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Dealing with Family Violence and Methods of Preventing it
Author : Dr. Ahmad Al-Harasees
Date Added : 01-02-2022

Dealing with Family Violence and Methods of Preventing it

 

 

Family violence (also called domestic violence) has caused societal, economic, psychological, health-related issues since psychological complexes resulting from this type of violence usually develop into aggravated medical conditions, aggressive or criminal behavior, and those subjected to such violence are likely to inflict it on others. Loosening of family ties, lack of trust and insecurity may lead to the vanishing of the family altogether since it is the nucleus of society and any threat it faces-through this violence - will eventually lead to undermining society as a whole.

 

Therefore, among the key solutions for the phenomenon of family violence is compliance with the provisions of Islamic Sharia, adopting its teachings, and applying them in family life. This is starts from the moment of searching for a life partner, having children, and raising them in a certain manner. Actually, Islam isn`t limited to performing acts of worship; rather, it is a way of life. Consequently, it is necessary to clarify the purpose of Sharia behind the verses and prophetic narrations in which "beating" was mentioned to prevent misusing them in the name of Islam.

 

Being the nucleus in the upbringing process and providing its members with the correct behavior, the family has shouldered huge responsibilities in different areas in a bid to protect its members from this violence. Some of these responsibilities are:

 

  • Adopting informed dialogue amongst its members.
  • Treating children equally and satisfying their psychological, social, material, and behavioral needs.
  • Participating with children on the moral and physical levels through becoming best friends in order to instil confidence in their hearts.
  • Minimizing TV shows showing violent content through instilling principles and morality in them from an early age.
  • Following up on their academic progress and developing their creative skills and hidden talents.
  • Enhancing love of country and society.
  • Living with each other in kindness and equity.
  • Putting an end to the phenomenon of divorce.

 

Moreover, media plays a pivotal role in guiding and correcting behavior. This role crystallizes in allocating media channels to help the family overcome domestic violence and utilizing commercial breaks to broadcast awareness-raising messages. This is in addition to disseminating the culture of respect for the opposite sex, acquainting men with the rights of women, training the family on addressing problems along with raising mothers` awareness - through targeted programs-about age and stages of child`s development. Also, uncovering the reasons leading to this violence, preventing it, and highlighting this phenomenon through citation of evidence. Moreover, raising awareness of family about the adverse psychological and social effects of violence on both the individual and society. Further, printing and publishing booklets clarifying the psychological effect of this violence on the children.

 

The role of school is no longer limited to teaching since we live in an era that enabled man to learn through utilizing various means of communication. Accordingly, school must play a leading role in educating the community and guiding the behavior of its members via different programs that it prepares and projects that it adopts. School can help prevent domestic violence through raising the awareness of mothers and fathers. This can be achieved by addressing societal issues and finding the effective solutions, combating unusual behavior, emphasizing the importance of volunteerism, in addition to making voluntary contributions.

 

Raising awareness on the religious, social, intellectual, cultural, and legal levels, in addition to acquainting members of society with their rights and duties, is amongst the best means to end this phenomenon. However, this has to come in different forms, such as training, workshops, rehabilitation, lectures, booklets, brochures, conferences, seminars; utilizing all available means like media organizations as well as government and non-government institutions.

 

In this context, we stress the role undertaken by male and female spiritual guides and mosque preachers in terms of raising awareness and offering advice and guidance; particularly since our society is influenced by religious guidance and discourse, which are based on clear principles of Sharia.

 

Some of the key solutions that actively participate in curbing domestic violence are:

 

  • Offering the necessary advice and guidance to protect society from domestic violence.
  • Providing psychological, social, and familial counselling to members of families suffering from domestic violence.
  • Establishing a connection between the victims of domestic violence and the available counselling organizations through providing hotlines, which enable the latter to give assistance if needed.
  • Providing secure places for women and children to make them feel safe, even temporarily, and to enable specialists to provide the necessary assistance.
  • Teaching women and children to develop security plans inside and outside home.
  • Cooperating with family and children organizations to find solutions that suit each individual family.
  • Training children to have non-violent reactions to blow off some steam considering the violence they have been subjected to.
  • Teaching positive behavior to children to enable them control anger and negative emotions to help them form sound and safe relationships in the future.

And all praise be to Allah, The Lord of The Worlds.

 

 

The published article reflects the opinion of its author

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Summarized Fatawaa

What is the ruling on one who vows to fast a specific or non-specific year? Are the two Eids, the days of Tashreeq, Ramadan, and the days of menstruation and postnatal bleeding included in them? And do these days break the consecutiveness if it was intended?

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our Master, the Messenger of Allah.
 
If someone makes a vow (Nadr) to fast a specific, designated year, this vow does not include the days of Eid, the days of Tashreeq (the three days following Eid al-Adha), Ramadan, or the days of menstruation (Hayd) and postnatal bleeding (Nifas). Furthermore, there is no requirement to make up (Qada) these specific days.
 
However, if someone vows to fast a year that is not specifically designated (i.e., any twelve-month period) and stipulates that the fasting must be consecutive, they are bound by that condition. They must not fast on the days of Eid, during Ramadan, or during menstruation, but they are required to make up these days afterward—with the exception of the days of menstruation and postnatal bleeding, which do not need to be made up.
 
It is stated in Hashiyat al-Bajuri ‘ala Sharh Ibn Qasim ({Vol.2/P.606): 'If one vows to fast a specific year, the Eid, Tashreeq, Ramadan, and days of menstruation or postnatal bleeding are not included. This is because Ramadan does not accept any fast other than its own, and the others do not accept fasting at all. Therefore, they do not enter into the vow, and no makeup is required for them because they are legally excluded—contrary to Al-Rafi’i regarding menstruation and postnatal bleeding.
 
