Domestic Issues and Their Solutions — Page 70
70 Close relatives include all familial ties from your father’s side and your mother’s side. Then there are familial ties of the wife and the husband. It is the obligation of both husband and wife to fulfil the rights of each other’s familial relations and to respect them and instil good feelings for them in their heart. In short, [they should give them] all the rights that they like to have for their own familial relations, the relations w ith whom you are on good terms. This is because even in close family ties there can arise problems and close family relations can become fractured. This is why Allah the Exalted enjoins kindness to close relations, not only with those with whom you get on and whom you like but also those whom you do not like and who se nature does not match your type. Thus kind treatment is enjoined with all close relatives, as I just said not only with those with whom you get on, rather with everyone. In fact the commandmen t of kindness is not just for your own close relatives; for the man it entails his wife’s relatives and for the woman it entails her husband’s close relatives. This is the treatment which would propagate peace and security along with Allah’s message of pea ce and security. (Friday sermon delivered on 1 June 2007 at Baitul Futuh London) In his Friday sermon of 2 July 2004 Huzoor e Anwer (may Allah be his Helper) said the following on the same subject: