Why Bring Children Into This World?
Salaam,
People ask the question: Should I bring children into such a dismal world?
Here are some thoughts based on Qur'an:
It's interesting to note that "bringing children into the world" figures prominently in the Qur'an (and Bible as well). In Surah Maryam alone, God tells us of the miraculous births of three children.
First, we have Yahya to Zakariya and his wife. Zakariya is elderly and his wife, too, is older and seemingly unable to conceive or at least bring a child to term. Zakariya wants a child even though he observes that his relatives and his community have turned away from devotion and this profoundly worries him.
"And remember of the Mercy of thy Lord unto His servant, Zakariya, when he cried out to His Lord with a secret cry. He said, "My Lord! Verily my bones have grown feeble, and my head glistens with white hair. And in calling upon Thee, my Lord, I have never been wretched. Truly I fear my relatives after me, and my wife is barren. So grant me from Thy Presence a child who will inherit from me and inherit from the House of Jacob. And make him, my Lord, well-pleasing." 2-7
Second, God gives us the story of Jesus whose life is marked by a miraculous conception. And it is hardly arbitrary that Mary was engaged in intense devotion-- after withdrawing from her family and community--when she first encountered the Holy Spirit. It also creates a fascinating parallel with Prophet Muhammad's own story in which he retreated from his family to a cave to devote himself to God and it is there that he encountered Angel Gabriel (who is likely the same being Mary encountered).
"And remember Mary in the Book, when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place. And she veiled herself from them. Then We sent unto her Our Spirit, and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect man. She said, "I seek refuge from thee in the Compassionate, if you are reverent!" He said, "I am but a messenger of thy Lord, to bestow upon thee a pure boy." 16-19
Third, God mentions that he blessed Abraham with Isaac and Ismael in his old age after Abraham has been desirous of children for so long.
"And I withdraw myself from you and that which you call upon apart from God. And I call upon my Lord; it may be that in calling upon my Lord, I will not be wretched." So when he had withdrawn from them and that which they called upon apart from God, We bestowed upon him Isaac and Jacob, and each We made a prophet." 48-49
Being a parent comes with sacrifice built in. Whether external circumstances are difficult or not (and the people mentioned above all faced serious challenges), the fact that every child a parent painstakingly nurtures will eventually die is tragic enough. But you hope to bring someone into the world whose triumph is sufficiently gratifying even in the face of inevitable death. And when one is convinced of the mercy of God and the eternality of life it certainly makes coping with the cold fact of earthly morality more manageable.
Finally, a quote from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf:
"God created the womb as the sacred space where the greatest creative act of the divine occurs: the creation of a sentient and sapiential being with the potential to know the divine."
------------------
P.S.
On a side note, isn't it interesting that in these stories it's the two male figures who pined for children and the female figure who isn't thinking about children at all?