بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir, International Women’s Conference, “The Family: Challenges & Islamic Solutions”
Final Concluding Address
My Dear Honourable Sisters, I would like to bring this conference to an end by first giving thanks and praise to Allah (swt) for all His Help in making this campaign and conference – “The Family: Challenges & Islamic Solutions” a great success Alhamdulillah. I would also like to thank all of you for attending today, and all those brothers and sisters who worked tirelessly to make this a significant event, including those in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir, Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Tunisia, and the eminent scholar and Ameer of Hizb ut Tahrir, Sheikh Ata Bin Khalil Abu Al-Rashtah. May Allah (swt) shower His Mercy upon you and reward you all immensely. Ameen Allahumma Ameen.
Dear sisters, the unity and harmony of the family is disintegrating before our eyes. Our families have been torn apart and plagued with tension, confusion and heartbreak due to Western liberal, materialistic and feminist values, laws and systems as well as other non-Islamic beliefs and traditions which have spread through our communities and have been imposed on our Muslim lands by the regimes which govern us. All this has sown utter misery for men, women and children alike and has generated a mountain of problems for our societies. Despite all this, these regimes seem adamant to push the status of our families further along the path of destruction by adopting, promoting and imposing these same disastrous beliefs with even greater fervor through the education systems, media, women’s organisations and state policies in our lands.
Dear sisters, we cannot simply stand by and allow this reckless Western-liberal inspired experiment in social engineering within our communities, which has ruined the fabric of our family life, to continue and worsen. Joel Kotkin, a Fellow in Urban Studies at Chapman University, California, wrote, “In the coming decades, success will accrue to those cultures that preserve the family’s place.” It is clear, sisters, that if we do not address this crisis effectively, then it is only failure which awaits our future generations and society. This means that we cannot afford to tinker around the edges of this problem which only increases day by day, or place our hopes in recycled strategies and policies that have failed dismally to address this issue in states across the world. No! We need to act urgently, and we need to work towards a sound and comprehensive solution to this crisis in the family unit.
This requires for us as Muslims to first acknowledge and embrace with total conviction the belief that it is ONLY the Deen of Islam, its values, laws and social system that holds the solution to this ‘Family’ Crisis, for it alone embodies those lofty concepts which effectively regulate the relationship between men and women and organize marital duties and rights in a manner which creates and protects strong harmonious family units. Adopting any other way of life in our family structure and societies will only end in failure! We, therefore, need to reject any non-Islamic beliefs, traditions or lifestyles, and intensively and comprehensively educate ourselves, our families, our youth, and our communities in the Islamic principles and social system related to marriage and family life. This is alongside striving to create an environment in our homes, schools and communities as best as we can in a way that nurtures the concept of Taqwa, love and obedience of the Commands and Limits of Allah (swt) and seeking His pleasure above all things, which drives the Believer to become the best husband, wife, parent, son, daughter and Muslim, InshaAllah.
Secondly, sisters, we must stand against and strongly voice our opposition to any attempts by international organisations, women’s groups or governments to secularise and liberalise the marriage and family laws in our Muslim lands, or to promote their flawed Western ideals further within our communities - which only holds the promise of further disintegration of the family structure. We also need to reject the lies, distortion and demonization of the Islamic social and family laws by secularists and feminists who deceitfully claim that these Islamic provisions are harmful towards women, the family and society, while conveniently ignoring the moral and social chaos, including the epidemic of family breakdown, domestic violence and neglect of the rights of children sown by their own secular, liberal and feminist ideas within states.
And finally sisters, we need to recognize that only by establishing a system that truly values the sanctity of marriage and family life we can save the family from ruin. And there is no state, no leadership, no system whose beliefs, values and laws genuinely embodies this viewpoint, or has a vision and comprehensive blueprint for how to nurture and safeguard happy marriages and strong, harmonious family units other than the Khilafah (Caliphate) based upon the method of the Prophethood. So dear sisters, as your sisters in Hizb ut Tahrir, we call you to join us in this noble dawah, exerting all your efforts, carrying the message to all you know and using all the influence that Allah (swt) has bestowed upon you, to establish this glorious state, this guardian and fortress of the family, which will use every instrument in its power to heal the divisions in the family unit, protect it from all sides and once again make the strength and harmony of our families a source of happiness for us and a characteristic feature of this Muslim Ummah. And Allah (swt) says,
﴿وَمَن يُطِعِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَخۡشَ ٱللَّهَ وَيَتَّقۡهِ فَأُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ هُمُ ٱلۡفَآٮِٕزُونَ﴾
“And he who obeys Allah and His Apostle, and fears Allah, and is careful of his duty to Him, such are the successful.” [An-Nur: 52]
Dr Nazreen Nawaz
Director of the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir