Comparison Of Islamic Family Law And Modern Law In Terms Of The Rights Of Children
Islam is a moderate religion which caters for the need of every individual by obligating rights and responsibilities over each Muslim (believer) designed to provide a safe, secure and wellbeing society. In Islam children are considered great bounty and gift from Allah to the parents, therefore their rights are heavily emphasized and discussed in Quran and sunnah. This essay attempts to provide a detailed comparison between the rights of children in Islamic family law and modern law by discussing their rights related to health, education, sustenance and security. In the Islamic family law, the rights of the children starts long before their birth as father is responsible for choosing a righteous wife so that her qualities can be transferred into the children. As Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) have also mentioned that a woman may be married for four reasons which are, her wealth, her lineage, her beauty and her religious commitment but have recommended to marry the one who is religiously committed in order to achieve prosperity in both worlds.
One of the famous Alim (scholar) Shaykh Abdul al-Ghani al-Dahlawi has also mentioned in a reference to a Quranic verse to choose from among women those who are religiously committed and righteous, and who are of good descent, and if a woman is of illegitimate descent, this bad characteristic may be passed to her children”. Because wealth and beauty can vanish over the period of time whereas righteousness and pious nature is engraved in the heart which can be passed on into generations. This concept is rarely seen in modern family law as beauty and wealth is given more priority over righteousness and piety. Also, a mother is responsible to protect her fetus and she is obliged to try her very best to prevent termination of pregnancy. The fetus needs a high protein, vitamin and mineral content of unique nutrition, including calcium which can only be acquired through the mother. Sharia has given her the option to skip the fast of Ramadan if she fears harm to her child. It has been narrated by Anas bin Malik that the Messenger of Allah granted a concession to pregnant women who fear for themselves, allowing them not to fast, and to nursing mothers who fear for their infants. 3Whereas in modern world mothers do not take much precautions which results in harming the child or causing serious birth defects. It is very common nowadays to see pregnant women smoking not considering the fact that their actions can cause severe damage to their children. It has been discovered by the Centres for Disease Control that smoking related birth complications are getting very common causing infants to have breathing problems and brain damage along with development delays. After the birth of the child, parents are required to give a name with a good meaning because the name has either positive or negative effects on the personality and future life of a child depending on the name.
Children have a right over parents to be named with good names which is proved by the following hadiths: As the Messenger of Allah(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has said: “On the Day of Resurrection you will be called by your name and by your father's names, so give yourselves good names”. “Zainab daughter of Abu Salamah asked him: Which name did you give to your daughter? He replied: Barrah. She said: The Messenger of Allah (Pbuh) forbade giving this name. I was called Barrah but the Prophet (Pbuh) said: Do not declare yourselves pure, for Allah knows best those of you who are obedient. He said: we asked; which name should we give her? He replied: Call her Zainab”. “Name yourselves by the names of the Prophets. The names dearest to Allah are Abdullah and Abdul Rahman, the truest are Harith and Hammam, and the worst are Harb and Murrah”. Whereas in the modern family law, the meaning of the name is not given much importance and parents tends to give names to their children which is related to someone famous, or a relative as some special memory is attached with that name. While giving names, parents also consider how does the name sounds like, and sometimes avoid too religious names with good meanings thinking that it’s too old to name their baby. It is also very common to see Muslim baby is given western name thinking that it would help their child adjusting within the society not thinking about the impact it would have on their children personality. In Islam, parents are responsible for physical, mental and spiritual health of their children by creating a healthy environment.
Health is one of the most crucial aspects of one’s life as stated in a famous quote ‘healthy body makes a healthy mind’. After birth children are totally dependent on parents to provide them with healthy food and healthy living style. Most importantly, Islam encourages paresnts to feed their children from the halal (lawful) means and warn them to avoid haram(unlawful) means of earning money. Allah said in the Quran: “O ye people! Eat of what is on earth, lawful and good; and do not follow the footsteps of the evil one, for he is to you an avowed enemy”. Allah's Messenger (peace and blessing of Allah upon them) have also said: “people, Allah is Good and He therefore, accepts only that which is good. And Allah commanded the believers as He commanded the Messengers by saying: “O Messengers, eat of the good things, and do good deeds; verily I am aware of what you do”. And He said: “those who believe, eat of the good things that we gave you”. As for physical health, parents are encouraged to engage their children in activities which strengthen the body and nourishes the brain Abu Hurairah (RAA) narrated that the Messenger of Allah said: “A believer who is strong (and healthy) is better and dearer to Allah than the weak believer, but there is goodness in both of them. Be keen on what benefits you and seek help from Allah, and do not give up. If anything afflicts you do not say, ‘If I had done such and such things, such and such would have happened. ’ But say, ‘Allah decrees and what He wills He does,’ for (the utterance) ‘If I had’ provides an opening for the deeds of the devil”. In modern law, parents don't much care about the environment their children are living, not much effort is made to feed their offspring with halal (lawful). Parents in modern society doesn’t get much time to involve themselves with their children is physical activity due to work or social life commitments. It is also very common to see children not having the supervision of their parents after they turn 18 years of age as in western society children are not anymore dependent to their parents after 18 years of age and are allowed to leave their parents' house.
