CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

Section Six A Letter to Young Men

Youth is the most beautiful period of a person's life. The zeal, vigor, thought and imagination of youth do not return later. The body does not know what pain, illness and fatigue are. Youth consists entirely of passion and delight. In youth, playfulness and merriment, games and laughter and dance, fights and quarrels, arms and weapons — all are becoming. As emphasized in the works of Hazrat Navoi, the pleasure a young man finds in drinking water cannot be found in old age. In youth even water is sweet and delicious. Youth is the foundation of a person's life. A young man must think about laying that foundation correctly and firmly. Today, at a time when standards have been corrupted and people have been torn from their roots, this is what we have to say to young men: 1. Strive to keep your imagination clean of all sorts of impure fantasies. Do not fill it with the sounds and images of various films, clips and songs. When the imagination is filled with needless thoughts, it tangles one's thinking and hinders making correct decisions. 2. Be less enamored with yourself. It is precisely a young man's excessive infatuation with his own looks and figure that casts him into heedlessness. 3. Determine your profession and what you are going to achieve — your goal. Act according to a plan to reach that goal. 4. Do not put wealth and worldly goods in first place. If you sense that love of luxury and money, of possessions and the world, is growing in your heart, quickly come to your senses. Humanity and manliness are more precious than anything. 5. Many young men follow their egos and are busy with rude and immoral deeds. They do not accept the word of truth. They have hesitation, doubt and weakness. Weakness, which is the opposite of fortitude and resolve. Many young men cannot organize their days. They do not sleep at night and sleep during the day. There is no purpose in their work and no productivity in their time. Do not be like that, O young man: go to sleep right after the night prayer (isha). Then you will wake before the dawn prayer (fajr). Do not put off any meeting or work until after isha. If you bring this order into your life, you will master your whole life, your strength and your ego. If you cannot manage this, you will become a plaything, like a kitten. 6. Do not be helpless before lust; conquer your desire. Fight it consciously. If you guard your eyes, ears and thoughts from indecency, your whole being will be pure. Do not be a spineless rag. Do not be defeated by Satan. 7. Speak little and work much. Do not shy away from labor, do not be a fool, be strict about accounts, do not trust without testing; do not be afraid to be a lone wolf; do not buy needless things; if you are in the right, do not back down; do not lie; learn to solve problems in a way that causes no harm, and do not avoid consulting your elders! Always watch over yourself from the outside with thought and analysis, reason and prudence. Then you will walk smoothly and not fall. This letter belongs to the pen of a poor wretch who scattered his years of youth to the winds and squandered his young days with many mistakes; I made mistakes — do not you make them. You, a child of humankind, a child of Muslims, are as dear and honored to me as my own child; learn my advice by heart and act on it, and, God willing, your life will flow into the right channel and you will not stray from the right path.

Akrom MALIK