The Family

Section Six : the Role of Institutions

Who is Responsible?

In the logic of Islam: ' Each of you is a guardian and each of you are responsible for his guardianship'. 113

Each person has a role and responsibility without which society has no basis. Since the family is the nucleus of society and the criterion for its advancement or decline rests with it, then it must have a great role in this guardianship.

Girls of marriageable age, divorcees, widows, marital disputes, and for that matter orphans are all subjects which require careful consideration so that wherever possible their problems may be solved. This may be achieved through facilitating the marriage of single persons or through reconciling those parties who have separated. By taking care of orphans and meeting their material and spiritual needs and giving them a good practical and intellectual education.

In materialistic societies, which includes, in this age, Islamic societies, these problems are widespread 114 and individuals do not receive the attention they deserve.

Hence all those who have faith and hope in Allah and the day of resurrection, and who contemplate the reform of society should concern themselves with assisting women and orphans. The emissary of Allah has said: ' Have mercy on the weak, on women and on orphans'.

Is it not the case that any one of us could be susceptible to these problems? So if we do not have mercy on those less fortunate than ourselves we may not be shown mercy when we or our children are in a similar position and in need. In the Qur'anic verse: ' Let those (disposing of an estate) have the same fear in their minds as they would have for their own if they had left a helpless family behind. Let them fear Allah and speak appropriately '. 115

In the prophetic tradition: ' Have mercy upon those who are on the Earth and He who is in the heavens will have mercy upon you ' 116

The parents are responsible for themselves and the welfare of their family. Society, including intellectuals and capitalists, is also responsible for supporting its elements and families. The greater responsibility falls on the government and the state 117 as is in the prophetic tradition. There is also a great deal of reward due to whoever works towards the marriage of single Muslims.

The prophetic traditions are full of special mentions of motherhood, childhood and the ill, as well as the fact that it is a requirement of Allah's words to 'help one another in righteousness and piety' 118, as well as that of nature and intellect.

Charitable organisations are among the best solutions to numerous problems relating to the family and society and indeed in any area of life in that they :

a). Stimulate the activities of individuals or similar organisations because they tend to be pluralistic and encourage the activities of others. b). Can be a source of support for people as the reliance upon a group is greater than that of an individual. c). The obstinate individual will find no room therein for megalomania. d). Each individual will be heading in the right direction where there is consultation and a meeting of minds as the most intelligent person is he who combines his mind with those of others.

e). Wherever there is competition between a single group of individuals, each one strives to be 'bigger and better' so that things improve in quality and quantity in a way impossible for a single person working alone to achieve however perfect and sincere he was. The exception to this is only in the case of those 'restrained from error' by Allah.

Hence we find that the prophet, himself impeccable, saying: ' Oh people consult me in matters' 119. and before that in the Qur'anic verses: ' Consult them in affairs' 120, and '... those who conduct their affairs by mutual consultation' 121, and '... by mutual consent and consultation ' 122, and so on. Therefore there is a need for charitable organisations in all areas of life. 123. 124

The root of the problem lies in the substitution by the West and its agent rulers of the laws of Islam which used to guarantee our vitality and progress in life. 'He calls you to what will let you live'. 125

Therefore committees to institute change should be set up to bring back the vital laws of Islam. Otherwise our life will be nothing but strife and oppression, as in the Qur'anic verse: 'But whosoever turns away from the remembrance of me shall find a straitened existence'. 126

It is true that the man who says he does not believe in the law of gravity and throws himself from a high place will still find his bones broken. Or the man who says he does not believe in Archimedes principle and throws himself in the sea without knowing how to swim, will still drink water until he dies. The same goes for the laws of society, economics, politics, education and the family as Islam confirms.

In so far as salvation lies in the return of these vital laws, then the remit of the committees for change should be to substitute, law by law, each of the false laws with the correct laws. In this way, Allah may look upon Muslims with compassion and rescue them from the backwardness and confusion they now experience.

Another way of supporting the policies of substitution and facilitation is to form groups to make use of free media and equal rights to implement the aforementioned two groups. Similarly help must be sought from philanthropists and charitable bodies to collect funds to meet people's needs as far as possible.

All of this is possible if the concern and efforts of reformists and committed individuals is combined after which Allah may cause something to happen.

It is clearly possible to benefit from good Muslim businessmen in the facilitation and substitution operation. Traders were previously the jewel in the crown in the change that took place in favour of Islam and Muslims. It is capital, power, and knowledge that direct society towards the better or God forbid the worse.