Therefore, more teenagers are getting into drugs and alcohol affecting which affect their physical, mental and spiritual health very badly. Islam teaches us to show love and affection to children and be gentle with them. It is also important to build a sense of security in children which helps in their growth. It is the responsibility of the parents to make children safe so that children can develop their individuality to avail the best of both worlds. Our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is a role model for us and he has always been very compassionate and fond of children. It comes in a narration Abu Huraira reported: “I went along with Allah's Messenger at a time during the day but he did not talk to me and I did not talk to him until he reached the market of Bani Qainuqa`. He came back to the tent of Fatima and said: Is the little chap (meaning Hasan) there? We were under the impression that his mother had detained him in order to bathe him and dress him and garland him with a sweet garland. Not much time had passed that he (Hasan) came running until both of them embraced each other, thereupon Allah's Messenger said: O Allah, I love him; love him Thou and love one who loves him (Hasan)”. Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had a affection to all children and showed the same love to the children of His companions as well. It was narrated by Usama bin Zaid (may Allah be pleased with him): “Allah's Messenger (peace and blessing be upon him) used to put me on (one of) his thighs and put Al-Hasan bin `Ali on his other thigh, and then embrace us and say, 'O Allah! Please be Merciful to them, as I am merciful to them. ' Whereas in the modern family law, instead of showing love and politeness to children parents are neglecting their children and handing them over to the daycare from a very young age and therefore not spending quality time with them keeping them deprived of the love of parents. Moreover, parents are accountable for the upbringing of their children as they will be questioned on the day of judgement about how did they brought-up their offspring and will be responsible for any actions of their children. Messenger of Allah warned us by saying, “Beware. Every one of you is a shepherd and every one is answerable with regard to his flock. The Caliph is a shepherd over the people and shall be questioned about his subjects (as to how he conducted their affairs). A man is a guardian over the members of his family and shall be questioned about them (as to how he looked after their physical and moral well-being). A woman is a guardian over the household of her husband and his children and shall be questioned about them (as to how she managed the household and brought up the children). Beware, every one of you is a guardian and every one of you shall be questioned with regard to his trust. ” So the parents are expected to start teaching their children from most significant things such as teaching them the correct aqeedah (creed) and make them aware about the prohibition of shirk (polytheism) and bid’ah (innovation) in Islam followed by the knowledge and importance of worship, especifically prayers. Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) has said “Teach the child to pray when he is seven years old, and beat him (lightly)if he does not pray when he is ten. ” In Islam, parents are also responsible for training their children with honurable character and good manners so that they become respectful to whole ummah (Muslim community), and with the ones they have a relationship with and have rights over them. 6 Parents also has to safeguard their daughter and son from all kinds of sins that can become the reason of them going close to the Fire of Hell. As Allah says in the Quran, “O you who believe! Ward off yourselves and your families against a Fire (Hell) whose fuel is men and stones, over which are (appointed) angels stern (and) severe, who disobey not, (from executing) the Commands they receive from Allah, but do that which they are commanded”. Scholars also mentions about commending and forbidding children from disobedience of Allah. Children are considered part of parents and will have to answer Allah about their children's actions. So children have rights over parents to teach them about halal (lawful) and haram (unlawful) and help them avoid forbidden acts in Islam. Islamic family law also teaches us to play with our children to create a strong bonding with children. This also has an important effect in the training and nurturing of your child. Our leaders in Islam have also stressed the importance of this issue, and recommended it highly to Muslims. It is narrated from the Prophet (S): “The person who has a child, should behave like a child with him. ” It is also narrated from Imām °Alī (as): “Anybody who has a child, should, for his/her training, bring themselves down to their level of childhood. ” In contrast, children upbringing is not given priority in modern family law as children spend most of their time away from their parents in child care or schools.
While both the parents are busy in their work routine building their career and not giving much importance to the upbringing of their children. Unlike in Islamic family law where parents are recommended to spend their utmost time with their children to build cognitive link and relationship with them. Due to this reason of children don’t get to spend their time with their parents and the connection and attachment is not built between children and parents. Children are deprived from the learning and supervision of their parents due to which family values, cultural values and religious values doesn’t get transfer in them. As a result, these children in their teenage years are most likely to not give enough respect to their parents and religion end-up going against the commandment of Allah and the teachings of Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). In conclusion, Islam focuses on the complete development of the children in all aspect of the life by definig fundamental rights and responsibilities of the children over parents starting from the birth of a child. Islam provides a complete guideline for parents of children to follow in the light of teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) required in the upbringing of the children according to the commendant of Allah. Above discussion has highlighted the unique way Islam has prescribed about the care and development of the children starting from choosing the best mother for chidren, giving name with good meaning, taking responsiblity of physical, mental and spiritual health and lastly taking accountability for childrens’ upbringing.
On the other side, children' rights in modern family law is different compared to rights in Islamic family law. As discussed previously, in modern family law children are not considered while selecting mother for them, not much importance is given to the meaning of the name and upbringing is affected by personal and social commitment of the parents.
