I am bored

Assalamu ‘alaykum, 

I know there is a wide variety of beliefs within the Muslim community about media to consume and what to avoid. If you are unsure and would rather avoid media, there are a lot of activities that you can be involved with that would help you have meaningful connection. 

Service activities, for example, can provide a lot of positive benefits. This can include finding a cause that you believe in and raising money, gathering items, or volunteering your time for those purposes. You could also tutor, or mentor. 

Sports activities are often a way to connect with others and get physical exercise. There are many types of teams, not just the ones available at school.

Hobbies such as woodworking, sewing, fiber crafts (knitting, crochet, weaving), electronics, 3D printing, coding can be fun in and of themselves, and potentially have ways of growing into a career opportunity. 

Learning is another way that some people fill their time – whether it is something like Islamic texts, Literature, Science, History, Health, and so on. There are a number of podcasts out there that are engaging and informative.

I hope that helps, 
wassalam,

Sincerely,

Your Sister in Islam,

Fatima “FM”

Walaykum assalam brother,

As Muslims it is important that we try to be productive with our time as much as we possibly can as our time in life is so precious and goes so fast. Being productive is especially important while we are still in our youth. A popular saying that my mom taught me is: “Youth is wasted on the young”. Meaning, our youth is when we have more time and energy to do things. As we get older, our bodies become weaker and we take on more responsibilities (families, work/school, taking care of children…etc), and it becomes difficult to do the things we would like.

While you are still in your teens, try to figure out what are your hobbies/interests, volunteer in your community, try to exercise/go to the gym, help your mom/dad with anything around the house. One thing I know personally is that when I am being more productive in my day it boosts my mood and I feel like I can achieve many things throughout the day. One thing I cannot stress enough about is to keep learning, we have access to all kinds of things on the internet and you can educate yourself in all different subjects. This is connected to figuring out your hobbies/interests. Say you’re interested in learning a new language, you can search and find different resources on the web and videos on YouTube to help you. I can also see from your post that you do care about the halal and haram in our religion and so I would suggest for you to also try to learn more about Islam and try to develop a solid foundation of this deen. It will strengthen and help you so much in life. Some websites that I personally recommend are: Bayyinah (for learning how to read Arabic/understand the meanings of Quran), Al Maghrib and Qalam Institute. It is so much easier to learn while you are young as you can retain information easier and are not yet busy with many responsibilities.

Hope this helps!

–          Your sister in faith.