Pornography & Masturbation in the Light of the Islamic Tradition
Dr. Tarek Elgawhary
INTRODUCTION
Looked at from the lens of Islam, the topics of pornography and masturbation are considered specific issues related to human actions, the purview of Islamic law. In light of Islam’s extensive legal tradition, one will find a comprehensive argument for why both the viewing of pornography (and a fortiori participation in pornography) and masturbation are prohibited acts. I will come to discuss many of these points in the following pages. However, there is also a general aspect to both these topics that stems from Islam also being an ethical system that provides spiritual guidance to its followers. Both the spiritual guidance as well as the legal arguments are connected to Islam’s thought paradigm in a fundamental way, like the radii of a circle connecting the circumference to the center. Without first understanding this paradigm and the underlying first-principles upon which it is based, reading through the legal arguments and ethical concerns would be bereft of the original intent of such arguments and teachings: to guide people to better conduct in this world, leading to, and hopefully for us all, salvation in the world to come. Therefore, space must be given for me to show and share, not to proselytize and preach, the specific aspects of this thought paradigm and first-principles necessary to understand the legal arguments that consume the bulk of these pages.
It is easy to be lost in the endless lacunae of Islam’s vast legal tradition and forget that there is a robust metaphysical bedrock to it all. This is not a common problem found only amongst non-Muslims. Modern Muslims often reduce their practice of Islam (i.e. religiosity) and understanding of Islam (i.e. the study of religion) to a laundry list of dos and don’ts; rules and restrictions; permissible and impressible acts, etc. While there is no denying that this is certainly part of Islam’s legal tradition, it misses the larger point that this legal tradition, more specifically the portion of the two primary sources of Islam (the Quran and Traditions of Prophet Muhammad) that deal with legal matters, constitute no more than 3% of the entirety of these sources. Of the 6,236 verses of the Quran no more than 300-400 deal with matters of law, and of the nearly 120,000 traditions attributed to Prophet Muhammad (in all their variances and strengths) no more than 2,000-3,000 are considered legally. Therefore, most of the Islamic tradition, like all other traditions, deal with the greater issues that face the human condition: issues of belief and ethical conduct. This is a reminder for the novice and Islamic legal experts alike that without linking everything back to the metaphysical center, it is easy to become lost on the superficial circumference forgetting that there is a bedrock to such arguments. Loosing connection to the center is to lose the very heart of what Islam teaches on these topics and a host of others.
The issues of pornography and masturbation largely deal with sexuality, and to understand what Islam teaches with regards to sexuality, it is fundamental to understand how Islam views the creation of men and women (the two biological genders posited in the Islamic tradition) and the concept of moral reasonability (taklīf in Islamic sources) which comes with our creation and subsequent birth. Then from these first principles we can begin to discuss marriage and lineage, the two necessary biproducts of the creation of men and women, one to another, and two topics Islam is very much concerned with. This will lay a solid paradigmatic understanding that constitutes the “norm” by which we can then understand the aberrant, i.e. pornography, where nearly all these first principles are flipped upside down. Following this I will discuss the topic of masturbation which, perhaps, is the easier of the two topics to discuss as there are many texts from Islam’s primary sources that speak to masturbation, whereas pornography is a newer phenomenon not experienced directly by the early generation of Islam.
MEN & WOMEN
CREATION
The origin of our creation begins with God’s declarations to the angels, I shall place a vicegerent on earth (Quran 2:30). To aid in this noble task, God taught Adam the name of all things (Quran 2:31) giving him and anyone he might teach the necessary knowledge of the uses and categories of all things he will encounter in his terrestrial abode. In order that Adam would not be lonely, and that vicegerency could be perpetual if there was progeny, God created for Adam, from Adam, his mate Eve. God states, And of His truly wondrous signs is having created for you, from your own kind, wives to repose in solace to, and made between you ender love and mercy. (Quran 30:21). The creation of humanity as posited in the Quran, therefore, is based on the two themes of vicegerency and pairing.
What, then, is vicegerency?
Muslim scholars seeking to identify what exactly it means to be God’s vicegerent on earth concluded that there are three meta-injunctions that come with this role. The first is to lead a life of devotion and worship of God: Nor have I created Jinn and Man, but to worship Me (Quran 51:156), the second is to constantly improve ourselves to become the best versions of ourselves: he has truly succeeded forever who make it (i.e. the self) reach full purity in faith and deed, and he has truly failed forever who buries it (i.e. the self) in evil! (Quran 90:10-11), and the third is to collectively develop and build the earth: He has created you from the substance of the earth and asked of you to develop it. (Quran 11:61).[1] Worshiping God means paying back the debt (dayn) we owe God for our creation. Interestingly, it is from this same word that Arabic renders the word for religion/tradition (dīn), which is similar to the etymology of the English word religion, from the Latin religion-em to bind.[2] The injunction for self-purification stems from Islam’s basic teaching that we are made of a physical body (jasad), a subtle soul (rūḥ) that gives life to this body, and a rational and articulating self (nafs) that can fluctuate from very bad calling towards evil action to very good being inspiring and uplifted, and all the shades in between. Purifying the self, then, forms an individual obligation that is ongoing and termed in Islam the “greater struggle” (al-jihād al-akbar). The third injunction of developing the earth is perhaps best understood by a Western audience as a commentary on Aristotle’s claim in his Politics that man is a political animal, meaning that the human condition is collective and therefore we must work together to build collectively for the benefit of our race.[3]
What, then, does it mean that we were created in pairs?
Absent from the creation story of Islam is the concept of Original Sin. Rather, the second focus after vicegerency is the fact that our creation is in pairs: men and women. The following verses speak for themselves regarding this:
- He created you all from a single soul, and yet more, made from it its mate (Quran 39:6).
- O mankind, fear your Lord who created you from a single soul, and created of its mate (Quran 4:1).
- And it is He who raised you forth from one single soul, to bide safely on earth, then he reposited in it. (Quran 6:98).
- He alone created you all from but a single soul and made of its own kind its mate to find solace (Quran7:189).
- He created you al from a single soul, and yet more, made from it its mate (Quran39:6).
In addition to the concept of pairs, these verses also indicate that the pairs emanate from a single soul. Herein, perhaps, is the greatest teaching about creation. Although we are created different, we are of one shared origin. The plurality of the human condition, whether manifested in the differences of the two genders, or manifested in various racial groups, or even manifested in various beliefs and traditions underscores that such variations and differences emanate from the same source; the same original soul from which we were all created. While we celebrate these differences as part of God’s Divine signs (And of His truly wondrous signs is the unceasing creation of the heavens and earth, and the difference of your tongues and hies; verily in that are a multitude of signs (Quran 30:22) & O mankind: verily we created you of a single male and female, and made you different peoples and tribes to know and appreciate your kindred ties with each other, verily the greatest of you all in the sight of God is the most Godfearing of you. Verily God is All-Knowing, All-Aware (Quran 49:13)), it is the commonality of creation that ultimately binds us together.
COMPLEMENTARITY
The role of God’s vicegerent is one shared by both men and women. They equally share in moral responsibility (taklīf) vis-à-vis the meta principles referenced above. Take the following verses as examples:
- Whoso works ill shall be requited but the like of it; and whoso works a single righteous deed, whether man or women, while a believer, those shall enter paradise, given unfailing provision therein without reckoning. (Quran 40:40).
- So forthwith their Lord answered them: verily I waste not the work of any worker of you, man or women: you are of one another. (Quran 3:195).
- And whoever works of righteous deeds, whether male or female, while a believer, those shall enter paradise. (Quran 4:124).
- Whoever works righteousness, whether man or women, being a believer, we shall bestow them a life wondrous fair and requite them their wage hereafter. (Quran 16:97).
- And true believers, men and women, are the faithful friends and protectors of each other. (Quran 9:70).
- Verily men and women utter in their submission to God; and men and women who truly believe; and men and women devoted in adoration; and men and women true in word and deed; and men and women ever steadfast in patience; and men and women meek with humbled awe; and men and women who expend in charity; and men and women who fast; and men and women who keep their private parts wholly chaste; and most nobly men and women who remember God much: God has prepare for all of them a mighty forgiveness and incomparable wage. (Quran 33:35).
These, and many other verses in the Quran, attest to the principle that both men and women are morally responsible agents who are rewarded in the hereafter (or punished) according to their actions in this life. And since these actions are informed by what is proscribed upon both, they are equal from the moral and spiritual point of view. Both men and women can become saints or wretches, exemplars or tragic figures. Equality of men and women, therefore, is found in both their creation (from one soul destined to be God’s vicegerents) as well as their meta-obligations (worship-purification-development).
And yet, men and women, as understood by Islam, are also different. Or perhaps it is better stated that men and women are spiritually and morally equal, but functionally different. Islam affirms the biological differences between the two based on the simple fact that women can bear children (and all related biological considerations), and men cannot. This fundamental physiological and biological difference becomes the substrate for a whole literature concerning the various roles and responsibilities for both men and women. These include, but are not limited to, rules and legal regulations concerning home life, public life, child rearing, financial obligations, inheritance laws, etc. For the untrained and for the one reading these rules divorced from their first principles as well as from the lens of a Western paradigm were opposites often trigger conflict and struggle, it is easy to misunderstand these rules and regulations. While this is not the focus of the current essay, perhaps one simple example will help to make this clear. A common criticism of Islamic law is the “unfair” distribution of inheritance where men are favored over women. However, this is not an accurate critique for the basic fact that larger inheritance shares are based on proximity to the deceased and financial obligation of the decedent. Therefore, there are many instances where women inherit more than men, equal to men, or inherit where men do not inherit at all. There is only one scenario where a man inherits more than women.[4] Perhaps you can see why a brief discussion of Islam’s thought paradigm and first principles is necessary for the current discussion.
Despite the legal literature that speaks to the various roles and responsibilities of men and women which might paint different roles for both, these roles are meant to complement one another and not stand in conflict to one another. This highlights one of the Quran’s major themes, a topic on its own, that opposites in creation indicate complementarity, not conflict; completeness, not struggle. On the topic of men and women the Prophet of Islam stated, “women are the partners of men (Abu Dawūd).” Just as Eve’s creation complemented and completed the creation of Adam, so too is each pairing of man and women a similar and complementary pairing.
The idea that men and women are created equal but different, therefore, indicates that both are needed for each other as well as for the world at large in equal measure to fulfill the greater task of vicegerency. Anything that would favor one over the other, or harm one but not the other, would be a threat to all of humanity and should be avoided at all costs. This teaching is further emphasized, as stated prior, by the absence of Original Sin in any shape or form. As a matter of fact, the reference to the “sin” part of the Adam and Eve story, while certainly a part of scripture, indicates that both engaged in the act (the Arabic of the Quran uses the dual form to indicate such) and were immediately forgiven. The story then moves on from there to the role of vicegerency and complementarity.
More specifically for the relationship of men and women, the Prophet of Islam stated that marriage fulfills one-half of one’s religion (narrated by Bayhaqī). So not only are the roles of men and women complimentary by their very nature, but the union of man and women in marriage represents a fulfillment of that ultimate debt owed to the Creator (dīn) since it is in marriage that one moves from beyond individual concern to the concern of others, which is the basic sentiment upon which society is based. Marriage is therefore celebrated, as we saw in some of the verses above, as one of God’s Divine Signs and the legal vehicle through which sexuality as a human desire is fulfilled and satisfied.
PROGENY & LINEAGE
In general, there are two parts to studying Islamic law: legal theory (or more properly jurisprudence) and legal practice (the points of law this theory produces). Of course, in the proper order of things theory comes before practice, but since theory, and in this case the highly technical nature of legal theory, is often hard to grasp, people tend to focus on practice. As a matter of fact, this is how Islamic law is taught traditionally and how I first studied the subject at al-Azhar Seminary in Cairo, Egypt. The danger in this approach, however, is that if one were to spend too much time in the practice of law, one might forget the theory all together. This is similar to my statement above on the need to learn about the thought paradigm and first principles of Islam before delving into specifics. To help students avoid missing the forest for the trees, Islamic jurists articulated the meta-goals of Islamic law (maqāsid al-sharī‘a). These were and are considered the highest goals and principles that every single point of law must seek to promote, defend, and highlight. It serves as a proof test to see if one’s legal deduction is correct or incorrect. If, for example, we came up with a legal solution that ultimately led to the violation of one of these principles, we would know that we made a mistake in our legal thinking, etc. These five principles are:
- Protection of life
- Protection of intellect
- Protection of religion
- Protection of progeny
- Protection of property
There is no set order to them, and the terminology is not as important as what they mean. For the purposes of this final section of this first part of the essay, I will focus on number four: protection of progeny, which in the literature of Islamic law is often termed as the “pillar of lineage” (‘umūd al-nasab).
In the discussion above concerning the creation of men and women, I introduced the concept of moral responsibility (taklīf). What I omitted from that discussion is that moral responsibility comes at the age of puberty, not before. This is a highly significant fact considering the overall focus of this essay on issues stemming from sexuality. The physiological change from childhood to adulthood with the onset of the awareness of one’s sexuality triggers the onset of moral responsibility because with puberty one has the ability to do or not do something with this new awareness. This also brings on the onset of moral questions such as, is this act right, or this act wrong; what happens if I do something wrong; what is sin; what is reward, etc.? As we will come to see in the discussion of masturbation below, the only sexual act considered morally correct and sound in Islamic law is sexual intercourse as a direct result of marriage. Everything else varies in degrees of impermissibility. One of the reasons behind this, i.e. reasons other than the clear texts found in Islam’s two primary sources, is that sexual intercourse, even if outside of marriage which is considered a major sin[5], establishes blood relations. For example, if a man has intercourse with a woman, even outside of marriage, the children of each become children of the other and thus become unmarriageable relatives (maḥārim). Such a man, by extension, would not be able to marry her daughter as this would be an act of incest. There are also laws about breast feeding establishing lineage which makes milk banks particularly troublesome form the perspective of Islamic law as well as sperm and egg banks for the same reasons. All of these are considered methods for establishing blood relations. To protect and regulate all these considerations which permeates too many aspects of our civic life to enumerate, and would take me on an even longer tangent, marriage takes on monumental importance in Islamic law and by extension blood relationships (i.e. lineage) stemming from marriage. Hence the meta principle of protecting progeny.
