Friday Nasiha

General

Translation:

Allah commands His servants to say "Allah is Greatest" in azhan (call to prayer), salah (prayer) and 'Eid, and urges Muslims to wholeheartedly chant these sweet and beautiful words of praise and glory, that, despite being soft on the tongue, are heavy on the scales of Judgement.

Series continued from Issue #157

Although no two families have exactly the same situation, there are some general guidelines for dealing with Muslim teenagers that might be useful.

5) We should listen to our children
Sometimes, children act out in order to get our attention. If we give them our attention freely, they will not have to seek it in destructive ways. Also, by listening to our children, there is a greater chance that they will confide in us and ask us questions, rather than seeking answers from negative sources.

6) We should do what we say
Teenagers hate hypocrisy, and many of them seem to have a built-in radar for detecting it. If we want them to listen to us and take our advice, they must trust us. If we tell them not to drink, but drink ourselves, they will not respect us. If we watch bad programs on television, how can we expect them to watch good programs and listen to good music?

The teenage years are usually difficult, and parents need to prepare for them before they arrive. If parents have built a strong, trusting, and loving relationship with their children before the teenage years, their children will be less likely to go astray. It is very difficult to see one's child going in the wrong direction and not know how to stop him or her from destroying themself. But if we work hard to instil in them the right values early and try to help them develop a wholesome lifestyle without being overbearing, perhaps we can prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring.

Shari'ah is the Islamic Law: the final, perfected and universally-applicable form of the divinely revealed code of life and conduct for all humanity. This series seeks to inform and educate both Muslims and non-Muslims about the place of Shari'ah within Islam, its fundamental principles, objectives, and methodology for implementation in the day-to-day civic life of society. It will also aim to remove some of the misconceptions built around the various rulings in Shari'ah that distract from its main purpose - safeguarding human life, family, dignity, wealth, and intellect hence creating an environment that nurtures the soul!

Series continued from Issue #157

Women: Roles within Family

The social roles assigned by the Shari'ah to man and woman within the family emanate from one simple but profound reality: the two are biologically and sexually different; only the woman can bear children. Other important psychological, physical and social differences follow from this. But even if, for the sake of argument, these other genuine differences are dismissed as having been ‘socially caused’, the reality of this biological and sexual difference is impossible to deny.

Obviously the role of bearing children is one that the woman can neither shirk nor transfer, unless the era of test-tube babies is ushered in or mankind decides to extinguish itself. Gender differences, reproduction, role of differentiation, sexual morality, survival of the family, healthy child development and the health and strength of society are closely inter-linked and mutually dependent phenomena, in which sex-based role differentiation is the key to the stability of the entire system. If it is abandoned, the whole chain will snap: sexual morality will collapse, personality disorder will be rampant, anarchy and chaos will the order of the day. In short, the family will vanish.

There is no convincing case however for saying that role differentiation is socially caused; on the contrary, the cumulative weight of all evidence, whether from pre-history or history, indicates unmistakably that every society has chosen to do things the same way, even the contemporary West, which is so vociferous in professing ‘equality of the sexes’. No society is on record which has ever progressed without placing woman in full charge of the home!

Different But Not Inferior

Hence the principle in the Shari'ah: the woman's doman is the domestic sphere. However, it is very important to note that to be different is NOT to be inferior. Islam attaches no stigma to being a woman; there is no inferior nature, no myth of 'the fall' and no responsibility for 'original sin'.

To bear and rear children is no disgrace either. To rule over and manage the kingdom of home - that haven of human happiness and progress - is no mean achievement. Home and children can be degrading and a burden only in a society which chooses to make them so. In Islam, domesticity is not a devalued sphere of human life, nor is home in any way inferior to public life. Indeed, the very epithet 'confined to the four walls of the home' is absurd to a Muslim, as the home in Islam, far from being a place to be looked down upon with contempt, is more important and sacred than even a parliament building or a university, and certainly more prestigious, creative and rewarding than the shop floor or secretarial desk, where two thirds of 'emancipated' women finally end up working.

• Literally, qurban is an Arabic word which means sacrifice. In other parts of the world, qurban is also known as qurbani

• In Islam, qurban is an act of worship performed by Muslims on specific days (10th, 11th or 12th of Zhul Hijjah in the Islamic calendar) whereby livestock are slaughtered and distributed for consumption to the poor, and friends and relatives of the performer

  Basic conditions of slaughtering during Qurban