The Family in Islam

Abstract

Islam has become a great cultural entity apart from its more narrowly defined religious connotation. As a cultural entity, there are many Muslims who have received Western training and education and may deny many of the leading tenets and practices of Islam and yet are aware of, in fact are very much alive to, their cultural heritage. Nevertheless, it is as a religious system that most Muslims regard Islam which, at the same time, serves as a medium of cultural expression for a wide variety of peoples. These peoples dwell in the main in a wide belt, just north of the Equator, which extends from Morocco to the Philippines embracing within itself a great number of different levels of culture, among Berbers, Egyptians, Nigerians, Sudanese, Albanians, Turks, Syrians, Pakistanis, Kurds, Afghans, Indonesians and Chinese. At the centre of this wide variety, there lies the allegiance to the Arabic tongue (XIII, 38) 1), which gives the Arabs a paramount importance. Local conditions affect the cultural pattern of Islam and provide wide variations, between Persians and Mongolians, Pakistanis and the Kabyles (among the Berbers), yet there is a constant turning towards the heart of Islam among the Arabs. The daily fivefold prayers are directed towards sacred Mecca and the prayers themselves, however indifferently understood, are offered in the holy Arabic tongue. It is moreover to the sacred centre, the Ka'ba (a resort and sanctuary for mankind) (II, II9), that Muslims from all the various countries come in pilgrimage from year to year, thereby forging links between the various peoples with the hub of their culture and faith. Certain further factors help to strengthen the bonds of allegiance between Muslims. These are the impact of modern communications