Islam and Human Rights — Page 135
Article 16 135 marriage cove nant, which lies at the root of all family relationships and supports, sustains and nourishes them, may be freely exposed to every kind of pre-marital and post-marital hazard and yet survive unblemished and unscathed. In the final analysis everything hinges on the hierarchy of values; that is to say, in the event of competition or conflict, which must have preference and which must give way. A society that seeks to give concurrent effect to conflicting values is already straining at the seams of its fabric and will burst them sooner or later. Measured in terms of the span of individual human lives, the process might appear to be slow, it might be well- nigh impercept ible; viewed against the background of history its march and progress cannot fail to be clearly discerned. In its final stages it rushes along unrestrained and unchecked, for then no effort and no force can avail to arrest it. The crash becomes inevitable. Promiscuity and family values are utterly incompatible; they cannot for long subsist together. If the one is not sternly suppressed, the other will disintegrate. There is no other choice. To think otherwise is to practice outrageous deception upon oneself and upon society. In this, as in the case of other evils, Islam, in conformity with its function as a religion, seeks to