The Forerunner Welfare Foundation (FWF) last weekend held the fourth edition of its annual reunion with how to achieve bliss in marriages and raise spiritually and socially upright children as the centre of interest.
The event, held at Professor Musa Abdul Civic Centre, University of Ibadan Central Mosque, was attended by members of the foundation from far and near with their wives and children.
The FWF, which evolved from the University of Ibadan Muslim Brotherhood (UIMB), is a not-for-profit body of Muslim graduates of the University of Ibadan who are operating in different spheres of human endeavour and have come together to assist one another and other members of the ummah, including undergraduate students of the university.
Addressing the gathering, the FWF chairman, Mr Ibrahim Hammed, stated that it is imperative for married couples to develop good communication styles for mutual understanding and effective running of their homes.
Hammed, who admonished spouses to foster mutual trust and avoid keeping secrets from each other to achieve lasting and enjoyable unions, underscored the need for husbands and wives to help each other improve their earning capacity to guarantee financial freedom for their families.
According to Hammed, it is important for parents to befriend their children and be their confidants and to teach them about life and living with God-consciousness so that they will know their duties and how to perform them as they grow into adults.
Children, especially adolescents, he emphasised, should be educated about sex and sexuality and other social behaviours as part of steps to correct the moral bankruptcy in the society today.
“The family is the most fundamental unit in any society. If you are looking at a society with lots of moral issues from the macro level, you will be making mistakes trying to fix the problem from there. But if you go down to the most fundamental unit, which is the family, and address the issue from there, it is a natural thing for the problems in the society to be resolved.
“We thought through what is going on around us and we decided to focus on family as part of this year’s theme. We felt it is important, since our spouses and children would be around, to talk about what makes families strong, unbreakable. You shouldn’t be coping within your family; family is something you should enjoy.
“Some people look good outside (the family) but inside, they are a different breed of animal. So, we felt we should address some of the issues we have heard like rumour. If these issues are well trashed out today, whoever was not clear about certain things would be able to get well grounded in those concepts,” he told the Nigerian Tribune in an interview during the event.
Hammed clarified that the foundation “is not a rival entity” to the University of Ibadan Muslim Graduates Association (UIMGA), with which “we have some shared values.”
The chairman of the organising committee of the FWF Reunion 2024, Yahya Lamidi, expressed gladness that the event provided an avenue for members of the foundation and their families to make merry and share quality time together.
Lamidi said the reunion was not only to celebrate but it was also “to renew our commitment to being vanguards of the truth as taught by our beloved Prophet Muhammad.”
The reunion lecture was delivered by Alhaji Sulaiman Folorunso, with contributions to the discourse made by several other members of the foundation.
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