Most recently, the chief justice of Pakistan has come under the fire line of the religious enthusiasts when he called out the infamous slogan of the 90’s bachae do he achay. He said that the population growth rate of Pakistan is one of the serious future challenges that Pakistan faces and it is a challenge more serious than the water shortage and dams issue. Ironically, some writer somewhere has noted that he himself has five children and questioned why has it dawned upon him suddenly now about the wisdom of population control.
What’s my take on it? Do I believe in the blessings of population explosion or do I believe in the modern and concise ideology of two children to a couple each so that population remains constant throughout times? Hmmm, but what if this theory had been applied since Adam and Eve’s times? There would have been only two humans on Earth at any given point in time to date. Not to mention that they would be brothers and sisters. Eyebrows raised ?
So when should have man decided that enough babies have been produced all over the world now to cover all the habitable areas of planet Earth. As we speed forward from ancient times into the future, we get hinged somewhere around fourteen hundred years ago, whence the Prophet Muhammed SAW said,
‘Marry a
woman who has a very loving nature and bears lots of children, for Prophet
Muhammed SAW will be proud of the Muslim population on Qayamah’.
Seems like Islam recommends having a big family size. How does it coincide with economics of the family and grooming of the children? For Islam is a religion which is extremely subjective and objective at the same time. It covers all aspects of human life down to the exact SOPs of it by the theory of the Holy Quran and Hadith points. How will the father provide for a big family and how would the mother groom a bunch of children?
Alas! We have left that to Allah SWT. Like our miserable ignorance in so many aspects of religion. We tell our daughters that you are supposed to be obedient to your husbands, but we forget to tell our sons to be obedient to Allah SWT. We tell our sons that you are the leaders of the family, but we forget to tell them that the lead is supposed to be towards Jannah and not slavery for self and family. We tell people that Rizq is pre-destined and will find a way to you but we forget to tell the difference between Tawakul and Tawaakul. Yes, its only an ‘a’ more but it means a world apart.
Tawakul means to make your best effort and then hope for the best of results from Allah SWT. Tawaakul means to do nothing, sit pretty much hand-in-hand and then expect miracles to descend from the skies. They forget that miracles have seized to happen since the closure of prophet hood. Neither were miracles ever intended to feed households for slackers, do exam papers for backbenchers and win wars for those who shout Allah-o-Akbar after beating down a glass of wine.
Having a small family size is simply an outlook towards life, not economics. It has been observed that people who can perhaps afford to bring up numerous children, have only one or two children. And people who have meagre means to support even a couple of children, have around twelve children. The rich are not rich because they have only two children. And the poor are not poor because they have twelve children. They would have been poor with only two children as well. However, the irony is that those having twelve children are usually those whose father is a lazy bum, an addict or a drunkard. Not doing anything else, the guy wants to earn his ticket to Jannah by the afore mentioned Hadith. For if not anything else, it will definitely earn him a bunch of children who can be bullied into child labor or even begging on the streets to earn him enough cash to feed him and his addictions.
Interesting thing is that all recommendations of Islam are supported by scientific facts as well. It takes about a year to deliver a baby and recover from it. Then it takes another two years to feed and wean the baby. Ideally and medically, a woman is not supposed to menstruate during the milk-feeding period, which means that she cannot conceive for a couple of years at least. That makes the natural difference between two children to be of three years. How many children can a woman have even if she has children back-to-back three years apart each? Seven ? Then it is not necessary that conception takes place at all times. How many a times a couple had to wait for years while trying to conceive? Lastly, a woman can choose to interval her children by more than three years … interval, mind you, not close the family process. She might assess herself that she can groom children very well five years apart or seven years apart, and continue to have children at such intervals. Unfortunately, such a thought is rarely found in our society. Those who choose to have a lot of children, are having them even one year apart and end up with twenty children, none properly looked after. And those who choose to have a couple of children, want to have them quickly, so that they can get over the family process and focus back on their career or whatever. Quality children and quality upbringing is hardly an agenda for any one, neither the Islamists nor the so-called modern.
No doubt Prophet Muhammed SAW would be proud of the number of Muslims upon Resurrection, but do you think that Islam, being so quality conscious a religion, would focus on quantity only and not quality? Prophet Muhmmed SAW would be looking for Muslims who have truly lived Islam in their lives and contributed to the Islamic world. Not working towards raising a healthy, hardworking and intellectual group of Muslims, but simply seeking a senseless head count is not Islam’s outlook about a Muslim population that Islam can be proud of. As for the world resources, you and I do not the hold the keys to them. They are in Allah Almighty’s Hands, but for the seekers, not squatters.