It appears in the traditions that: ' Islam was built on three things; the wealth of Khadijah, the protection of Abu Talib, and the morals of the Prophet'. It is these three that helped to foment the rise of Islam.

In another tradition from the Prophet: ' There are two groups in my nation which if righteous so will my nation be righteous and if corrupt so will my nation be corrupt. They are the scholars and the leaders.'

If money is not mentioned in this then it is probably due to the fact that money is secondary to the two other things. As in when Imam Hussein was killed through the power of Zayad, the edict of Shureih, and the wealth of the public treasury which had been directed by the powers that were and the edict towards evil and tyranny.

Muslim traders have the ability to raise the status of Islam and deepen it and maintain it as a barrier against the vast currents over the ages. Islamic charitable institutions be they schools, mosques, shrines, or libraries mostly come from Muslim businessmen. So if they enter the picture, God willing, the change and substitution will become easier.

The aforementioned committees should also take part in planning the development operation. Businesses like agriculture, industry, commerce and heritage may also be able to create those committees in this way. Naturally all arms, drugs, and trade in other forbidden articles should be at all costs avoided for Allah is not obeyed through disobedience. 127

There are four sources of funds for the public treasury: The Khums, The Zakat, The Jizya, The Kharraj each of which are discussed in detail in the books of jurisprudence. These sources can fulfil the needs of the people and the state making the need for raising public taxes obsolete except in very rare occasions like earthquakes, flooding, famine or drought and this under the supervision of the council of jurists and scholars.

The secret to the sufficiency of these four taxes is that Islam places matters in the hands of the people while the responsibility of the state is the supervision and direction of the finances through a small number of specialised officials. This is dealt with in greater detail in other books on the subject.

Use must be made of the great potential energies which should be rallied to productive work instead of wasting them in needless bureaucracy where they may be dispensed with. The treasury undertakes to fulfil the public's needs including the needs of those who wish to marry but are poor.

In the event of there being no public treasury as is the situation now in Islamic lands, then the principle of 'that which cannot be fully realised should not be completely neglected' must be put into effect through charitable bodies setting up funds to collect donations and distribute them according to the needs of the public including youngsters who wish to marry.

128 ,or His words' ... do not take those outside your ranks into your intimacy: they will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire for you to suffer'. 129 or His words: ' ... and consult them in the affairs of moment ...' 130 , or His words: ' ... so that (wealth) does not merely circulate amongst a rich few ... 131

and so many other verses and traditions? So that now the Muslim stands between two points; 'bemoaning the state of his religion and his way of life' 132 . Whereas Imam Kashif Al-Ghata when he visited Iran said in the prologue to his book 'I did not see one man or woman either weeping or complaining' (meaning here unnatural weeping or complaining)'.

Similarly I do not recall any of that either in Iraq before the second world war where Muslims were not yet subject to Eastern and Western laws.

Today though after having chosen for themselves to be led by the Western agenda and have become a confirmation of Allah's words: 'But whosoever turns away from the remembrance of me shall find a straitened existence' 133

Calamity has struck even the righteous among them according to Allah Almighty's words: ' ... and fear a trial which may not only affect the wrongdoers amongst you '... 134

I now offer some examples of the oppression and distress which have surrounded Afghanistan, Iraq and the Gulf. These are by way of example only for every Islamic land has been struck by this plague.

A certain party in Afghanistan plants opium for export to neighbouring countries and with the proceeds buys weapons with which to kill the people of the country. In this there are at least five criminal acts :

1. Misuse of the blessings of Allah; good land that should be used for good things is used for evil things.

2. The exploitation of workers and means of production for bad ends instead of for righteous ends.

3. Wastage of wealth on tools of destruction, bloodletting and impoverishment instead of being used for building and construction and the needs of the people.

4. Causing pain to the people and the neighbouring countries that should be safe from the calamities of a neighbour falling into the trap of addiction and corruption.

5. Destruction of the country: the natural result of the aforementioned is the destruction of the country and the humiliation and impoverishment of the people. This though is only the natural result of the type of ignorance that we have mentioned and the abandonment of the laws of God. In the Qur'anic verse : '... and be not like those who have forgotten God and He made them forget their own souls ...' 135

Then the West puts Saddam in place so he can embezzle more than 800 billion dollars worth of Muslim wealth and do with Iraq and its neighbours such murder, terrorising, imprisonment, torture, war, famine, torment, and economic destruction as has not been witnessed in the whole of history. 136 The crimes of the Mongols, the Tartars and the Hajaj pale into insignificance compared to the crimes of Saddam and his party.

