I was thinking...

[Ummu Sufyaan]

people have this obsession with looking younger and will go to some extents to make them selves look younger (cosmetic surgery, anti wrinkle products ,etc), despite that they may be quite old.

my question is: if people want to look younger does that mean that they want to live longer? i mean do people do this due to their love of the dunya and because they dont want to die? is that why they want to look younger so that they "go back in time" and age at a later date =living longer? (to them).

why would someone be so obsessed with being and looking younger?

i personally cant think of a reason why people want to look/be younger except this reason. would that be about right? or are my conclusions way off?

[Aprender]

I would say you're about right. In the area where I live you don't find many people who accept aging gracefully. They spend thousands to get cosmetic surgery to keep up with the younger generations. Sometimes they do it so they can remain relevant in their chosen career paths. The culture puts such a strong emphasis on personal appearance that it drives some people to very extreme measures.

[noorseeker]

I think its because when you get older society values you less, less importance is placed on you .

We all want to get valued i guess, Im guessing this is a concern more for women, Im assuming men age better which a lot of women would not like to hear.

Im not sure that it is linked to living longer, I sure would like to be healthy when im older rather than look younger,


What can you possibly do in your 70,s and 80,s any way, Life is boring then

[Ummu Sufyaan]

I would say you're about right. In the area where I live you don't find many people who accept aging gracefully. They spend thousands to get cosmetic surgery to keep up with the younger generations. Sometimes they do it so they can remain relevant in their chosen career paths. The culture puts such a strong emphasis on personal appearance that it drives some people to very extreme measures.

you know whats really odd? if you go to remote villages and see people from there and people who come from there, despite them being wrinkled and looking old, they actually dont look all that bad. at-least they look natural. people who have wrinkles (ages 60, 70, 80, etc), dont really look all that bad so i dont really think going old is bad thing.

i think all the "anti aging progress" hype is a really clever way of playing on peoples insecurities and getting your product on the market.

i would have thought that as a muslim, we know we are going to die anyway and so it doesnt matter what happens to us in this dunya becuase we should be worried about our a3mal (deeds) <--not confined to age.

once you start worrying about your age, you look at things differently, no? i think it is dependent on what your outlook on things is.

you can be 20 and you can be 80 but what difference does it make because you should be working on your deeds anyway and even if you go old and try to be/look younger, in the scope of being a Muslim and knowing death is coming at anytime and it doesn't make a difference if you are 80 but try to look 20...well why is age such a huge problem and why should it matter?

Im not saying that looking good is a bad thing (at-least we shouldn't be so obsessed what we turn to artificial things to make us feel good about ourselves) but my point is, is that people who try to look younger because they dont want to die/due to their love for the dunya. but why do we look at things like this?

Do you think that if there wasn't such a huge emphasis on age, etc that this (looking younger, etc) would be the "yardstick" in which we measure our life/accomplishments by?

I'm wondering what other Muslims think about "aging." do you care about becoming old ? do you see becoming old and "wrinkly" as a bad thing in the sense that you have lost your youth ? or is aging not relevant to you in the respect that you have to accomplish good deeds so it doesn't matter how old you are or what you look like anyway?

[elina]

I'm wondering what other Muslims think about "aging." do you care about becoming old ? do you see becoming old and "wrinkly" as a bad thing in the sense that you have lost your youth ? or is aging not relevant to you in the respect that you have to accomplish good deeds so it doesn't matter how old you are or what you look like anyway?

im already oldish and a bit wrinkly..... but i dont feel i have lost my youth. Too many women (imo) think they have to look young to get on in life/fit in..... and who are they looking young for? to me they want to look younger for the general public Personally i look in the mirror some days and think 'arrrggghhhhh' lol but my face is not who i am..... my heart and mind is who i am....... though when my granddaughter asked me what it was like doing the shopping and avoiding the dinosaurs when i was younger i must admit i looked for anti ageing face creams through tears of laughter

[Ramadhan]

I like looking at old people's faces. all those wrinkles tell so much stories, and you can almost see all kinds of wisdom and experiences they have been going through in their life.

I think people want to maintain to look young because they have this idea that being/looking young equate to having fun.
So yes, love for the dunya certainly plays an important role in their decision to "maintain" their youth.

[yas2010]

My personal thoughts is that parts of western society see the elderly as a burden and these society are fixated with looking younger.
Yet, the community that my parents and I originate from ( do admit it is changing though) do have a lot of respect for the their elders and hold their opinions in high esteem.
Wrinkles and grey hairs are sign of wisdoms

[Cabdullahi]

why would someone be so obsessed with being and looking younger?

visit the vanity fair website or the glamor magazine website and you will instantly know

great veneration of celebs = wanting to look young and explosive like them

people crave happiness and looking young might give them that happiness...but obviously this is not true


Who are the ultimate winners...the pharmaceutical companies and the plastic surgeons...they pocket big money.

[Sawdah]

I think they wish to look young because they want to stay beautiful. I guess for them, they see it as, if you age, you will look less beautiful and no one will pay attention to you. WAllahu 'Alem.

[CosmicPathos]

there is not one reason for which people want to look younger.

some dont accept aging as it highlights the nearness to death and the end of their existence, since they dont believe in afterliife, so they want to hold on to whatever remaining shreds of life are left.

some just want to look beautiful cuz society defines people as "not so bad," "ugly," and "gorgeous." So I guess they want to fit into the later. Beauty is equal to youngness in their minds.

And wrinkles etc do highlight weakness of ones inability to become immortal, to control life, to control one's nearing to death. Who wants to appear weak? no one, whether Muslilim or kaafir.

[Revert 2010]

Salaam, I love this saying: "people complain about their looks but none about their brains". I think getting older is a natural process and that nobody can escape from. I feel that people's deeds and the way they conduct themselves counts more than trying to pigeon hole people because of their age. I have learnt a lot from older people and many of them have imparted their knowledge and life experience which is interesting, I have always been brought up to respect my elders. I think working on ones seen transcends age and every year can be used to enhance my deen.

[Revert 2010]

Sorry I meant Deen my predictive text is playing up : )

[Endymion]

Love of Dunyah in people is not something that surprise me but when people hide their age or lie about their age,makes me surprise

And the most funny thing is that when my School or College fellows who are of my age or some cousins who are elder than me tell their age and i come to know that they are still teens and i grow up