8 Contemporary Marital Challenges

Starting, number one, with the economy.

Not really the point that you think we'll be starting with, right? But it's an important one.

It's a very important one.

There's a lot wrong with modern economics that's making marriage and family life unsustainable and unrealistic for many people.

Of course, this one is relative to where you are in the world.

It may apply more to some lands than to others, and to some communities and cultures than to others.

But just to give you some ideas of economic problems that are getting in the way of marriage.

So in some Muslim cultures, the bar for entry for marriage is too high.

A man is expected to already have a successful career, certain amount of money in savings, own a home, own a fancy car, and all of that, before he can even consider proposing to anyone.

This is completely an un-Islamic culture, and it goes completely against the Islamic idea that marriage is starting up.

You build your life together.

You'll get all of that later in life.

That's not the starting point that comes later.

Essentially, these cultures want men to basically love a full life and a successful life before they even think about marriage.

The problem then is the years of their life when they most need a wife, they are going to be single and it's more likely they're going to fall into sin.

And so this is one example of an economic problem.

On the other hand, go to other parts of the world, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and you have a completely different economic problem.

The economic problem in these lands is that these economies are built around the idea of a two-income household.

And so if you want to have a traditional family where the man earns and the wife stays home and raises the children, It is very difficult if you are living in these lands.

The cost of living coupled with the low level salaries makes it very difficult for families to survive on a single source of income.

So what is my advice for all of this? Well, there's a number of ways that we can deal with this.

Number one would be just making do with the best that we can.

So this means if you have to live in one of these lands and you need two sources of income, then, you know, Qadarullah.

In that case, you know, the wife will have to work and contribute to the family as well.

It's not ideal.