The structure of the family is threefold. The first and the closest consist of the husband, the wife, their children, their parents who live with them, and servants, if any. The next group, the central fold of the family, consist of a number of close relatives, whether they live together or not, who have special claims upon each other, who move freely inside the family with whom marriage is forbidden and between whom there is no hijab (purdah). These are the people who also have prior claim on the wealth and resources of a person, in life as well as in death (as beneficiaries, known in the matter of inheritance as ‘shares’, the first line of inheritors). The crucial thing in this respect is that they are regarded as mahram, those with whom marriage is prohibited. This constitutes the real core of the family, sharing each other joys, sorrow, hopes and fears. This relationship emerges from consanguinity, affinity and foster-nursing. Relations based on consanguinity, include (a) father, mother, grandfather, grandmother and other direct forbears; (b) direct descendants, that is sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, etc. (c) relations of the second degree (such as brothers, sisters and their descendants), (d) father’s or mother’s a sister (not their daughter or other descendants).
Those based on affinity include (I) mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandmother-in-law, grandfather-in-law; (ii) wife’s daughters, husband’s sons or their grand- or great-granddaughters or -sons respectively; (iii) son’s wife, son’s son’s wife, daughter’s husband, and (iv) stepmothers and stepfathers. With some exceptions the same relations are forbidden through foster-nursing (al-rida’ah).
This is the real extended family and the nucleus of relationship. All those relations who are outside this fold constitute the outer periphery of the family. They, too, have their own rights and obligations, as is borne out by the fact that a number of them have included in the second and third lines of inheritors.
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