The Role and Duties of Family Members in Strengthening and Consolidating the Foundation of the Family

Abstract

The foundation of the family is an emotional, social, and legal institution in which good character, proper conduct, and kind speech among members serve as the key factors for its continuity and the primary cause of deepening and expanding familial relationships. In contemporary societies, with the rapid growth of science and industry, and consequently the increase in life problems and expenses alongside the lowering of tolerance thresholds, it is frequently observed that family members, due to individual factors such as suspicion and distrust, foul language and verbal abuse, fault-finding, as well as external factors, particularly familial, cultural, and social issues, resort to mistreatment of one another and to violence in words and actions. This phenomenon leads to the destabilization of the family foundation. Therefore, given the importance of this issue, the present article—designed and classified with the aim of identifying and determining the duties of family members in the consolidation of the family foundation—seeks to answer the following question: from a jurisprudential perspective, what obligations do family members bear in ensuring cohesion and reinforcement of the family structure? The research method is descriptive–analytical. The findings indicate that, from a jurisprudential standpoint, the main obligations of family members in strengthening the family foundation include respecting the dignity of members, observing good companionship and behavior, paying dowry (mahr), paying alimony (nafaqah), respecting the right of conjugal turn-taking (haqq al-qasm) and the right of custody, as well as the wife’s obedience and compliance toward her husband.