TAKATHUR versus INJAB

These are two words in the Arabic language, the translation of each in English is "reproduction", although in Arabic they are not synonymous.   Takathur Covers biological reproduction, the act of increasing the number by giving birth to little babes. It can apply to man as it does to animals.

The use of the other word-injab-introduces another dimension to reproduction: dealing with the quality and more-than-physical attributes of the final product, as befitting "human" reproduction. Woman's duties to her born children go beyond birth, feeding and caring for physical needs, even if these are carried out in the most sophisticated way. The spiritual needs have to be catered for as well, and raising the children upon solid moral standards is of crucial importance. Psychologists maintain that the formative years moulding the ultimate personality are the first five years of life, almost totally under maternal influence. It is true to say then that mothers are the shapers of the nation and the makers of the future in accordance with the quality of the future supply of men and women in the making. It is before the battle that a soldier is trained and not during it. And it behoves mothers to prepare their children to resist the harmful currents oflife and stand up to peer pressure pushing them in the wrong direction. It is during childhood and by the mothers that smoking, drinking, drugs, license, violence, greed, selfishness and the other ailments of modem, society are to be combated. This is a principal aspect of mothering that is unfortunately lacking in many modern societies-affluent and poor alike-and it makes all the difference between 'takathur' and 'injab'. In ultramodern societies where mothers broke the barriers of freedom into irresponsible individualism, and in ultra regressive societies stunting the status of women and unaware of their critical role in making the future, the final product stands unsatisfactory even though in varying patterns . Neither way is Islamic. Perhaps training for motherhood both at school and in the health institution can be modified to accommodate the moral dimension.