It bears mentioning that marriage is traditionally an act (or transaction in the case of Islamic law) defined and regulated by religion, not the state. Of course, today, and most especially in the West, this is hardly recognized, and such matters are considered the purview of civic laws and up to each person’s individual decision. Islamic law, and most modern Muslim majority countries, however, continue to maintain the Islamic legal norms that define marriage and divorce which is enshrined in their legal codes.[6]
The meta legal principle of protection of progeny, therefore, is not just about marriage and sex. This would be another misreading of Islamic law and taking practice without theory. The bigger idea behind it is the importance of maintaining the building blocks of every society: the relations of people to one another. With these relations come obligations of care, financial responsibilities, inheritance considerations, legal obligations, laws related to crimes and punishments, alms, and the list goes on and on. To ensure that these numerous legal implications are guarded Islamic law places a premium on promoting licit relationships based on marriage and the legitimacy of children who come from these marriages as well as children acquired through other means such as wet-nursing, relations by marriage, etc. If there were anything to threaten this basic structure, a structure which is seen as the basic building block of society-an extension of the Quranic obligation to build and develop discussed above, it would be considered a collective harm that must be avoided at all costs. This is why in addressing sex outside of marriage, the Quran says, Nor draw even near fornication: verily it was ever a shameful outrage; and appalling as a way (Quran 17:32). The injunction is not just to stay away from the act, but to stay away from that which could and might lead to the act. This is a legal principle in Islamic law known as “blocking the means to evil” (sadd al-dharī‘a).
**
Now that I have had a chance to discuss some of the aspects of Islam’s thought paradigm and first principles that relate to the broader issue of men and women, we are ready to dive into the two topics of pornography and masturbation.
PORNOGRAPHY
MODESTY
The Prophet of Islam said, “every tradition has its key trait, and the key trait of Islam is modesty (Ibn Mājah).” While this itself is a first principle, I want to consider it here more for its practical applications as it relates to the interactions between men and women. One of the defining features of the Prophet of Islam was his extreme modesty. One Companion described him as “more modest than a virgin in her private abode (Aḥmad).” This modesty extended to his physical person. He wore simple nondistinctive clothes to the point that a foreigner would not have been able to identify him perse amongst his other Companions until observing their extreme reverence and respect towards him. He ate modestly, lived modestly, and was known for his economy in all matters of this world.[7] This is important and significant because his way (what Muslims refer to as his Sunna) is the standard for his followers (both men and women) as he is referred to by Muslims as the Perfect Person (al-insān al-kāmil). To this God says in the Quran Verily you have in the Messenger of God a splendid example (Quran 33:21). Being the exemplar par excellence for Muslims, therefore, the emphasis on modesty is a central Islamic ethic.
More directly related to our topic is the Prophet’s modesty in covering his “nakedness” (‘awra), which is a legal standard defining the part of one’s body (different for men and women) that must be covered when in a mixed or single gender gathering. He was known to have always covered his nakedness, and his wife even commented that she never saw his private parts.[8] This is considered one of his unique qualities (khaṣā’iṣ) that his privates were never seen (nor described for that matter) ever. For a man whom almost everything about his physical appearance is known and documented (e.g. the number of grey hairs in his beard, the scar on his chest, the shape of his breasts and stomach, etc.), this is a testimony to the importance of his modesty which he both practiced and preached.
The concept of one’s nakedness (‘awra) is important to discuss in some detail lest it be confused for a purely quantitative feature of Islamic law. The concept of ‘awra in Islamic literature is larger than the legal definition of nakedness. Indeed, the linguistic definition of the word ‘awra is a reference to vulnerable areas in battle lines that can be exposed and compromised by the enemy.[9] The overlap in meaning, and hence its particularization in Islamic law for the standard of nakedness, therefore, is that one’s nakedness is an aspect of the body that must be protected, lest it be used and abused. One’s nakedness is covered to protect and honor it, not hide and oppress it. We all know what each has under our clothes, more or less, so there is no mystery or illusion that covering our nakedness is meant to hide completely. Rather, it is a reminder of two things with regards to social interactions: one, there are parts of our body that our private and not public so there is no need to focus on the private, and two, our social engagements with one another are meant to be cerebral, not physical; spiritual, not lustful.
Another usage to the word ‘awra is that it is a private aspect of someone’s life. The Prophet of Islam advised his followers not to “follow and investigate people’s private affairs (Dāwūd).” The word for private in this tradition is the plural form (‘awrāt) of the word ‘awra. The teaching here is that there are many aspects of our lives that are hidden from public view and meant to remain hidden. This concept relates to one of the Divine Attributes of God found in Islamic sources: The One Who Conceals (al-Sattār). Just because something is, does not mean that we are meant to know about it. One’s private affairs, what is underneath their clothing, what they do in the privacy of their homes and behind closed doors, what sins or good deeds they commit by themselves, is private and not public. Just as God conceals so too are we meant to keep these things hidden, concealed, and private.
Perhaps of all what I will write in this essay, this may be the most difficult for the Western mind to grasp. In a world where social media allows us to penetrate the private and where people themselves overshare the intimate, one forgets that there is another narrative all together. The Islamic ethical value of modesty undergirded as it is with the concept of private/public and encapsulated as a Divine injunction stemming from God’s Name: The One Who Conceals provides a comprehensive system for social engagement. Muslims freely engage, debate, argue, study, teach, trade, think, create, etc., but at the same time acknowledge that there are limits, and these limits help protect that which is vulnerable and can be exploited; that which is precious and invaluable and must be protected.
