ON BECOMING MUKALLAF

From the age of puberty onwards, according to Islam, you become mukallaf. This means that you come under the obligation to discharge all the duties and fulfill all the right of an adult. To keep yourself physically clean is an obligations, to work is an obligation, to refrain from lying or the consumption of alcohol is an obligation; these are no less than the obligation of maintaining honour and chastity and performing Prayer.

The concept of individual responsibility, of being mukallaf, is a most dynamic one for individual fulfillment and social harmony. All obligation, whether on you as an individual or on a community as a whole, are designed to encourage and promote the good and beautiful, and to discourage and combat the bad and reprehensible.

The values, attitudes and habits encouraged by Islam are in conformity with the natural goodness of man. The values and habits it condemns go against the grain of man’s innate goodness. This you bear in mind whenever you consider the Islamic prescriptions for your intellectual and physical, spiritual and moral, emotional and psychological development.