Islam Guidance

Family

Family

 Certain animals such as ants, bees, termites and several ©species of monkeys are social, that is they live in communities. The social life of some of these gregarious animals is characterized by some very significant and interesting systems.

 Man is also a social and gragarious animal that has the most varied and the most interesting social life that we know.

 Society and its kinds

Social life usually originates from a set of natural or acquired ties which join together a number of individuals and turn them into a coherent community. This coherent community is called a society.

 There are many kinds of society and from different angles it can be divided into various classes.

 Some of these classes are limited and small, like family, and some of them are big and vast, such as tribe, clan; community, nation etc.

 Family

The simplest, the smallest and the oldest form of human society is family which is comprised by wife, husband and children. A number of bonds and ties join the members of a family to each other.

 Tribe

When the children of a family are grown up, they normally marry and produce children. Thus gradually from one family several coherent and inter‑connected families are formed. They trace their descent back to a common ancestor and form a bigger social unity called `tribe'.

 Clan

In certain parts of the world we come across another kind of relationship between the ‑individuals and the families. It originates from a mythical tie and these families, instead of tracing back their genealogy to a common human ancestor, attribute their descent to an animal, plant or something else of that sort and consider themselves attached to it in a mysterious way. This fictitious ancestor is called `totem' and the people attached to the same totem are known as a clan.

 Nation

In more advanced societies we come across a bigger social unity called nation. A nation consists of a large number of individuals, families and tribes united by a common race, country, language and culture.

 Other social groupings

There are various other kinds of social ties from which social groupings have originated, such as those of sex, class, religion and ideology.

 Dogmatic and ideological society

One of the most progressive social ties is that of doctrine and dogma. The people who believe in one religion or one ideology are united by it and form one community, that is a society having a common goal and a common policy. An ideological tie may be so powerful and effective that it may overshadow all other ties. We will further elucidate this point later.

 Out of all the social ties which we have mentioned Islam gives basic importance to two, namely the ideological and dogmatic tie and the family tie. We propose to discuss first the family tie.

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