Reminder Series

The Pearls of Islam

15th February 2010 2 Rabi Al-Awwal 1431 Volume 2 Issue 6

Importance of Family - Part One

In Islam, family is the cornerstone of the social system. Family is not a casual or spontaneous organization of people, but it is a divinely ordained institution. Family and marriage are regarded as noble and sacred; a social contract that confers mutual rights and obligations on the couple. The progress and welfare of society or its breakdown can be traced to the strength and unity or to the weakness of the family. The weakness is a crucial indicator of the weakness of society, reflected by problems like juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, alcoholism, teenage pregnancies, and divorce. The concept of an "extended family" is common in non-Western cultures, unlike the concept of a "nuclear family", which means a family consisting of just the parents and their children, that is common in the West. "Extended family" means children, parents, grandparents, and sometimes in-laws share one household. Islam does not specify that a Muslim family should be either nuclear or extended. With regards to relations within the same family, the first and most important is that of husband and wife, their children, and the grandparents. Other relatives come in a second or third degree; although this is not to say that the individual has no obligation or responsibility at all towards these other relatives, whereas the first degree of relations has unequivocal and precise rights. Islamic Family Laws Although the nature of duties and obligations among members of a family are instinctive in human nature, it is important to realize that Islamic law exists only to supplement and enforce these innate feelings and not to replace them. Islam acts as a guarantee that the rights and responsibilities that each member of the family has with regard to others will be fulfilled with justice and equality. Islamic family law establishes minimum basic rights to guarantee the interests of each family member. Thus, in Islam, family relations are governed by a balance between the innate sense of duty felt by family members and what is laid down as a minimum by the law. In the absence of law, there could be problems arising from the fact that the innate nature of the father to treat all his children equally could be overridden by an attachment to one particular child, and so this child is especially favored, for example in inheritance, leaving the other children with their rights denied. Lineage or lineal duty has an essential role in the Muslim family because from it stems the duties, obligations, and responsibilities of family members.