The West then makes the Iraqi regime into a tool for terrorising and corrupting the Gulf states and their other neighbours so that they ask for military bases on their soil and buy from the West billions of dollars of arms 137 rather than serving the needs of the people and improving the lifestyle of the country. In this way the Islamic community is in the worst possible state of oppression and distress. 138

There is as we previously said no cure to this other than through a general awareness which is the prelude towards a return to the laws of Islam. For Islam is what will rescue humanity as that Muslim who went to conquer Persia said when Rustum asked him 'What do you want' He said ' We have come to bring the people from obeying other people to obeying Allah and to rescue humanity from the narrowness of the earth to its wideness.

____________ 80 The Holy Qur'an: Women (4): 35.

81 The instance of divorce in the Islamic world has shown an unprecedented rise. In Kuwait there is one divorce for every three marriages, 29% of which take place within the first year of marriage, and 67% take place within the first five years of marriage. In Egypt there are 4 million divorced women, .The rate of divorce has risen in recent years to 25%, and the rate of cancelled engagements has risen to 15% while the rate of marriage has fallen to 20%.

82 Supplement to Shi'a Guide; Volume 3; Page 2. 83 Shi'a Guide; Volume 15; Page 267. 84 Shi'a Guide; Volume 15; Page 267. 86 The Holy Qur'an: Women(4):128. 87 The Holy Qur'an: The Winnowing Winds (51): 49. 88 Extracts from The Tawhid of Al-Mafdal Ibn 'Amr Al-Ga'fiyy. 89 Seas of Lights; Volume 6; Page 98. 90 In Egypt for example there are 3.8 million unmarried women over the age of thirty. See issue 1149 of Al-Mujtama' (Society) periodical. 91 Studies show that 70% of the worlds poorest are women. See issue 60 of Al-Khairiyya (Charitable) periodical. 92 Shi'a Guide; Volume 17: Page 382. 93 The Complete Branches of Religion; Volume 5: Page 279. 94 Shi'a Guide; Volume 13; Page 368. 95 Seas of Lights; Volume 59; Page 283. 96 Supplement to Shi'a Guide; Volume 14; Page 152. 97 Ship of the Seas; Volume 1; Page 561. 98 As in the Umayyad, 'Abbasid, or Ottoman states.

99 There are two theories regarding childbirth :

The first is the Malthusian theory of Thomas Robert Malthus which stresses the non-correlation between demographic size and availability of economic resources since the demographic increase is subject to technology whilst economic resources are subject to arithmetic therefore equilibrium cannot be attained except through birth control.

In the aftermath of the industrial revolution, Classicists promoted this theory to justify the poor distribution of incomes. In the post second world war period, certain rulers latched on to this theory to excuse the poverty, unemployment and backwardness that prevailed in their countries.

The second theory is growth theory supported by the majority of economists. It says that human behaviour depends upon the social environment and other social factors like values and traditions, and upon the extent to which Nature can be controlled, and upon the advancement of modes of production, and upon the nature of the prevailing economic system.

These factors interact to influence human demographic behaviour. In other words, the absence of equilibrium between demographic growth and the nature of the economic and social system inhibits growth and prosperity.

This theory believes that the best way to cure population growth is economic growth and advancement and social justice, the people not being responsible for their poverty but rather the state being responsible due to poor distribution of wealth, the failure of growth and the prevalence of unemployment due to laws which inhibit freedoms.

The Malthusian theory did not meet with any success and its overwhelming failure was proven in the countries of Europe. Hence voices have been raised in the West in criticism of the concept of birth control. Scholars say that people spontaneously are inclined to keep their numbers to reasonable levels when the standard of living rises and the economic and cultural way of life changes.

The voices of criticism among Western scholars and intellectuals convinced the powers that be to bring in laws to increase reproduction rates. It may be wondered what the hidden factors were which motivated certain regimes to adopt birth control. In answer we would say that these regimes are of two types; local and Western.

Local regimes have an interest in birth control as they lay the responsibility for backwardness at the door of the people and cover up their own failure to deliver economic and social growth and draw a veil over their own liabilities from bureaucracy through to corruption which contribute to the inefficacy of the growth cycle.

Western regimes have an interest in birth control in the third world making them the big players on the world stage and diminishing the dependence of the third world on warranted international assistance and loans and preventing a flood of population from the third world into their countries.

