Our Youth: The Experience of Allamah Fadlullah
On The Sidelines of Disclosure: Muhammad Husayn Fadlullah, The Youth
In the eventful life of knowledge and work which Ayatollah Fadlullah has lived, what are the best methods of nurturing according to him? How did he take care of himself in his youth?
I used to feel that I had to train myself to be a Muslim who lives his Islam from within, accepting God, loving Him and fearing Him. I made a serious effort to gain His pleasure and to be a true Muslim in the movement of Islam from within and without my life. I used to feel that the Muslim man has to accept his own time, to deal with it and live with it, to be part of it, to analyze his mentality and his affairs, until he is able to express his understanding of Islam in the language, mentality, and methods of his time.
I used to read everything which could possibly enrich my knowledge and help me understand my time. I was quick to understand my time; and in fact feared losing the language of the previous times. But I also sought to immerse myself in that language.
I believed that the Muslim man must be an activist, that he must think in the same terms of Islam as an `alim, in order to make his political, social, and intellectual contribution to Islam. He must be receptive to the activities of Islamic movements. And I was always receptive to Islamic movements-all of them-and still am. I had great hopes for them, despite my differences of opinion with some of them over certain of their negative aspects, because I have found that we cannot fill the world with Islam except through an active, dynamic Islam.
I do not wish here to speak of abandoning imitative Islam. We need it, but with the understanding that imitative Islam must be structured on the special dynamic qualities of an active Islam. And the opposite is also true, in terms of the positive aspects of imitative Islam.
