We make a special appeal to all husbands and ex-wives embroiled in a custody battle to consider the following:
Allah Ta’ala advises us in Surah Baqarah: "The mother shall not be hurt through her child, nor shall the further be hurt through his child." Nowadays our couples-at-war are perpetrating the exact opposite of what Our Allah has commanded. We are using kids as pawns in a war of attrition, to get back at the other.
These innocent flowers of Jannah are turned into vicious instruments of hell, when inconsiderate parents give vent to their spite, malice, and craving for vengeance. Mothers will run to the court for maintenance, but deny the father visitation rights. Their ill-considered behaviour results in court cases that cost thousand of rands. Don’t they realise that should they co-operate with the ex-husband, such money could come the way of the children, instead of lining the lawyer’s pockets? Husbands in turn, shirk their duty of maintenance for children. Either they pay too less or nothing at all. While at the same time, ex wives should not extract exorbitant maintenance amounts from the fathers, and then use this money to go on shopping splurges. This is abuse of trust. In short, in custody battles and maintenance there is much abuse of Shariah going on. For Allah’s sake, we call upon all parties to bring this to a halt immediately. Let sanity and Islamic morality prevail.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Child Custody Issues
Monday, April 21, 2008
Mxit Endangers Girls
Interactive cell site allows teens to be misled by older men
On average three Port Elizabeth girls run away from home with strangers they meet on interactive mobile site MXit every month. Many of these girls are then held captive, abused and raped.
MXit is a popular chat application that allows users to chat with people anywhere in the world on their cell phones at a fraction of the cost of an sms.
Five PE girls are reported missing every month and more than half of them run away with men they meet on MXit. Most of the girls are white and between the ages of 14 and 17.
‘Gran’ of the non-proft organisation Pink Ladies which helps find missing children said the number of girls running away with guys they meet on MXit had increased substantially during the past year.
She said the meetings in chatrooms often lead to trafficking – older men try to lure a number of girls to leave home and then use them for sex.
Pink Ladies uses MXit positively – to find the missing girls by contacting them and then convincing them to return home. She said that most men abducting these girls were divorced and over the age of 30
An online behaviour expert at leading SA online research organisation Netucation Ramon Thomas said children with single parents were more at risk of running into danger with MXit because they had more unsupervised time by themselves. He said that MXit and cellphones were also causing social problems and that it could affect the brain neurology and cognitive development of younger children. “MXit allows people to spread rumours and create fake identities”, he added.
Annelize Jerling of the eBlockwatch crime fighting community project said the two main signs for parents to look out for were secrecy and a change in behaviour. She said it was easier for sites such as eBlockwatch to identify how many children went missing because of MXit, because of the questionnaire they made parents fill in regarding their children’s behaviour before their disappearance. This includes the amount of time a child’s spends on his or her cell-phone.
Pieter Boshoff of missingchildren.co.za said he had dealt with a disturbing number of cases of children missing in PE because of people they met on MXit.
There are said to be about 385,000 MXit users between the ages 12 and 17.
Courtesy Algoa Sun, Port Elizabeth 13.03.08
The above survey is an addition to the growing number of social and spiritual evils that emanate from MXit. There is further documentary evidence of marriages breaking up when wives go private on MXit with other men, of married women getting involved with teenage males, of teenage girls getting raped by teenage boys when the two meet after prolonged courting through MXit.
In a strange but terribly sickening twist of fate, a couple shared intimate details of themselves on MXit, and even explicit sexual messages, only to discover later on that they were actually brother and sister! In another terribly bizarre and far more nauseating incident, two such MXit teenagers met each other under the cover of darkness, obviously with the help of friends, and indulged in zinaa. When they had finished, both were horrified to learn that they were brother and sister!
A similar incident is recorded of a man who unknowingly communicated with his own wife on MXit, a means through which the infidelity of each was humiliatingly exposed. One wonders when our Muslim MXit users will come to their senses. Shocking incidents like these are now even found among our Muslim youth and adults. Alas, and alas a thousand times, it appears that the grip of lust on the hearts of our youth has become so powerful it’s almost inextricable.
Are we going to continue living our lives they way we are currently doing until death overtakes us? Do we wish to die in this state of drunken lust and promiscuity? Do we honestly believe that our iemaan will remain perfectly intact while we live as slaves to lust and sexual greed? Is the mere thought of dying not enough to sober our minds and bring us back to reality?
If our Muslim brothers and sisters really believed in the hereafter, they would not be so lethargic and apathetic to the serious malady with which they are besotted. We commit our sin in secrecy and under the cover of darkness, but the Eye of Allah is All-Seeing, and His Knowledge is All-Encompassing. Nothing escapes His Gaze or His Infinite Knowledge.
And Allah Knows your movements outside and your living inside the home. (Surah Muhammad)