When Does the Youth Stage End?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

I have heard Hadiths emphasizing the age of youth and how we will be questioned on how we spent our youth. I wondered when the youth period ends in lunar years; I heard Imam Nawawi say 30 years, but I thought it was 40.

Please tell me the majority/correct opinions on when this youth phase ends in the Lunar years.

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

I pray you are well.

There is a difference of opinion when the stage of youth starts; some say upon the setting of puberty until the age of thirty, and some say from the age of sixteen until the age of thirty-two. [Zabidi, Taj al-‘Arus]

Ibn al-Jawzi (Allah be pleased with him) mentions there are five stages in a man’s life:

From birth till puberty, generally, it is fifteen years. From puberty to the end of youth, it extends up to thirty-five years, from thirty-five years to fifty years and it is called Maturity (Kuhala), from fifty years to the end of seventy years, it is called Seniority (Shuyukha), and from seventy years to end of life is called Decrepitude (Harm). [Ibn al-Jawzi, Hifz al-‘Umr; Ibn al-Jawzi, Tanbih al-Na’im al-Ghamr ‘ala Mawasim al-‘Umr; Haddad, Lives of Men]

A Lunar year is 354 days, 8 hours, and 48 minutes and a Solar year is 365 days.

Related:
Youth Archives – SeekersGuidance

I pray this helps in your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani