Learning to Respect Order and Its Impact on Societies and Families

People tend to chaos and dislike adhering to systems because they think that chaos resembles freedom. We see a very close relationship between chaos, randomness, and backwardness, and much of the civilization of nations is manifested in organizing their public and private affairs. Young children do not understand this meaning because their sense of time, profit and loss, flexibility, and fluidity of movement is weak or non-existent. Adults, however, realize that life without order would be difficult, sterile, and filled with problems.

Imagine a city crowded with cars and pedestrians without traffic signals or traffic police. What would its condition be? Everyone would suffer from the excessive interference and collisions, leading to many disputes and ultimately resulting in slow movement.

Thus, our lives without order would be fraught with problems, and our movement would also be slow. The acts of worship in Islam emphasize the meaning of order, as each act of worship has a specific timing, and we should draw from this the importance of organizing our affairs. I believe that the following need to be organized within the family:

·      Times for meals.

·      Sleep and wake-up times.

·      Distribution of household chores among the children.

·      Study times and homework writing.

·      Watching TV and different programs.

·      Weekly or monthly family meetings.

·      Trips and outings to parks.

·      Visiting kin and relatives.

The agreement of parents on what we have indicated is necessary for the predominance of order within the family. If we contemplated the disintegrated family, we would find that the parents' lack of awareness of the importance of order within the family and their disagreement on the essence of that order led to the loss of the family's collective spirit and the spread of chaos in it.

Adapted from the book "Family Path" (Principles for Guiding the Family) by Dr. Abdul Karim Bakkar, pages 58 to 59