Zina (fornication) has become a commonplace occurrence within the Muslim Youth community, and the Muslim girls and boys have sadly fallen prey to the snares of Western society. You may wonder how such a situation occurs when most Muslim parents virtually put their children under ‘lock and key’. The answer is that although most parents are strict where their children are concerned, they do not take the time to talk and explain to them about the seriousness of Zina. Instead, they give a Fatwa of “no boyfriend” when their daughters reach puberty.
The following article highlights ways in which we can teach our children to shun this corrupt act.
In Islam, there is no such thing as a girlfriend or boyfriend relationship. You are either married or you are not. This is what we have to instill into our children at an early stage. We should not wait for them to come to us when they are teenagers to ask about a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship. At this late stage, even if we forbid them to have such a relationship, how certain are we that they will obey us if someone smites them? Hence, we must teach our children that a girl or boy can have a relationship with a non-mehram only when they are married. Furthermore, if a girl or boy enters into a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship, then he/she is entering into a pre-marital relationship.
At the teenage level, we should not be shy to teach them the severity of premarital relationships. We need to make them understand that pre-marital relationships are like extramarital relationships, or what is commonly known as adultery or ‘an affair’.
It ruins the community by corrupting the people. It unleashes desires that, once allowed free rein, will destroy families. We can quote to them the examples of illegitimate and abandoned children, broken homes, abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases – the list goes on.