As this relates to pornography, then, it should be clear that Islam’s rules on modesty and covering of the private (in all its meanings) closes the pathway that leads to pornography and a fortiori the entire pornography industry itself, most especially consuming it. Indeed, in light of this brief discussion of modesty, pornography turns the entire ethical teaching of Islam inside-out by placing what is meant to be private public, then by normalizing the erasure of concealment which is considered a normal part of the human condition, and lastly by exploiting, abusing, and selling that which is meant to be protected. This protection, it must be remembered, is essential to the meta principle of the protection of progeny and lineage and its associated teachings discussed in the pervious section. It needs to be protected and honored, not because sex is bad (quite the contrary as I will discuss in the next section), but because based on it so many derivatives ensue that impact the basic structure of society.
SEX
What, then, does Islam say about sex? Perhaps it may come as a surprise, but Islam celebrates sex in a way that may be unique from other religious traditions. Afterall, the Prophet of Islam informed his Companions that fulfilling sexual desires with one’s spouse is a source of reward: “‘Having intercourse with one’s wife is an act of charity.’ The Companions asked, ‘O Messenger of God if one of us fulfils his desire, is there reward in that?’ To which he replied, ‘do you not see that if he does it in an unlawful way, he will have the burden of sin? So, if he does it in a lawful way, he will have a reward for that (Muslim).’” And to further highlight its meritorious and spiritual value, the Prophet of Islam taught his Companions that at the time of organism, one should recite the following prayer: “In the Name of God, ward off Satan from us and our offspring (Bukhārī).” Furthermore, when the Prophet of Islam overheard one of his Companions say that to achieve a high spiritual rank, he would commit himself to a celibate life, the Prophet walked into the room and said, “as for me I will marry women and whoever seeks other than my way (i.e. Sunna) is not from me (Bukhārī & Muslim).” And the traditions go on and on.
If Islam posits that we as a species must develop the world and if Islam posits that the entirety of its legal and ethical edifice stands to protect progeny and lineage (as well as the other four meta-goals mentioned above), it should come as no surprise, then, that the act to do both, i.e. sex, is in integral part of life. However, like all weighty and important matters, Islam teaches how and when sex can take place to ensures its proper place in one’s life and society at large.
One common legal maxim found in Islamic legal literature is that the “default ruling in matters between the genders is impermissibility until a text appears to legalize it” (al-aṣl fi’l abḍā‘ al-taḥrīm). Therefore, the default legal ruling of sex is that it is an impermissible act. However, when marriage takes place, the impermissible not only becomes permissible, but lauded and meritorious as the texts quoted above indicate. This, in short form, is the sum of Islam’s legal perspective on sex. As long as it takes place within the confines of marriage, it is not permitted, condoned, celebrated, or meant to be acted upon. When marriage takes place, sex is expected, assumed, celebrated, and protected. Therefore, it is not the act itself that is problematic, but rather when, where, and with whom the act takes place. And the reason is that, and again as mentioned in earlier sections, so much of the structure of society is based on lineage and progeny that Islamic law seeks to protect these areas from any harm or blemish. In this case, illicit sex is considered a harm, not just because the sexual act takes place outside of the legal contract of marriage, but of the numerous issues that stem from sex. Islam’s prohibition on sex outside of marriage, even if amongst consenting adults, is a form of “blocking the means to evil” (sadd al-dharī‘a) which is another well-known and established legal maxim. At the same time, when sex takes place in the proper context, it is celebrated. In fact, many Muslim scholars in the past wrote sex manuals, most famously Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505[10]) who wrote no less than six, to ensure it was done properly and well referring to it as an art form or craft (fann). These manuals are themselves based on Prophetic guidance where one finds, for examples, traditions speaking of the importance of foreplay: “The Prophet of Islam criticized intercourse that is nor proceeded by foreplay (al-Baghdādī)”, and the importance of being intimate: “The Prophet advised one of his Companions to marry a women that would be playful with him and he could be playful with her (Bukhārī).” These manuals take such traditions as a baseline and extrapolate on them.
However, sex, as we know, is not just a physical act. There is a deeper spiritual dimension to it that impacts our souls and selves, not just our bodies. While Islamic law strictly deals with the act and the legal implications of the act, Islam as a comprehensive moral and ethical tradition deals with the broader implications stemming from sex. The prohibition of sex outside of marriage, therefore, seeks to not only ward off the legal harm that threatens the meta principles of Islamic law, but also seeks to ward off the spiritual harms that come from promiscuity. While numerous, these harms all come down to dehumanization. God says in the Quran, “Verily We have loftily honored the offspring of Adam (17:70),” and this honoring is understood to be based on our rational and articulating faculty which we can simply call the intellect (al-‘aql). All other wants and desires, therefore, are subservient to this. As a matter of fact, the Arabic word al-‘aql literally means that which holds back. A sound intellect, therefore, holds one back from harm and debasing things as it strives for a higher form of life, a spiritual life. To live promiscuously, or to partake in pornography for which promiscuity is the modus operandi, is to renounce one’s core faculty for that which is meant to be beneath and under its control. This begins a slippery slope down which we descend from human to subhuman. It is this descent that also marks pornography itself where sex devolves into more violent forms and as a result inspires objectification and violence in others.[11]
The problem with pornography considering this discussion on sex in Islam is that it flips upside down the dignity that comes with humanity itself. It takes that which is meant to private, within the confines of marriage, and an extension of man’s noble creation to a public display with anyone and anything and emerges as the defining characteristic of a person, the ultimate form of dehumanization. If we add to this discussion all the forms of harm that come from pornography and well documented by the scientific community, we can easily conclude that the harm of pornography threatens nearly every aspect of the meta-principles of Islamic law, not just the one I have been limited to in this section.
