Here man finds real pleasure in the service of humanity, and the sense of service is thus gradually developed and broadened. It is in fact a training ground for every kind of morality, for it is in the home that a man learns to have a sense of his own obligation and responsibilities, to have a respect for others’ rights and, above all, to have a real pleasure in suffering for the sake of others. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said: “The best of you is he who treats his wife best” (IM. 9:50).

Marriage and “free love”

The Western world is undoubtedly leaning more and more to “free love” in the place of marriage, but “free love” will certainly prove the ruin of Western civilization. Marriage is being discarded, not on account of any inherent defect in it, but simply because it entails certain responsibilities on both parties to the marriage contract, and it is really these responsibilities that are shirked in avoiding marriage. Marriage undoubtedly strengthens the ties of the natural love of the two mates, but it also requires them to share each other’s cares and sorrows; for human life has its cares and sorrows as well as its pleasures. “Free love” makes each of the mates selfish in the extreme because, while the male and the female become each other’s partners in happiness, each is free to leave the other, uncared for, in his or her sorrow. Marriage again makes the two mates jointly responsible for the welfare of the children, but in “free love,” either the procreation of children is altogether avoided, and thus the end which nature has in view in the union of the male and the female is defeated, or when either of the parents has had his or her satisfaction of the other, the children may be left without a shelter. The institution of marriage is found in all countries and all nations, has been practiced in every age for thousands of years and has worked to the advancement and welfare of humanity on the whole. Free love, if practiced on so large a scale for half a century, would either put an end to the human race altogether, or bring such chaos in society as would destroy its very foundations. It may suit a few irresponsible, selfish persons who are the slaves of their passions, but there can be no spark of true love in a union which may end abruptly at the whim of either, and it can serve no useful purpose for humanity in general.