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Merits of a Joint Family

What is considered a family varies in different cultures. In most of the European societies the family is generally considered individualistic, that is parent and children. In Eastern culture family extend well beyond this. Here I intend to discuss the joint family system in Islamic Society as general and in Pakistani and Indian culture in particular.

In our society many joint families have been flourishing, but unfortunately the global economic uncertainty and instability is also putting its impact on this system and the disintegration of joint family system is well in offing. I would like to discuss here the merits of joint family system.

Joint family system is very much natural. It is also a will of Nature to keep His creation well linked with each other to maintain the equilibrium. Take a look at the universe. Stars in the milky-way, solar system, planets, all are bound in a joint family system and their linked discipline and mutual attraction to each other is the cause of the very existence of this universe, the beauty of the universe is in the balance, binding and oneness of these creations of Nature. It will be the doomsday when all this system becomes imbalance and disintegrated  even if a single star is astray from its subscribed path there will be a boom and everything is finished.

Aren’t we passing today through this doomsday? Has our individualistic meanness not created our very doomsday today when we are seeking love in strange faces, the love which we already had in the form of a family, where there were all loving faces of grand parents, uncles, aunts, cousins all around us. They were very near to us, we owned them.

A joint family system is a milky way of grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters. This is the force of attraction of love of these people who maintains the family system, and these joint families are the links of a healthy balanced society. Joint family system is the system where parents do not have to worry about whether even a single brick of the building of their family is weakening or getting astray, because they are under the cool shadow of watchful and most experienced eyes of grandmother and grandfather who are always ready to control even the frank gestures of an eye. Under the observation of these experience control, healthy characters are built and real human beings are grown.

We are the followers of that Prophet (P.B.U.H.) who had united the perfect strangers into the bondage of fraternity, where on the contrary we are separating our own relations.

Our joint family system provides the opportunity to fulfill the orders of serving our parents and to help our near and dears, but by going away from this system we are depriving ourselves of prays of our parents and relatives.

It is a blessing to throw a look of love at our parents and elders and to see towards them with even a smile, but we are depriving ourselves from this blessings, too.  We cannot have such blessing in individual or unit family system.

In joint family system a working woman has not to worry about her children whom she leaves behind while going on job because she knows that they are under the supervision of experienced hands. This provides her full opportunities to utilize her abilities in full and with confidence; on the other hand she always has a upset mind thinking about the kids she left at home.

Joint family is like a fort where the members live intact even in the upheavals of life. In joint families the diseases related to nervous system are very rare, because they face their life problems with unity. Today the disintegration our society is facing is the reason of the disintegration of our joint family system.

In conclusion to my discussion I would like to draw your attention towards our daily observation. We see that our kids call every passerby with the addressing of “Uncle or Aunt” (of course for respect).  But do we ever think whether our kids are not seeking the relations which they can find only in the joint family?