LOWERING THE GAZE
When it comes to gender relations and interactions, Islamic ethics highlights a standard known as “lowering the gaze” (ghaḍ al-baṣar) to help maintain the balance of propriety. This is taken from the following two verses in the Quran where God states:
Tell believing men, to lower and restrain of their looks and keep well chaste their private parts: That is purer for their spiritual growth; verily God is well aware of all they work. And tell believing women to lower and restrain of their looks and keep well chaste their private parts (Quran 24:30-31).
To understand this and how it relates to the overall conversation on pornography, let me take a few steps back to recall parts of my earlier discussion. In the section on modesty above I introduced the legal standard of covering one’s nakedness (‘awra) when in mixed or single gender gatherings. I also discussed how the word ‘awra throughout Islamic literature is much broader than one’s private parts and is also used to indicate private matters and spaces we are not meant to look at or pay attention to. To make this teaching full circle from an ethical standpoint, one is commanded (as in these two verses) to “lower the gaze” in both a physical and spiritual manner when encountering these private parts, spaces, moments, etc. On a practical level this means that, in general, one is meant to physically cast away their eyes from seeing the nakedness of a member of the opposite sex. In matters of education, commerce, day-to-day life interactions of course one is allowed to look and engage within the normal confines of Islamic law, but when there is no need to look (especially when there is no need) one is meant to look away and avert the glance. The question, however, is why is this important?
There are two main principles that buttress this ethical standard. The first is the belief in Islam that all our senses feed into our heart and therefore are equally able to gain reward or sin. I can lie and slander with my tongue, or I can praise God and bear witness to the truth. Both are actions of the tongue but lead to different results. When one sins, as the Prophet of Islam informed us, a black spot appears on the heart, but when one repents or earns a good deed, the spot is removed (narrated by Tirmidhī). If the heart is blackened all over, it leads to a dark heart where no light can penetrate in our out. The Quran refers to this by saying, [t]heir hearts are stupefied full vile by what they so long strove to earn (Quran 83:14). If the heart is darkened, the result is that the self (nafs) will devolve to the worst version of itself: the self that constantly calls to bad actions (al-nafs al-ammāra bi’l sū’). If, however, the heart’s blackness is cleansed constantly and light shines through, the self will be the best version of itself: the complete self (al-nafs al-kāmila). Therefore, what we see, say, touch, hear, etc., is of paramount importance to our spiritual life, and remember that refining the self is one of the three mete-injunctions as laid out in the Quran.
The second principle is that what we do in this life has direct results to what we will experience in the hereafter. The Quran states, beware a day when every soul shall find whatever good it did brought forth; And whatever ill it did, it will desperately wish if only its meeting with it were an age of time away (Quran 3:30). Our physical deeds in this world will have a real manifestation in the hereafter. Lowering gaze is not, therefore, simply an act to reduce one’s sexual appetite, although this could be a small part of it. Rather, it is of deeper spiritual importance that we are asked by our Creator to not look at that which is meant to be private and therefore protect our outer and inner vision.
The ethical standard of lowering the gaze is an issue of consensus (ijmā‘) within Islam and therefore universally binding. In the space I have left in this section, I will share a few proof texts that speak directly to this standard and are, in themselves, largely self-explanatory:
- “Guarantee for me six things about yourself and I will guarantee paradise for you: speak the truth when you speak, fulfill you vows when you make promises, guarantee when you offer protection, protect your private parts, lower your gaze, and withhold your hands (Ḥākim).”
- “The eyes commit fornication, the legs commit fornication, and the private parts commit fornication (Aḥmad).”
- “Every person has a portion of fornication no matter what. The eyes fornicate when they look illicitly, the ears fornicate when they hear something illicit, the tongue fornicates with illicit speech, the hands fornicate with illicit touch, the feet fornicate with illicit walking, and the heart fornicates when it longs for the illicit. Then the private parts either confirm or deny these desires (Muslim).”
This last tradition is particularly significant as Imam al-Nawawi (d. 676/1277) says in his commentary on it the following:
The meaning of the hadith is that every person has been allotted a portion of fornication. For some this is a literal fornication by illicit sexual penetration, and for others it is metaphorical through seeing what is forbidden, listening to fornication and that which leads to it, or touching with the hands a member of the opposite sex illicitly or kissing, or walking towards fornication, or looking at and touching or speaking illicitly to a member of the opposite sex, etc. Even thinking with the heart on these matters. All of these are types of metaphorical fornication, then one’s private parts either confirm or deny.[12]
These three traditions, and especially the last one, demonstrate that the impermissibility of watching pornography is not simply because we are not meant to see such illicit things. Rather, it has a deeper spiritual impact by involving nearly all our senses in the illicit and prohibited act of fornication, either literally or metaphorically. This in turn has dire spiritual effects not to mention that many social, medical, and physiological effects not covered in this essay.
