Portray of an Ideal Family

Zahra Ibrahimi

Any fair- minded individual will no doubt acknowledge the fact that the modern- day mass media seldom present useful guidelines and role-models for those who desire to form an ideal family or to improve their manners so their family environment becomes an ideal one. Certainly by the expression ‘Ideal’ here, we do not mean ‘rich’ in the worldly sense of the word; rather by an ideal family, we are referring to the one where every member - grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren have their due place, receive respect, care and affection from the other members of the family, where  religious teachings and human values are observed and followed and where, thus,  everybody can find peace of mind, tranquility and happiness. No doubt, in such environments children can be trained properly, growing up to be men and women of morality and integrity, useful to the other human beings in various ways.

Unfortunately,  most movies today propagate either violence or free-sex,  or other vices such as dishonesty, extravagant consumerism,  laziness, waywardness and the like, thus urging the viewers, in particular the youth to become  indifferent to all religious, social, and family values and turn to immoral, careless lives. Worship, meditation, respect for the elderly, obedience to the parents, devotion to family responsibilities, love and affection between spouses and other real requirements of human happiness are rarely encouraged, or even mentioned in such movies and even worse, at the  instigation of the enemies of humanity led by world Zionism, certain T.V. serials and movies have been produced through which married men and women are tempted to love and have sexual relations with women and men other than their wives and husbands. Can one find any evil more ruinous to families and societies than such temptations? And can one remain indifferent to such satanic cultural assaults and do nothing to nullify the same? Certainly not. Under the circumstances any man and woman of faith and commitment will feel duty-bound to write and speak in defence of Divine decrees, in particular regarding chastity and moral behavior. And no doubt Muslim filmmakers are also duty-bound to do their best to present morality-oriented films and serials so that the anti-God plots of the enemies of human happiness will be foiled and the life-giving Divine directions and guidelines will be imparted to families, in particular to youngsters who need good role-models.

In this regard, certain factors should be carefully taken into consideration and worked on, including the role to be played by women as wives and mothers in connection with their families’ emotional as well as financial affairs; A committed film-maker can produce films which portray good wives who instead of nagging and making life hell for their husbands when their family has to spend less money, try to make up for the shortage by selling their gold ornaments or by borrowing some money from a relative or a friend and also through teaching their children how to be satisfied with less, when there is not more. Obviously, thus benevolent presentations can have beneficial effects upon the audience, who in turn, can impart the good manners to the others too, and thus contribute towards making families ideal ones. Accordingly, films and stories which propagate desire for luxurious life-style and extravagance should be regarded as anti-family and thus anti-human. In Allah’s last Revealed Book the Holy Qur’an, we are advised to avoid wastefulness and to regard extravagance as a satanic trend… “Indeed the wasteful are brothers of  satans, and Satan is ungrateful to his Lord.”   The Holy Qur’an;Al-Isra, 27.

 Really, how better our lives would be if we knew how much to spend, how much to use and how to avoid buying unnecessary things! So it is one of the responsibilities of the faithful to fight against satanic tendencies, including extravagance at the social level, through informing the others of the evil consequences of following the consumerism-directed propaganda of the agents of imperialism everywhere. Unfortunately, in this direction, the efforts made so far by producers and film-makers are far from enough and need to be intensified to stop the storm of the cultural attacks rendered ceaselessly by Western media. The role to be played by men as sons, husbands and fathers in the family is of course no less significant and so deserves a great attention. Besides their financial responsibilities men are also obviously responsible for the emotional, moral and spiritual welfare of the family members and so need to be informed and educated adequately, for, otherwise they might either act in an excessively aggressive manner or behave passively and in a slack way when problems such as disputes, role-conflicts or deviations occur in the family environment. Infact, a man should be taught to act like a man in a crisis. For sure, many good movies can be made, educating men,  both young and old to be strong enough and tolerant enough for the good of the family, the society and for their own good as well. It goes without saying that movies in which the actor plays the role of a young man who commits suicide upon hearing ‘no’ from the girl he is fond of or the films which show a father so weak as to suffer a nervous breakdown upon facing a financial problem are not only worthless, but also anti-human. In the same vein, strengthening the sense of obedience and respect, by the children to parents should be considered of great significance and promoted by devout writers and producers through presentations which unlike most modern-day cultural products, teach good manners and Divine values. Undoubtedly, if children and teenagers watch films which show young girls and boys lovingly attending to the needs of their aged grandparents or ailing aunts and uncles instead of spending lots of time on their cell-phones or on computer games and likewise if they watch films which teach them to be mindful of the needs of the hungry people and the orphans on a permanent and collective basis and to, for example, save and raise money in order to be able to buy food and nice presents for them, the would-be men and women of the society will be impressed most positively,  making most positive impression on the others in turn. Such portrayals are certainly among the duties of the considerate and faithful authorities and staff in various fields of the mass media, including movies and serials.

And finally, an ideal family should be portrayed as the one in which the remembrance of God and God's Commands is the most outstanding feature, because it is an undeniable fact that nothing can take the place of belief in God and reliance on Him in human heart and human fate. Obviously, those who in obedience to Satan and Satanic powers, try to delete the mention of God from books, magazines and films are by so doing, stabbing humanity in the back. May God break the backs of the servants of satans. Amen.