Old Age Homes a Blot on Muslim Society or the Need of the Modern Society
By S.
Arshad, New Age Islam
25 June
2022
Old Age
Homes Are Being Run By the Government in Islamic Countries like Pakistan And
Bangladesh
Main
Points:
1. In Punjab
province in Pakistan, the government runs 6 old age homes.
2. In
Bangladesh, social welfare department runs a number of old age homes.
3. In India,
old age homes in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Vadodra are run by Muslims.
4. Many old
Muslim people land up in these old age homes.
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Old Age
Homes were said to be the product of the modern western society where nuclear
family system did not have room for the elderly parents. It also existed in the
non-Muslim societies of India where busy sons and uncaring daughters-in-law did
not have any love and affection for the elderly people and so they left their
elderly parents in old age homes. The subject of old age home was a taboo in
the Muslim society because according to Islam a family is not complete without
elderly parents. Islam enjoins on Muslims to treat well their parents and take
care of them when they reach old age.
"And
We have commanded people to honour their parents. Their mothers bore them
through hardship upon hardship and their weaning takes two years. So be
grateful to me and your parents. To me is the final return." (Luqman: 14)
Another
verse also enjoins the Muslims to be good to the parents.
“Be good
to your parents and should both or any one of them attain old age, do not say
even "fie" to them but speak to them with respect."(Isra: 24)
According
to a hadith in Sahih Muslim the holy prophet pbuh said that cursed was the one
who found his parents in old age and did not serve them.
According
to another hadith in Sunan Tirmidhi, if parents are pleased with one, God is
pleased with him and if parents are displeased, God is displeased. In Islam,
paradise is under the feet of the mother and the father is its gate. During the
life of the prophet pbuh those who had elderly parents to take care were
exempted from going on jihad.
All these
verses and hadith make service to the parents a fundamental duty of every
Muslim without fulfilling which he or she cannot attain salvation.
This is the
reason old age homes were thought to be an alien subject among the Muslims
until a few years back. Elderly parents were taken care of in the family and
were an essential part of the family. And the general notion was that old age
homes did not exist in Muslim societies.
However,
not many Muslims are aware that old age homes not only flourish in Islamic
countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan but are also run and managed by the
social welfare departments of the Islamic countries.
In Punjab
province of Pakistan alone, 6 old age homes are run by the social welfare
department of the Punjab government apart from ten private old age homes. It
will be surprising to know that the oldest old age home run by the Punjab
government was established in 1975.
In
Bangladesh too, old age homes are a reality of the modern times and so they are
run and managed by the social welfare department of the government. Prabeen
Hitoishi Sangha has 80 branches countrywide. The disintegrating family structure
in the Muslim society due to urban development and socio-economic challenges,
family relationships have suffered and old parents have suffered the most. In
some cases, the elderly mother is compelled to leave the house because of the
oppression, harassment and mental and physical torture by the daughter-in-law
and the son finds himself helpless. In some cases, the son sends the parent to
the old age home and pays a legitimate sum of money on monthly basis because he
does not want an ailing parent in the house. This is an unfortunate aspect of
the modern Muslim family. Sometimes, illiterate or old parent leaves the house
without telling his or her son and is rescued by the police and brought to an
old age home.
However,
there are some old men who happily choose an old age home because they feel
lonely as their son lives separately. They do not have any grudges against
their family.
However in
these old age homes, there are many who are not old but young people who do not
have anyone to support. They are mentally sick people, or paralysed or with
other disabilities. There are young girls who have been abandoned by their
married brothers. Unmarried and childless old people who do not have any one to
support them also land up there.
In India
too, old age homes for Muslims have come up due to the changing social
scenario. Ashiana Old Age Home in Bangalore and Fatima Old Age Home in
Hyderabad are two such homes. Fatima Old Age Home is a secular home but the
majority inmates are Muslims. There are many Muslim families who abandon their
parents despite wealth and prosperity only because they do not want an ailing
mother or father in the house. There are many families who cannot take care of
their parents because both the spouses work and cannot provide care for them.
Some parents are left lonely because their sons have settled abroad with
family. However, there are men in Bangladesh and Pakistan who happily leave
their parent in an old age home only because they do not want quarrels between
the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. They pay monthly to the home for the
services and occasionally visit them. This cannot be justified by any means.
In short,
the mind-set of the Muslim society is changing in face of fast the changing
socio-economic conditions. Age old and much boasted Islamic family values have
lost significance among the rich and the upper class Muslim society and they
consider their old patents az burden and a liability.
-----
S.
Arshad is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/old-age-blot-muslim-society/d/127318
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