MASTURBATION
The word pornography is first recorded as being used in the English language in the mid 19th century.[13] However, our current understanding of pornography takes form a century later in the middle of the 20th with the rise of pornographic films and the proliferation of other types of adult based media. Pornography as we understand it today, therefore, is relatively new and to discuss it from an Islamic perspective, it was important to provide the needed background information in the first section above and to explain how the viewing of pornography clashes with many of Islam’s legal maxims and principles. Masturbation, however, is a much older topic and discussed directly not only by Islam’s primary sources, but many other sacred books and legal systems of the ancient world. Rather than repeat the meta principles of the Quran and the meta principles of Islamic law (one can always quickly glance at the relative sections above), here I will take a more traditional approach to the topic, which is to narrate and comment on the five main proofs (a mix of verses from the Quran and traditions of Prophet Muhammad) for the prohibition of masturbation. After these I will discuss some health concerns that Muslim jurists mention to further bolster their position on masturbation’s prohibition, and finally I will conclude with a short section discussing the minority dissenting view for the sake of academic honesty and transparency.
TEXT 1
And those who keep their private parts wholly chaste;
Save from their wives, and the bondmaids their right hands own,[14] for which they bear no blame;
For whoever seeks more than even that: Those are the utter transgressors.
Quran 23: 5-7
This sequence of verses in the chapter titled “The Believers” is traditionally adduced by Muslim jurists to argue that “whoever seeks more than even that,” i.e., more than lawful intercourse between spouses, has sinned. Therefore, they argue, that any form of sexual activity (masturbation included) beyond this is prohibited.
Commenting on the issue of masturbation as it relates to these verses, Imam al-Qurtubī (d. 671//1273) writes, “Ḥarmala bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz asked Mālik about masturbation and he recited these verses (i.e., the ones quoted above)…some of the scholars said this is a sin started by Satan and popularized amongst people until it became an issue, and woe were it not even mentioned! Even if there were proof of its permissibility, people of proper decorum would not engage in it due to its lowly nature.”[15]
Imam al-Shāfi‘ī (d. 204/820) dedicated a short section to the issue of masturbation in his legal work al-Umm writing, after quoting the aforementioned verses, “in mentioning protecting one’s private parts except with one’s spouse or bondmaids these verses demonstrate that any sexual act beyond this is prohibited…therefore any act with one’s sexual organ other than with one’s spouse or bondmaid is prohibited and by extension masturbation is equally prohibited.”[16]
TEXT TWO
And let those who find no means to marry keep themselves wholly chaste until God enriches them of His bounty.
Quran 24:33
The basic legal understanding of this verse is that there is a general command “to remain chaste,” and commands generally indicate obligatory acts, and since remaining chaste is obligatory, anything that contradicts or violates this obligation is prohibited, including masturbation.
Picking up from where he left off above, Imam al-Shāfi‘ī address this verse in the same section right after writing, “therefore any act with one’s sexual organ other than with one’s spouse or bondmaid is prohibited and by extension masturbation is equally prohibited” and then cites this particular verse (24:33) commenting that, “its meaning, and God knows best, is that one should be patient until God provides relief just like when God addresses an independently wealthy trustee of an orphans estate, and let him with wealth take nothing of his charge’s (Quran 4:6), instructing them to withhold completely from taking their wealth for any purposes.”[17] The key to understanding Imam al-Shāfi‘ī’s argument is that in both Quran 24:33 and Quran 4:6 the word used for “keep themselves wholly chaste” and “take nothing” is in fact one and the same yast‘afif, from the root word ‘affa which means to withhold and prevent. Imam al-Shāfi‘ī’s understanding is that when God prohibits an independently wealthy trustee from taking any of an orphan’s estate (as opposed to a poor trustee who can take only what is needed for their own upkeep as the continuation of the verse indicates) He uses a conjugation of the word ‘affa to indicate the obligation to withhold completely, and since this same conjugation is used in Quran 24:33, the legal argument is that any sexual activity beyond sex within marriage, including masturbation, violates the general obligation of remaining chaste and is therefore prohibited.
TEXT THREE
“O young people, whoever is able let them marry as this is better for lowering the gaze and protecting one’s private parts, and whoever cannot let them fast as in it is a protection.
