Family: an Integral Part of Human Society

Harun and Airin were playing in the playground. Suddenly two dogs moved towards them barking vociferously and quarrelling with each other. Exasperated with the new development, both little boys ran hardly towards their home leaving behind them their bat and two tennis balls. Airin hastened towards the door of his flat, took the key out of the pocket, opened the door, bolted it from inside and started sobbing lying in the bed, which had a very expensive furnishing and very soft mattress. His mother was working as an assistant advisor in an MNC – for late hours of course for a lucrative salary, and he didn’t know anything about his father. On the other hand, Harun knocked ferociously at the door of his flat. His mother came out hurriedly and clung on to him, solacing the crying child. His mother gave him a chocolate and told him not to worry but cheer up.

WHOSE LUCK WILL YOU ENVY MOST?….! THE ANSWER IS OBVIOUS!

The intense emotional meaning of family relations for almost all members of a society has been palpable throughout the human history. Innumerable philosophers, analysts and sociologists have noted and concluded that society is a structure made up of families, and that the peculiarities of a given society can be described by outlining its family relations.

As Professor William J. Goode of Columbia University has written in his book The Family, “The earliest moral and ethical writings suggest that a society loses its strength if people fail in their family obligations. Confucius thought, for example, that happiness and prosperity would prevail in the society if only everyone would behave “correctly” as a family member. Likewise much of early Hebrew writings such as Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, psalms as well as ancient Indian literature for example Rigveda devote considerable attention to the family.”

What does this indicate? That the family is an integral part of human society and from time immemorial human beings are living in families to hunt, to eat, to love, to protect, to guide each other. The family is the link which connects individuals to the society. It is an institution where all of us are under constant supervision. Everybody feels free to comment, to criticise, to suggest. And it will help us carry out our duties towards the society and ourselves.

The family is vital for the buildings of a sound social order. It will not be an exaggeration to say that family is the very foundation stone of society. It is the long acknowledged truth. When scholars like Plato and Mao tried to undermine the family system, their ideas were refuted by their contemporary societies and later generations studied their thoughts as utopian ideas. But gradually such obnoxious ideas were granted approval by some western societies. This was in the aftermath of French and Industrial Revolutions when in retaliation to the church’s autocracy every divine law was thrown away and every custom then was considered indigent of human rationale.

On one hand radical scholars moved the masses against family system and on the other industrialists wanted the women to come out from their houses. Family system was the greatest barrier in their way; so they also started undermining family system, criticising it as male dominant, exploiter of women, etc. They showed many fool’s paradises to women like the principle of “equality of both sexes” and “emancipation of women,” etc. And when finally the women in the west broke the “shackles” of family, those very industrialists started exploiting them as “cheaper labour force”. The following centuries were yet to see the exploitation of fair sex as a mere object of advertisement and sexual pleasure. All this under the proud banner of “empowerment of women”!

The west suffered a lot for its undue adulation of a “family-less” society or in common parlance “a society of beasts”. Where there is no marriage and social contract but just two persons of different (or even same) sexes start liking each other, which ultimately results in their coming together; and after fulfilling their unbridled carnal desires they love even to forget each other. In the absence of a proper family structure the idea of having children is considered a taboo and a woman enjoying this ‘freedom’ tries her best to avoid becoming a ‘mother’ through abortion or such other malpractices.

The declining graph of population in the west bears evidence to the malevolent implications of family. Catherine Hakim, a student of phenomenon in London School of Economics expressed her thought: “Never before has childlessness been a legitimate option for women and men in so many societies.” As a result in Germany for instance 30% of women are still childless. This figure is nothing against the astronomical figure of 56% in Japan for the same category. Miho Iwasawa of Japan ’s National Institute for Population Research expressed her concern over the phlegmatic attitude of men and women in Japan : “Whether, they (women of Japan ) become mothers or not will determine the future of Japan .” But see the industrialists! They never lose the opportunity to exploit this predicament of the country. Capitalising on the growing status of baby substitutes among young Japanese, Honda is now designing cars that replace child seats with dog crates.

Thus the modern enlightened accident is headed towards nothing short of population disaster if the thinking of western people about family life perpetuates even for a century. In such a period of commotion when all the values of family and collective life are at stake, the Islamic guidelines about family and thereby establishing a society on the basis of tawheed, risalah and akhirah, can be the saviour for the whole humanity. Islam perspicuously states that society props up by the relationship between a man and a woman, and that family is a divinely inspired and ordained institution. It was not evolved through human experimentation but it came into existence with the creation of man – as Allah has said: “O mankind, Fear your Lord Who created you from a single being and out of it created its mate; and out of the two spread many men and women. Fear Allah in Whose name you plead for rights, and heed the ties of kinship. Surely, Allah is ever watchful over you.” (An-Nisa-1)

One of the main purposes of family system in Islam is sustenance of human race but this responsibility of continuity of human race is not onerous for a couple, but titillating as stated very conspicuously in the Qur’an: “It is He – Allah – Who created you from a single being, and out of it He made its mate, that he may find comfort in her.” (Al-A’raf Thus by defining the territory of seeking pleasure within the strong boundaries of nikah, proscribing any transgression (i.e. pre- or extra-marital sex) in it, Islam has safeguarded the right a child to proper upbringing under the supervision of his parents and thereby making him//her aware of his/her role and relations through a long period of socialisation during his/her childhood.

Professor Khurshid Ahmad has described the merits and role of family in societal order: “Family initiates the new generations into the culture, tradition and further evolution of their civilization. It is the sheet-anchor of a system of socio-economic security. It sharpens the motivation of man and strengthens incentives for effort and social progress. It is the cradle of civilization and a bridge that enables the new generation to move into the society. It is the link that joins the past with present and with the future in such a way that social transition and change take place through a healthy and stable process.”

Thus it is apparently clear that only within the bulwark of family structure a happy and prosperous life and proper upbringing of children is possible. And if this institution is weakened or plummeted, the future of entire humanity will be threatened as we are witnessing today.