The institution of family and its significance in Islam

The breakdown of Western families is proceeding at an alarming speed. Rising divorce rates show that the West tops the world. In 2014 the United Sates stood at 10th place with 53%, and Belgium led at 71%. With a population of 320 million it is estimated that there is one couple breaking up in the U.S. every 6 seconds. Unbelievable ! Isn't it?

Less than 50% American children live in a first marriage family, and the fastest growing form of family is a single mother.

Two of the biggest problems among children are teenage pregnancy and drug abuse. In 2012, 89% of pregnancies in ages 15-19 years were outside of marriage. And the newborns are often left at the doors of others or dropped into dumpsters.

One could go on dwelling into other problems that the Western society is suffering from. Among these, drinking alcohol and use of other drugs, which have bad consequences for a family.

But let us discuss the subject of Islamic family and its importance for Muslims.

I will quote Ismail Faruqi, a great Islamic intellectual who was a professor of religion at the Temple University and a founder of International Institute of Islamic Thought in Herndon, Virginia.

He observed, "The Islamic family, if it is rightly Islamic, is the very ideal to which Western people aspire. In other words, the reality of Western people today stands diametrically opposite; if they can say that they can stand at the bottom at the bottom of human, social, and ethical development, because of what we see happening around us in their midst, the Islamic family with its ideals, with its norms and standards, stands at the opposite highest, and therefore, there could be no better way of convincing Western man, the non-Muslim man or woman, of the value of Islam, of the greatness of Islam, than to invite them to visit a Muslim family."

However he warned Muslims, "But then, the Muslim family must be a good one. In other words, it must be truly Islamic and it must live up to the standards expected of an Islamic family."

Let us compare and contrast some of the reasons for the wellbeing of an Islamic family versus a Western family.

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