Every world country has made laws, acts, or regulations to bring harmony to the community and society. Legal laws sometimes override religious laws, and many estate planning attorneys and lawyers agree. Non-Muslim majority countries are trending their law structures with secularism concepts. Many Muslim-majority nations have adopted English and French civil and family laws in their legal systems, with one exception, which is the inheritance law which still has some roots in the world. The inheritance laws, in general, are promised to citizens by constitutions, with some exceptions. There are some similarities between Islamic and legal laws as well.
There are no specific laws, but legal laws govern secularism. There is an open ground of war between secularism and religion. Secularism poses questions, concerns, and criticism. Religions do not have other options than defending. Secularism is rising day by day, and so, the defense becomes weaker day by day. The major reform of Islamic law came not before the 19th century because secularism was spreading fast and seeking a solution to make Religion equally Secular.
It is important to clearly understand Secularism in the context of religions. The word “Secular” and “Secularism” has the root of the Latin word “Saecula,” which means “world” or “age.” In common jargon, it is to say someone is “Secular,” which means he is focused on “this world or the age” only, that is, a world without God. Secularization is becoming increasingly difficult to define due to the theory being continuously revised. This theory refers to the decline of religious thinking and influence over individuals. Religious ceremonies have steadily decreased, showing the impact of family secularization on marriage.
If you want to summarize the changes in family structure over the past century, the truest thing to say is this: We’ve made life freer for individuals and more unstable for families. We’ve made life better for adults but worse for children. We’ve moved from big, interconnected, and extended families, which helped protect the most vulnerable people in society from the shocks of life, to smaller, detached nuclear families (a married couple and their children), which give the most privileged people in society room to maximize their talents and expand their options. The shift from bigger and interconnected extended families to smaller and detached nuclear families ultimately led to a familial system that liberates the rich and ravages the working class and the poor. All forms of inequality are cruel, but family inequality may be the cruelest. It damages the heart. Eventually, family inequality even undermines the economy the nuclear family was meant to serve: Children who grow up in chaos have trouble becoming skilled, stable, and socially mobile employees later on. (REF-The Nuclear Family was a mistake by David Boorks, published March 2020 issue, Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-nuclear-family-was-a-mistake/605536/)
This is the ideal family system in the secular world, and now we are debating and reforming Islamic inheritance law, which is very far from the secular world. So, no line appears where to stop debating topics like this. It is impossible to align Islamic law with secular law with a few exceptions. Islam does not only emphasize the family system but is also regulated by the law of marriage and succession.
Religion, on the other hand, as defined here, is, in its mundane aspect, an institution separating and upholding “sacred” acts against those worldly or “profane.” All religions, from “primitive” to the most advanced types, such as Confucianism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and their derivatives-have classified family relations as the most important of “sacred acts” of a “worldly” type. A true believer must not only love “God” but be very faithful to family obligations involved in carrying out the roles of husband, wife, parent, child, or kindred. Very much of this arises out of the fact that religion institutionalizes the quintessence of the basic mores. It is a collective and not an individual “fact.” Religious control of family has lasted long periods, but ages of extreme individualism or unlimited state of control of the family have been short and violent. (REF- Family and Religion by Carle C. Zimmerman: Social science, Vol.48, No.4 (AUTUMN 1973)) The Bible (Psalm 14:1) labels such a person a fool. (REF-A lecture on “Secularism on the March: The Abolition of Marriage and Family.” delivered on 24 October 2018 by Dr. Stephen Noll).
In Islam, Secular people have turned to believers when harm touches them through sickness, hardships, or disasters (REF -Holy Quran 17:67).