How Religions See Families

For Muslims, then, the family is the central institution; it is at the centre both of theology and sociology: 'The family is a divinely-inspired institution that came into existence with the creation of man. The human race is a product of this institution and not the other way round' (Ahmad 1974: 13). Not surprisingly, the most intricate rules and regulations guide family life. About a third of the legal injunctions in the Qur'an deal with family matters. These aim to produce the attitudes and behaviour patterns that Islam wants to foster in society. And they cover different generations: a Muslim family is an extended family, normally with three or four generations within its circle. It is also quite common to find arrangd marriages in this culture.
For the Hindu culture, family is an institution of a spiritual purity where people respect 'relationships' (called toll free bridges), where they are free and yet have all advantages of connectedness. Hindu families represent 1/6 of the population and they feel as if many families are starting to fail to keep traditions alive. The families children decide to marry Americans and the pure blood Hindus begin to decrease, which "hurts their culture." Many just decide to marry outside the faith. Hindu family has a very developed network of relationship. Pita - Father, Mata - Mother.
Buddhist social philosophy looks at the "family" as a grouping of people living in the same house. The concept of the "family" is however extended to the relatives, neighbors, friends, community, society and finally to humanity. It regards all human beings as being members of the "one family".The Buddhist path places great emphasis upon the actions and behaviors of each member of the family. The Sigalovada Sutta, for instance, details the relationships between parents and children; wife and husband; between siblings.