If the objectives and values of life are not set right, further disintegration of this and other institutions cannot be prevented. We think the disintegration of the family in the West is, in parts, a result of confusion about the place and the role of the family in society and about the purpose of life itself. The concept of man and the family, which Islam gives, is in conflict with the concept of man and the family that is prevalent in the West today. Marriage and the family in Islam should be studied and understood in the context of the scheme of life Islam wants to establish. It is a common and regular practice to all human creatures. The family comes into existence as a consequence of a legal marriage, which is one of Allah’s sanctioned traditions in creation and formation. The family in Islam is built upon a holy bond and a mutual contract of tranquility, love, and kindness between two hearts. It is a place where there is a mutual noble sentiment particularly between husband and wife and among the members of the family in general. In fact, it represents an educational environment both for spiritual sublimation and for intellectual development. The family, according to the Islamic concepts, is not a mere means of satisfying animal instincts, nor is a family’s home merely an abode for sleep. In short, the basic family unit is an environment of cooperation between a man and a woman and the domain of the child’s earliest upbringing. Because of this protected environment, the child learns the fundamentals of his language, values, norms of behavior, habits, psychological and social leniencies, as well as many factors of his character. In truth, the family is the fundamental social unit through which the new born child is first introduced to the world outside its mother’s womb. The family is the primary unit of the community, the initial cell at the institutional level, and the essential bridge upon which the former generations of the native land cross to give birth to future generations.
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