Objectives of Islamic Law (5): Protecting the Offspring

Occasion: Transcript of an Isha khatira delivered at Bayt Al-Karim on July 27, 2026 Source: Transcript of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif, watch the original video on YouTube

Tonight, God willing, we continue our journey through the purposes of the Sharia: its objectives, its aims, the reasons for which it came. What did the Sharia come to protect? What did it come to establish, so that it might set the rules of our life? We began with the first objective, and I think we need to memorize them: protecting the religion. Next comes protecting the soul, the human being, your body and your dignity; you must protect yourself. The third is protecting the mind.

The fourth objective: the offspring

The fourth is protecting the offspring, meaning our children. But we need to understand why Islam insists on protecting them.

First reason. When God, glory be to Him, began creating the human being, He called him a khalīfah, a successor. What does that mean? People who come after one another, generation after generation.^[1] If we stop bringing offspring into the world, we go against the will of God and do the opposite of what He asked of us.

Second reason. Who will carry the name of Islam if we do not leave children behind us?

Third reason. It is a kind of confidence for a person to know that he already has children. Think of it: when I grow old, I will have my children around me, asking how I am and helping me with whatever I need. And in our Islamic way of raising children, we grow up together, I and my child, with a vision and a mission: the mission of our existence before God. I am not telling my daughter, "I am going to hate you." I am telling her that we must please God. God will question us, not you alone and not me alone, about what we are doing right now. God will ask me whether I gave you direction in this and that.

Those are a few reasons why we need children beside us, even when we grow old, and you can add as many more as you like. But let us move to the next point.

How Islam protects the offspring

From the very beginning, God gave us the mission of having children. Do you remember the supplication we made together last time, the one connected to Ibrahim, peace be upon him? We said that what is common in it is that children are a gift from God, and that God taught us how to ask Him for them.^[2] Our goal in life is to be imams for people, and our children will follow in our steps. All of us walk the same road, to be role models for everyone. I am trying, and I apologize, I am showing you a different side of me.

So how does Islam give us the mission of having children? The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ encouraged people to have children, saying that he will be proud of them on the Day of Judgment.^[3] But before we say that, we must make sure we are planning for the most important project in our lives: a new child. A new child is the most important project of my life. I am going to give birth to another soul, to a human being. For that reason we must prepare ourselves beforehand. We will not go into that tonight, but it is part of how Islam encourages us.

Choosing the mother and the father

The second point: Islam asks me to protect my children by choosing a good mother for them, and it asks her to choose a good father for her children. God gave her this direction through the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, when he said that if someone comes to you whose piety and character you are pleased with, you should give your daughter in marriage to him.^[4] What about the amount of money? What about the dowry? All of that comes second. The main thing is that if I have a good man, one who will be honest with my daughter, I give her to him. And in the other direction, the Prophet ﷺ spoke of the reasons for which a woman is married, and the first thing to look for is her piety.^[5] We talk about beauty, position, family and money, but all of it comes after the religion itself. This choice is one of the ways of protecting the offspring.

During married life

Then comes the married life itself. If there is constant fighting between me and my spouse, on both sides, who is the first to be affected? The first victim is the children. They watch a ridiculous relationship between two people who cannot live together. And when the child grows older and sees his father careless about his mother, he begins to doubt the religion itself: what kind of religion makes these two people treat each other this way?

But if there is harmony, and the couple makes an umbrella of contentment that shades the children, they become satisfied enough to face any problem in the future. I am protecting them from within: spiritually, mentally and physically. That is the relationship between the spouses.

So what are the rules? What does God ask of me here? To live together in a good way, with kindness. If you dislike something in the other side, God said:

﴿فَعَسَىٰ أَن تَكْرَهُوا شَيْئًا وَيَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ فِيهِ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا﴾ [النساء: 19]

"...it may be that you dislike a thing and God places in it much good."^[6]

God may place a great part of the benefit where you cannot see it right now; it is hidden from your eyes. The problem is in my eyes, not in the other person. I cannot see the good in her.

The Prophet ﷺ said something to the same effect: do not let one thing, or even two, bother you.^[7] If you dislike something in her, you will surely find something else that is good. Or is the claim that she has nothing good at all, that everything about her is bad? Are you talking about her, or about her Creator? Consider what that implies. What is the point here? God did not create anything bad at all. Every creation has a benefit. So she has something good, and the problem is with me: I cannot see it, or I am acting like a blind man who refuses to look at anything else. I only want to accuse. I want to say she is bad, and one, two, three, I simply hand myself an excuse for my actions and reactions.

