Closing Remarks of the Fourth International Conference

Family Empowerment: The Social Foundation of Human Civilization

Beirut on April 26, 2024

Al Maaref University concluded the activities of the fourth international conference that was organized under the title: “Family Empowerment: The Social Foundation of Human Civilization,” which took place on the university’s campus in, Beirut, on Thursday and Friday, April 25, and 26, 2024, in the presence and participation of an elite group of their Excellencies, Sovereignty, Eminence, and intellectuals, researchers, professors, and students of universities and seminaries from Lebanon and abroad.

Following the opening ceremony, and for two days, the panelists were engaged in discussions over five main sessions:

- Session I: The Impact of Intellectual and Social Transformations on the

- Session II: The Breakdown of the Family Structure in Favor of the Capitalist Economy

- Session III: Paths and Agreements for Dismantling the Family

- Session IV: Family as The Foundation of Human Socialization

- Session V: Empowering the Family as a Humanitarian Civilizational

Project Judging from the research papers presented during the conference which addressed the problematics raised over the conference's topic, and from the interventions by attendees, the conference remarked with the following: First - In the General Conclusions:

Without a religious, moral, and cultural framework, we cannot save the family, for all these dimensions are fundamentally linked to each other in society and humanity.
The family and its role have no meaning, apart from the connection with God the Almighty. All other arguments can be criticized and questioned, therefore we need to restore confidence in our entire culture and traditions because the family is the first cultural value of the human being.
This world has been formed and created according to laws and regulations, and among those divine laws in creation is the Sunna (practice) of creating pairs. Humans are not exempt from this divine Sunna; there is a natural inclination for humans towards the opposite sex, ensuring their health and the continuity of their offspring.
The family is the foundation and consistency of a society, and throughout history, it has been the primary social institution. Islamic teachings have prompted the family as the base of tranquility, gentleness, sublimity, affection, and mercy.
Women's efforts in rejecting discrimination against them and achieving justice due to the social and historical wrongs that have befallen them throughout the ages began correctly, however, unfortunately, they lost their course, as feminist movements reached the point of destroying the structure of the family system instead of seeking the establishment of justice and stability.
Tolerance towards an unnatural behavior such as homosexuality has become a social value claiming that it is democracy, freedom, and tolerance…while the real direct influence of the spread of homosexuality in the destruction of the family and the moral system does not need any explanation.
The invitations called for by the United Nations literature make the relationship between a woman and a man a confliction one, such relation pushes to strengthen the woman's negotiating position based on her financial independence, while these calls never consider the family status and its stability, and its permanence.
Women's suffering and the state of the family environment will worsen over time amid the greed of capitalists and corporate owners and the greed of governments. The feminist movement will seek to readapt its discourse to the ongoing market changes, keeping the level of women's freedom linked to the market ceiling, not to the basic freedoms that women seek to obtain.
Western societies today are liquid societies par excellence, as they live a liquid life based on a liquid culture, mired in excessive consumption, excessive utilitarianism, and ungratefully neglectful of the past that represents the heritage and values.
The West is spiritlessly weak, has lost its metaphysical sense and metaphysical thirstiness, and has a confused vision of truth, self, the other, and the world.
The first thing modernity has aimed for since its formation is liberation from the burden of religion that shackles minds and wills, as it turned its back on a thousand years of theology and philosophy, and adopted without hesitation the exclusion of God and his absence from intellect and public life. This absence resulted in the establishment of man’s sole authority in everything related to his affairs, and to all worldly matters, therefore the family is no longer an asset or a haven of stability for them, but rather an occasional group that includes individuals who share interests or circumstantial necessities. There is no harm in dismantling it.
Reality reveals that family needs today to be re-examined and re-established in terms of its status, foundation, goals, roles, functions, rights and responsibilities, and ways to prevent the effects of contemporary challenges, based on the religious and moral heritage that is rich with all the structural elements of the family entity.
The family is the primary educator for developing moral values, raising children, and shaping their personality. Besides, it is the primary place for teaching morals, disseminating and protecting moral values, and having a crucial influence and action in shaping all personal aspects of its members.
Considering the family as the base of the human foundation, is linked to the purpose of the human structure and the objective behind the human creation, as Whoever believes in God’s wisdom and his infinite powers knows with certainty that if the All-Wise Creator creates something, He makes a goal for it.
The Holy Qur’an considers that the family bond must be based on the strongest human relationships and values; serenity, affection, love, compassion, and respect.
Without the family, we would struggle to understand the essence of humanity, which begins with the union of a man and a woman, so neither a man nor a woman would achieve their complete humanity without the other one.
The family is not just a social structure; rather, it establishes the restoration of perfectionism to human nature. Otherwise, any liberal approach to marriage or gender that ignores this fundamental fact threatens the human and social texture itself.
Based on a cultural and traditional perspective, it is repeatedly emphasized that homosexuality did not exist in the traditional cultures of peoples, even African ones, as it is considered a modern practice coming from the West. Many believe that it was imposed on Africans because of their deteriorating economic situation.

The recommendations were as follows:

Second: Recommendations

Rejecting liberal and Western hegemony in the modern world, which is destroying the family in Gaza and Palestine, today, and working to subvert social and humanitarian structures.
Raising the banner of the family, empowering it, and defending the family as a well-known model to humanity, which was called for by religions, because without religion we lack the deep existential meaning of the family.
Finding safe outlets for the woman out of this dark tunnel that the West has reached. Here, it is necessary to strengthen the status of the woman in society, ensure true justice, and take preventive measures to protect social values.
Fronting the collapse of culture and the decline of morals, the alternative for the peoples who are eager for progress lies in developing a non-imported modernity that resembles them and stems out of their culture in a way that suits their future aspirations.
Societies concerned about their identity and culture must rush to take the initiative to draw up educational strategies and preventive or defensive social policies that range according to circumstances, from awakening to awareness to immunization to resistance.
Today, due to the global cultural hooplas, a theory should be established based on the axial of the family and its empowerment, based on the pivotal of the Quraan so that it becomes the civilizational and cultural haven for Muslims and non-Muslims.
Reaffirming the culture of “affection” and “Referentiality” in Muslim culture the right way, for it is one of the influential factors in achieving moral gravitation in the family and re-healing the bonds of human society.
Generating a speech in contemporary and scientific language that emphasizes the good and direct relationship between marriage and the development of a woman’s potential, status, and even her work and her service towards society.
Shedding light in the media and educational curricula on the great role of the family, especially the responsibility undertaken by the mother/wife in fulfilling this role.
The importance of family counseling in protecting the family within the scope of the humanitarian and cultural scheme.

The statement is concluded.

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