An Islamic cleric, Ridwanullahi Olagunju, has called on parents to be actively involved in choosing spouses for their wards to curb rising cases of divorce in the country.

Mr Olagunju gave the advice on Saturday at a weekly Ramadan lecture organised by the Women’s Forum of the Al-Habibiyah Islamic Society in Abuja.

The theme of the event was “The Role of Parents in Choosing/Suggesting Partners for Their Children.”

The cleric said Islam supported parental involvement in spouse selection, noting that regardless of children’s maturity or age, they were often less experienced than their parents in making such decisions.

“And that is why Islam has enjoined that parents should not sit down and look while their children pick wives and pick husbands.

“They should be actively involved. They should try to search for them. They should try to evaluate the qualities in the proposed man.

“In all these, they should try to prioritise certain things such as piety, being religious, being loyal, being dedicated, and being committed so that at the end of the day, there would be no cases of divorce.

“God does not want divorce. And when you look at it around, divorce is getting high in Nigeria,” he said.

He said that, according to a study, the divorce rate in 2023 was 2.8 per cent of total marriages conducted that year.

According to the cleric, the same happens in Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, and the United States, as marriages crash the year they are conducted.

“So, when parents come in and take active roles, chances are that our children will be better counselled, and the end result will be better than what we are having. May God help us,” Mr Olagunju said.

Also speaking, Khadijah Gambo, a guest lecturer, said marriage should be done for the sake of Allah.

Ms Gambo said, “Essentially, what I think is that a lot of marriages are not done for the sake of Allah. It’s more for other considerations. And so, the end result will always be regret.

“But if we do it for the sake of Allah, we may make a mistake. But if the intention is good, Allah will guide us towards finding a solution to our problems.”

Also, Habiba Ahmed, Director of Endowment and Empowerment of Al-Habibiyah Islamic Society, said the programme targeted parents in their roles towards guiding their wards to choose righteous spouses.

(NAN)