Ethical and Legal Indexes of Efficient Family

Family, which is the root of line of human descent, will not be firm and stable unless it is strong, peaceful, dynamic and efficient. Creation of mankind was divinely commenced by matrimony between a woman and a man. Adam and Eve started a family and all their offspring were divinely called to the bond of matrimony and human perfection was reflected in building mutual understanding between wife and husband. Divine wisdom is manifest through attraction between male and female and this has made all mankind down the centuries live together in families and thus mankind has survived.The bond between female and male is accorded such significance that it has been termed “solemn covenant”: And they have taken from you a solemn covenant? (4:21). The Prophet of Islam is narrated as saying about the sacred bond of matrimony, “In Islam no foundation is dearer to God Almighty than matrimony” (Majlisī, 1983, 100: 222). He also says that homes prosper by marriage: “Marry and marry off… and in Islam there is nothing dearer to God Almighty than a house prospering by matrimony” (Ḥurr al-‘Ᾱmilī, 1991, 4: 5). Deprived of such great blessing, a male and a female have been depicted as lonely: “Miserable, miserable, miserable is the man who does not have a wife even though he might have immense wealth; miserable, miserable, miserable is the woman who does not have a husband even though she might have immense wealth” (al-Ḥaythamī, 1987, 4: 252).