of Ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib," revealing two distinct aspects of his own identity - spiritual and ethnic (national, in today's parlance?). How do we reconcile this and what does it mean to be a western muslim in today’s world?

One of the slogans of the modern Islamic revival has been that Islam is relevant for all times and places. What aspects of the Islamic message is universal and timeless and what is restricted and time-bound? To what extent have Muslims today upheld the timeless aspects of the message and to what extent have we lost touch with them? What are the implications of giving universal application to the restricted aspects of the religion? What are some examples of that? How do we navigate the challenges of the modern world and respond with a faith based world view? How can we be inclusive and a safe space for all those seeking God’s light, while not diluting our faith in the process? How do we make our spaces respectful and representative of our communities' diversity and a thriving space for our sisters that provides them the same access men are awarded to seeking knowledge and proximity to God. These are some of the issues this panel will examine.

Caught up in the monotonous routines of daily life, the perpetual struggle to make ends-meet, and the many turmoils of the modern era, we often feel deflated and burnt out. While our faith provides us the means and methods to renew ourselves and our aspirations, we must go one step further and examine our unique circumstances today and redefine, with conviction, the greater purpose of our lives.

Clearly, over the last decade, the Muslim community has seen the emergence of an emboldened, articulate, and confident voice resonating from the hearts and minds of young Muslims globally. Daring to dream for a better tomorrow, their vision is rooted in Islam but nurtured here; it is both Canadian and Islamic. As we attempt to navigate and explore the theme of 'God & Me', we hope to define a truly authentic, morally rooted, and socially engaged identity for Muslim Youth in Canada, that can change the world for the better.