If one vows to fast a non-designated year: if they stipulated consecutiveness (Tatuabu’) in their vow, they must fulfill it; otherwise, they are not bound to it. Consecutiveness is not broken by the days that do not enter into the specific year vow (Eid, Tashreeq, Ramadan, menstruation, and postnatal bleeding). However, one must make up the days missed—excluding the time of menstruation and postnatal bleeding—immediately following the end of the year. As for the time of menstruation and postnatal bleeding, it is not made up, contrary to Ibn al-Rif’ah, who argued that it must be made up just like Ramadan.' And Allah the Exalted knows best.

What is the ruling on combining more than one intention in the prayer, such as combining the *sunnah* of wuḍūʾ with the pre-Dhuhr *sunnah*, or combining the *sunnah* of greeting the mosque (*taḥiyyat al-masjid*) with the pre-Dhuhr *sunnah*?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
Combining two intentions in a single act of worship, which some jurists call the “overlapping of acts of worship”, has several cases and precise rules. These can be consulted in the books of legal maxims, such as al-Manthūr fī al-Qawāʿid al-Fiqhiyyah by al-Zarkashī and al-Ashbāh wa’l-Naẓāʾir by al-Suyūṭī. Among the most important of these rules:
First: If all of the acts of worship that one wishes to combine under one intention are obligatory, the intentions do not overlap. An example is combining the intention of the obligatory ʿAṣr prayer with that of the obligatory Dhuhr prayer. The intentions do not overlap in this case.
Second: If the two acts are specified supererogatory prayers (nawāfil muqayyadah) that are aimed at in themselves because of a particular time, occasion, or cause, or if they are an obligatory prayer and a specified supererogatory prayer, the intentions again do not overlap. An example is the Duha prayer, which may not be combined with, for instance, the regular sunnah of Dhuhr.
It is stated in Bushrā al-Karīm: “Whatever is not, in meaning, an absolute voluntary prayer, such as the Duha sunnah… is not subsumed under another. Rather, if he intends something else along with it… the prayer is not validly entered. This is because combining two obligations, two specified supererogatory prayers, or an obligation and a specified supererogatory prayer invalidates the prayer in cases not built upon overlapping, as ritual purification (ṭahārah) is.”
Third: If the two acts are absolute voluntary prayers (nawāfil muṭlaqah), or one of them is, where the texts of the Sharīʿah show that the aim of the voluntary act is to fill the time with worship, then overlapping of intentions is permissible. An example is the obligatory Dhuhr prayer together with the sunnah of greeting the mosque (taḥiyyat al-masjid). And Allah Almighty knows best.

For some time I have been searching for a guiding shaykh to teach me the spiritual path (*sulūk*) and the Islamic sciences, but I have not found one. What should I do?

 

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah.
There is abundant good in this Ummah, and the scholars who guide and nurture are never cut off. The student of knowledge should strive in seeking them out, ask diligently after them, and draw from their learning.
As for one who cannot find a guiding and nurturing shaykh, he should send abundant prayers and peace upon our master the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), while keeping constantly to dhikr and worship and abstaining from the forbidden. For that will bring him to his goal in traveling toward Allah the Exalted. Imam Muḥammad al-Sanūsī (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “I have seen it said by some of the imams of Sufism that whoever lacks shaykhs of spiritual training (shuyūkh al-tarbiyah) should increase his invocation of blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), for by it he will reach his goal.”
The scholar Aḥmad Zarrūq al-Mālikī (may Allah have mercy on him) said in Qawāʿid al-Taṣawwuf (p. 86), rule no. 114: “Dhikr is the decree of sainthood (manshūr al-wilāyah). Whoever is given dhikr has been given the decree. Our shaykh Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Ḥaḍramī (may Allah be pleased with him) said: ‘Keep constantly to dhikr and abundant blessings upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), for it is a ladder, an ascent, and a path to Allah the Exalted when the seeker does not meet a guiding shaykh.’” And Allah Almighty knows best.

What is the ruling of Islamic Law on a fictitious marriage for the purpose of obtaining citizenship?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
There is no such thing in our noble sharīʿah as a "nominal" or "fictitious" marriage or divorce. Marriage and divorce are among the sacred ordinances of Allah, and it is not permissible to manipulate them or use them as a stratagem to obtain worldly gains.
The foundational purpose of a marriage contract is the permanence and continuity of the relationship between the spouses — to establish a family, and to bring forth righteous offspring. So sacred is this bond that Allah the Almighty Himself described it as a solemn covenant (mīthāq ghalīẓ), saying {what means}: "And if you wish to replace one wife with another and you have given one of them a great amount of wealth, do not take any of it back. Would you take it in injustice and manifest sin? And how could you take it while you have gone in unto each other and they have taken from you a solemn covenant?" [Al-Nisāʾ/ 20–21]
Accordingly, it is not permissible to resort to manipulation and deception in contracts that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has described as a "solemn covenant" — all for the sake of material and worldly benefit. Marriage is built upon permanence and does not admit of a fixed time limit. If a time limit is stipulated in the contract, the contract is rendered invalid by the consensus of the jurists. Similarly, marriage is impermissible when there exists a mutual, concealed intention to limit its duration — even if no time limit is explicitly mentioned in the contract — for this constitutes a form of unlawful circumvention of the sharīʿah. This is to say nothing of the lying and deception that such conduct involves, the prohibition of which needs no elaboration. Lying, deception, and fraud for the purpose of obtaining worldly gains are among the gravest of sins.
If, however, the marriage contract is first concluded in a valid sharʿī manner and then registered civilly, it is sound and fully valid. And Allah the Almighty knows best.

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