In addition to these factors, the application of the theory of growth in the third world means delving into three areas that the Western states would rather not delve; a).The lessening of consumption in the West, b).Third world debt, c). Transfer of technology from advanced nations to other nations. [Adapted from article called 'Two Schools of Thought in Dealing with the Population Problem' by Fahmy Haueidi].

100 The German government spends millions yearly to encourage childrearing. Scholars believe that women only become fully matured after one or two childbirths and that many women who have not given birth are not as well balanced as mothers. This in addition to the fact that they become more nervous than the mothers. The well-known French physician Petard says: Frankly a woman will not achieve good health unless she becomes a mother.

101 To realise the extent of Western fears about the dwindling of their populations it is enough to monitor newspapers concerned with social affairs and attend important conferences on demography in Europe. In 1988 the Danish press announced that the Danish government had imported 1000 Philipino girls for purposes of childrearing on the premise that Philipino girls are more inclined towards love, procreation and children.

102 The Islamic world covers approximately 30% of the earth's surface amounting to 32.7 million square kilometres which equals 3.5 times the area of the United States and China.

103 Certain people may cling to birth control for the following reasons: a). The parents may be incapable of bringing up their children. b). The 'happy life' may be one with few children and dependants. The answer to the first is that the history of Islam from the flight of the prophet until now confirms that the parents have the capacity to bring up their children and indeed upbringing is not confined to the parents alone but the whole of society takes part in it.

In answer to the second, the truth is quite the opposite - the preferable life comes from having many children because life progresses through co-operation and the many necessitate more co-operation in quality and quantity.

104 The arable land of the Sudan comes to about 300 million fedans (about1200 million square kilometres) of which only 30 million fedans is currently cultivated.

105 Shi'a Guide; Volume 17: Page 328. 106 The Complete Branches of Religion; Volume 5: Page 279. 108 The Holy Qur'an: The Star (53): 39-40. 109 The Diwan of Imam 'Ali. 110 Ship of the Seas; Volume 1; Page 561. 111 The Holy Qur'an: The Night Journey (17): 31. 112 The Holy Qur'an: Light (24): 32. 113 Seas of Lights; Volume 72; Page 36. 114 In Egypt for example there are 15 million young men and women of marriageable age who are not yet married. (Al-Mujtam'a magazine; Issue 1149). 115 The Holy Qur'an: Woman (4): 9. 116 Nahj Al-Fasaha: Page 51 117 Seas of Lights; Volume 33; Page 374. 118 The Holy Qur'an: The Table Spread (5): 2. 119 Seas of Lights; Volume 19; Page 218. 120 The Holy Qur'an: The House of Emran (3): 159. 121 The Holy Qur'an: Consultation (42): 38. 122 The Holy Qur'an: The Cow (2): 233. The author has dealt with counsel in the book 'Counsel in Islam' . The author's son Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Murtada Al-Shirazi discusses it and its doctrinal and legal evidences in detail in his valuable book; Counsel of Jurists. 123 See Shi'a Guide; Volume 12; Page 129. 124 Seas of Lights; Volume 105; Page 168. 125 The Holy Qur'an: Public Estates (8): 24. 126 The Holy Qur'an: (the letters) T.H. (20): 124. 127 This refers to the welfare system devised and implemented by the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad, 14 centuries ago. (Editor's note) 128 The Holy Qur'an: The Groups (39): 9. 129 The Holy Qur'an: The House of 'Emran (3): 118. 130 The Holy Qur'an: The House of Emran (3): 159. 131 The Holy Qur'an: Banishment (59): 7. 132 Seas of Lights; Volume 52; Page 312. 133 The Holy Qur'an: (the letters) T.H. (20): 124. 134 The Holy Qur'an: Public Estates (8): 25. 135 The Holy Qur'an: Banishment (59):19. 136 As an example, Issue 1364 of the Iraqi magazine 'Alef Ba' mentioned that Iraq was home to 32,000,400 date palms in the year 1952 , 13 million of which were in Basra and giving 650 types of date. This number fell to 2,997,600 date palms in 1989. In recent years it has dwindled to the smallest number possible.

137 The volume of military expenditure for the Gulf States in 1993 reached 60 billion dollars.

138 Statistics show that loans against the Arab States including the Gulf States to the end of 1993 reached 194 billion dollars the interest upon which loans reached 18 billion dollars yearly.