From pregnancy to adulthood

Now we move on to find ourselves with a baby in the womb. What are the child's rights during that time? Talking about the rights of the unborn child would take a long time, so we leave it.

When the children arrive in this world, we must give them good names, good food, good shelter, a good situation and a good standing. All these rights show how important children are in our lives.

Next, the speaker points to Ibrahim, peace be upon him, who brought his family to a different place and left them there.^[8] Why did he do it? It was an order from God. As the speaker put it, think of a driver heading somewhere: you leave the responsibility in other hands and do your duty. You are not leaving your home and going off for no reason. You are doing your part, she is doing hers, and you have your family around you caring for the little baby and raising him or her in a good situation and a good position.

Then, praise be to God, we find a good little person who can stand and understand. At that time we ask him to say bismillah before eating and alhamdulillah after, to say bismillah when putting on his clothes and going out. We teach the little things at a little age, and that is important; at that stage it is a duty.

Then we move on and find that he understands more, and we begin to pray together, teaching the prayer and the ablution, one thing after another. Once in a while we give a little more, and more, until we find a grown man or a grown girl beside us. All of these things come together to show how important the offspring are, and how I can protect my family through my children.

As you know, if we went through the details of each point we would take a long time, so we are trying to keep it short. We ask God, glory be to Him, to teach us more and to give us more benefit from the knowledge we already carry in our minds and the piety in our hearts.

A review before we part

Before ending, let us review what we have covered so far. This is the religion, in the heart. This is the soul, in the chest. This is the mind, in the head. And the offspring come after them. Next time, God willing, we will talk about money.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The transcript mentions only the word khalīfah and its meaning (successors coming after one another). The reference is presumably to God's words to the angels about placing a khalīfah on earth (al-Baqarah 2:30), but the speaker's recitation is missing from the automatic transcript, so no verse text is given in the body. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The transcript does not preserve the supplication's wording. The description (a gift from God; being imams; children following) may refer to the supplication in al-Furqan 25:74 (﴿وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا﴾, "and make us an example for the righteous") or to Ibrahim's supplications for righteous offspring, but this is the editor's inference, and no verse is placed in the speaker's words. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The speaker's wording is "have children and I will be proud of you on the Day of Judgment." It resembles the well-known hadith «تَزَوَّجُوا الْوَدُودَ الْوَلُودَ فَإِنِّي مُكَاثِرٌ بِكُمُ الْأُمَمَ» ("Marry the loving and fertile, for I will boast of your numbers before the nations"), reported by Abu Dawud and al-Nasa'i from Ma'qil ibn Yasar. The words about boasting of numbers before the nations are from that narration, not from the speaker, who only said "I will be proud of you." ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Closely resembles the hadith «إِذَا جَاءَكُمْ مَنْ تَرْضَوْنَ دِينَهُ وَخُلُقَهُ فَأَنْكِحُوهُ» ("If someone whose religion and character you are pleased with comes to you, then give [your daughter] in marriage to him"), reported by al-Tirmidhi from Abu Hurayra and graded hasan; cited here only as the apparent source of the speaker's paraphrase. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Resembles the hadith «تُنْكَحُ الْمَرْأَةُ لِأَرْبَعٍ: لِمَالِهَا وَلِحَسَبِهَا وَلِجَمَالِهَا وَلِدِينِهَا، فَاظْفَرْ بِذَاتِ الدِّينِ» ("A woman is married for four things: her wealth, her lineage, her beauty and her religion; so choose the one with religion"), reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim. In the hadith religion is named last, with the instruction to prefer it; the speaker's point that piety should come first is his own emphasis. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The transcript drops the verse's recitation; only its meaning ("may God give a great part of the benefit that is hidden from your eyes") survives. The speaker clearly refers to al-Nisa' 4:19, and the verse is quoted only as far as he conveyed it. The words before it ("live with them in kindness") are likewise a paraphrase of what he said. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: Resembles the hadith «لَا يَفْرَكْ مُؤْمِنٌ مُؤْمِنَةً، إِنْ كَرِهَ مِنْهَا خُلُقًا رَضِيَ مِنْهَا آخَرَ» ("A believing man should not harbor hatred toward a believing woman; if he dislikes one trait in her, he will be pleased with another"), reported by Muslim. The speaker's "one thing or even two" is kept as he said it. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The reference is presumably to Ibrahim's leaving Hajar and Ismail in the valley of Makkah at God's command; the speaker does not name them, and this passage of the automatic transcript is garbled, so the paragraph follows only what is clear.