Does the family still have a future in our time?

Yes, if morality has a future. The family lives on the faithfulness of wife and husband, and where that faithfulness no longer counts, the family loses its footing too.

Many people are worried to see marriages break down and families fall apart. The cause runs deeper than money or lack of time. The security of a family rests on people understanding moral values and actually living by them. When morality is seen as something old-fashioned to be left behind, the family loses its footing. It is not possible to have both at once, freedom from every commitment and a stable family.

Many societies live with a contradiction here. Laws made by people are taken seriously, and whoever breaks them is held to account. God's commandments about purity and chastity, on the other hand, are treated as a private matter that concerns no one else. As long as this contradiction remains, family life cannot be healed.

For the life of a family depends on faithfulness, of the wife to her husband and of the husband to his wife. The first verse above calls the love and tenderness between spouses a sign of God. The second verse warns against even coming near adultery. Where unfaithfulness is accepted as normal, the family has no foundation.

This is why Islam places great value on the family. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) called the best of people those who treat their wives best. And he reminded everyone that a man is responsible for his family and a woman for the home and the children.

So the family does have a future, but not by itself. It has a future wherever people take faithfulness, consideration and responsibility seriously. The prayer in the last verse above shows what such a family strives for. Spouses and children should become a joy to one another.