# Are young people today facing an existential crisis?

*Crisis of purpose, not existence: young people, meaning and suicide*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/s/18/
- Date: 2021-04-26 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Lupe Fiasco | Stardom, Semiotics & Soul-searching | MindTrap#56 | Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki MALM (1:36:35–1:44:23)
- Status: latest answer on its topic; a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYiiPEhuiHA&t=5795s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/

**Topics:** Motivation and purpose; Depression and anxiety

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The guest says most people face a crisis of purpose rather than of existence, urges anyone with suicidal thoughts to seek expert help, and says young people can find value without conventional success.

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth asks whether young people today face a harder existential crisis. The guest says that, as someone who works with words, he critiques modern thought as much as Islam, and argues most people face a crisis of purpose or meaning rather than of existence, which belongs to people whose lives are at stake today. He describes, in deliberately provocative terms, how he has talked people he knows out of suicide by redirecting them to serve others, such as helping a neighbour with shopping or volunteering abroad, and urges anyone with suicidal thoughts to seek help from people with expertise. He says young people live in a world that does not seem to need them as work is automated, so some seek importance by being rebellious, while many find purpose and credibility on their own without needing religion, and should be told they do not have to follow the classic rules of success to have value.

## Sources and names cited

- Lupe Fiasco (guest)

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:36:35–1:44:23)

[1:36:34] what the [ __ ] you know speaking of um you you were saying all these messages you're saying your journey you're saying these things do you feel though lupe people who are younger today do you feel they've got it more difficult in terms of what in terms of this existential kind of crisis of you know this because there is this kind of existential crisis going around and people are you know like like you said like what is my purpose what is what am i doing here is it just nothing is it

[1:37:14] and then faith you know using faith to navigate the world as well yeah i think there's a difference i mean even if even if even as i think about you know uh critiquing you know aspects of of islam i critique ask just as strongly aspects of like continental philosophy and modern thought and the words that we use right again being a person so uh intimate with words and using them for a living when you think of words like existential crisis right most people don't face an existential crisis right

[1:37:52] i would say most people don't um they may face a purpose a crisis of purpose a crisis of meaning but not a crisis of existence right now there are people who are faced with a crisis of existence meaning they may not exist depending on the decisions that are that they make today and then the decisions that are made on their behalf they may not exist later on today right they're gonna die right and i think it's we do ourselves a certain disservice to project the gravity of existence

[1:38:30] onto or onto what should i wear today or on what type of job should i get or what should i eat tonight or what you know things that are that don't necessarily correlate to you having life in your body or not right now there are places in the world where people's um existence is you know at at stake right today right now right at this moment that we talk right that there's a decision being made whether that person is going to live or going to die right and that we shouldn't pretend that the the the things that we're going

[1:39:09] through in life are to that state of gravity right and i say this because i've i've talked uh a few people um into suicide right that you've talked them into they're still alive they're still alive but talking them into suicide right in the sense that okay but i'm if you're gonna do it make sure you do it all the way but do it in a way where it's like you make sure that you're gone right so when you jump off the building try and jump on to aim yourself so you land on the edge of the other building so you get two building jump

[1:39:48] offs for one and then you bounce off that one and then i hit a car think about the physics right so let's get that out the way right but but before you do it right i'm sure that there's an old lady you know in your town or old lady who lives upstairs um who can't go to the grocery store right because she can't walk so you have a perfectly good set of legs your mind is destroyed okay yeah i agree your mind's destroyed you you don't have any reason like okay cool but look your legs still work and your arms still work right so if you could use your arms and legs to go to the grocery store for this lady

[1:40:27] right and then when you're done with her i'm sure there's another guy across the hall then i'm sure there's a whole group of people who do this and go to africa and like donate your body you know to these kids who go to get water right so they spend most of their time their day going to get water from this place to that um not going to school doing all so or or that time that they're spending um going to fetch water um every day um you could do that right because you don't need school anymore because you're going to die right right you don't need this because you're gonna do this with that right and i'm with you like every this world's not built for everyone right some of us are probably accidents you know the r b got the flowing you

[1:41:07] know the vento got the flowing and before you know it there you are right but you know and i'm real with people like this because i understand the reality and the gravity of what you're saying right and that there's a an injustice that's kind of been done academically where we we use this word existential very loosely right and it's not really meant to be used for crisises of thought or crisises of consciousness right it's meant like this is going to stop my heart from beating right this is going to make my brain fail right and that's where that has to be used but in terms of crisis is a purpose and all those people are still here

[1:41:46] because once you present them with the opportunity to go donate you know their services for free to in a foreign country they immediately forget that they remember they don't have a passport you know or they you know they don't have this or they don't want to do that they just want to die and it's like well look we might as well go out with you know before he jumped before she jumped she she helped me with my groceries that was a great person right once you want that memory to be left behind too right so all that to say um if you are dealing with with uh with issues of suicide or you're dealing with those type of thoughts uh seek help um you know uh uh seek seek folks that uh that are egg to have expertise and a talent in that i'd i've had those

[1:42:26] conversations because i know those people right so i know their tolerances and their capacities and we have fun and we joke and we talk of course get serious i get serious and when things are heavy so i think that people are having crisis of purpose i think people having crisis is a faith i don't think people are having for the most part having crisises of existence right for you to be able to even come and tell me that you're having a existential crisis lets me know that you're not having an existential crisis because people who have existential crisises they got minutes or hours right before they're gone right versus you who've been thinking about this for a week

[1:43:04] or two months or a year so that's my that's my piece on that but i do i don't want to minimize or discount folks who are having real serious issues with how they interface with society how to interface with politics how to interface with the internet so the young kids today i mean i think that they're they're having a you know you're in a world where that doesn't really need you um there's nothing that you can really you know there's so much competition there's so many people able to everything's being automated um your services are kind of no longer required so i think there's a certain

[1:43:43] kind of like rejection that's happening and the youth are trying to figure out a way to fit in and make themselves feel important and you know a lot of those things are just you know being big and bad or or being rebellious or being this or being that um but at the same time too i think there's a whole group of individuals and young kids are doing just fine you know figuring it out who find purpose to find reason um who find a rationale to maintain and they find the credibility generated from themselves you know they don't need a religion to make them credible they don't need they don't need me or you to make them feel credible about their life and their

[1:44:22] relationship to whatever um and i think as long as we allow folks and and celebrate those folks and let them know like hey man you don't you don't necessarily have to abide by the the common classic rules of success in this world to have value yeah wow oh that's very i mean that wow that's there's a lot to take in there um i was i was going to say people if you've got some questions and you want to have them at the legend himself go on then fire away in the comments

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment oYiiPEhuiHA/s/18. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/oyiipehuiha/s/18/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.