Youth are back bone to the society. But there’s one problem, most of them don’t know that. Today we find some youth who are more interested in other places which are not useful to them nor to society. They choose to spend their days playing video games, partying and ‘living the moment’ so to say. These people have no vision in life and have no set goals for their future.

Even though every other age group depends on them. The young want to learn and become like them and the old want them to make their life easier.

Everyone can agree with me that youth have the most potential but they need several things in order to make use of that potential and help develop the society from all levels.  

But what makes us so important?
 

According to unfpa.org, 25 percent of the global population are youth between the ages of 15 and 24, that’s 1.8 billion youth, or 1.8 billion treasures.

Imagine what they would do if they all worked side by side and brought together all their heads, you know they say two heads are better than one…change that to 1.1 billion heads. That’s a lot of heads.

Let’s take a look at a few teenagers who made history.

Lious Braille, yes that last name probably ringed a bell. He invented the Braille language for the blind in 1824 when he was just 15 years old! Being blind himself, he was inspired and determined at a young age to conceive of a way to read and write.

We have the famous young Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who in 2014, became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She was famous for speaking out against the Taliban and encouraging young girls like herself to pursue an education.

Now for society and the future to thrive and be prosperous and for all of this to happen, there are key points to keep in mind.

Education is critical. The knowledge young people acquire from school, yes actually helps y’all.

Next is creativity. Add your own flavoring to everything you do. Try to make it better in every way possible.

Now comes involvement. This is a big one. Ok so you have knowledge and creativity and all now where do you spread it? Try to be involved in all activities held in your communities and be active.

Then we have connections. Connecting with one another, as we said earlier if everyone worked side by side and brought together all their heads…we would have great power. The power to come up with new ideas and mechanisms that lead to success. Not only that, but we can see what others have gone through and learn from one another’s mistakes and experiences.
 

Young people are the beauty of the present and the guarantee of the future, where they guarantee the success and development of a large tree called the society. If the young man is safe and useful, he will not bring trouble to this society, but if he is corrupt, then the future of the society is related to the youth - how he thinks, behaves and his actions.

Hence, we find that ideological attacks target this sector of our society – women and youth -because they are the most important elements of society and in case of obtaining control over them, the enemy will be able to reach his goal. Youth are the treasure of society because they are developing and renewing it through smart leadership and creating skills and innovations while preserving their original values.
 

Our beloved Imams have recommended many things to the youth:

Imam Ali has said: "The acquisition of knowledge at childhood is like engraving on the stone".

Imam Ali has also said: “There are two things which people do not recognize the greatness of until they lose them: their youth and good health.”

Imam Jafar al-Sadiq has said: “I do not like to see the youth from amongst yourselves except that he/she is passing the life in one of two states: either as a scholar or as a student. So then if he is not in one of these two states, then he is one who has wasted his time and surely, the act of squandering is a sin and the person who commits a sin shall reside in the Hell Fire.”

Imam Ḥassan al-Mujtaba has said:  “Surely today you are the youth of the nation, and tomorrow, you will be the leaders of the community, thus, it is incumbent upon you to seek knowledge. So then if you are not able to memorize all that you learn, then you must write it down and preserve it (for safe keeping) so that you can refer to it later on (when you need it).”