Narrated by Bukhārī & Muslim
Commenting on this hadith Imam al-Nawawi writes that, “the meaning of ‘ability’ here has two meanings, but both revert to one essential meaning: the physical ability to engage in intercourse. Therefore, the tradition’s meaning is that whoever is physically able to engage in intercourse (i.e., of the proper age and inclination towards sex) and is also able to bear the financial responsibilities of marriage (i.e., the dowry and living expenses), let them marry.”[18] If one is not able to bear the financial costs of marriage (which needn’t be unnecessarily high) it is safer to quell the sexual urge through fasting. Jurists point out that if masturbation were a legitimate option, the Prophet would have indicated such in this tradition. The absence of a clear indication on the permissibility of masturbation as an alternative to marriage as a way to quell sexual urges in this particular text indicates to the jurists that there is no legitimate and legal alternative to fasting as the cure for those who cannot marry. This is an expression of the legal maxim that, “silence in a place where clarification is possible indicates that an act is restricted.” In other words, being silent on the possibility of masturbation in this specific text indicates that the option for those unable to financially marry, but still have sexual desire, is to fast to keep their desire in check.
In the version of the same tradition found in the collection of Bukhārī, Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī (d. 852/144) writes, “some of the jurists of the Mālikī school of law use this hadith to prove the impermissibility of masturbation since the Prophet advised those unable to marry to fast, which by definition lowers the sexual urge.”[19] This comment, like the first, points to masturbation’s prohibition for nearly the same reason: the silence of its mention as a viable solution to helping regulate sexual desire in light of the inability to marry.
TEXT FOUR
‘Uthmān ibn Maẓ‘ūn asked the Prophet of Islam, ‘I am man for who the loneliness in war is difficult. Will you allow me to masturbate?” The Prophet of Islam responded, “No, rather you should fast as it is a protection.”
Narrated by al-Ṭabarānī
Here we have a clear text tadition that deals with the specific issue of the legality of masturbation. First, a word on the strength of this tradition. In commenting on this, Abdullah bin Siddīq al-Ghumārī (d. 1993) (perhaps one of the most well-known hadith scholars of the 20th century) said, “all the narrators of this tradition are sound except ‘Abd al-Malik bin Qudāma al-Jamḥiyy whom Ibn Ma‘īn said was reliable, but Abu Ḥātim and others said is weak. The source of this tradition is found in the ‘sound collections’ (i.e., Bukhārī and Muslim) on the authority of S‘ad bin Abī Waqqāṣ with another wording.”[20] In other words, while this specific tradition is independently weaker in strength than the ones already quoted in this section, it is strengthened by other narrations of the same episode. Therefore, this text is not taken in isolation, but in conjunction with its two other variances found in the two sound collections of Bukhārī and Muslim.
As for the meaning of the tradition vis-à-vis our discussion, the specificity of its wording is of the greatest importance since it deals with the issue of masturbation directly and without equivocation. This provides clear instruction form the Prophet that masturbation is prohibited and that fasting is the preferred and legitimate solution for taming the sexual desire when marriage is not possible. This is further clear from the fact that fasting is a harder act than masturbation and in general the Prophet was known to take the easiest path unless sin was involved (narrated by Bukhārī and Muslim).
TEXT FIVE
Seven God will not look at on the Day of Rising and will not purify them and gather them with the rest of humanity, rather He will place them amongst the first to entire the hellfire, except if He chooses to forgive them, and whoever God has forgiven is forgiven. The one who masturbates, the two who engage in homosexual sexual intercourse, the one addicted to alcohol, the one who strikes their parents to the point that they need saving, the one who harms his neighbors to the point that his neighbors curse him, and the one who fornicates with his neighbor.
Narrated by al-Ḥasan bin ‘Arafa & al-Ḥākim
Like the previous tradition, this one too is independently weak and has been criticized for its weak transmitters. There are two points to keep in mind regarding its weakness and usefulness as a prooftext regarding the prohibition of masturbation.
The first is that while this specific tradition with this specific chain of transmission is indeed weak, it is supported by the other traditions we have already considered and therefore does not represent an isolated weak tradition in which case we would not be able to use it as a proof text regarding this matter.
The second point is that this specific tradition is found elsewhere with another chain of transmission, documented by Ibn Ḥajar in his Talkhīṣ.[21] ‘Abdullah bin Siddīq al-Ghumārī points out that the transmitters adduced by Ibn Ḥajar are in fact reliable as mentioned by other hadith scholars.[22]
When taken together, this tradition (with its multiple chains of transmissions) in addition to the fact that there are other traditions of stronger narrations dealing with masturbation, collectively raise the strength of this tradition to add to the majority voices arguing that the act of masturbation is prohibited in Islamic law.
MEDICINE & GENERAL HEALTH
In his work on medicine and herbs, the Ottoman physician and pharmacist Dawūd al-Anṭākī (d. 1008/1599) wrote that masturbation creates “a darkness in the heart and reduces sexual desire.”[23] While many Muslim jurists, both in the past and contemporary, site various forms of physical harm that might come from masturbation, this comment by al-Anṭākī is perhaps the most encompassing and pertinent to our current discussion as it links the physical act of masturbation to its spiritual cost. To understand this link, it is helpful to invoke the basic teaching of Sufism (the spiritual dimension of orthodox Islam) on the effect imprinted images have on the heart. Ibn ‘Aṭā’Allah the Alexandrian (d. 658/1259), one of the most popular authorities of Sufism, writes in his Aphorisms the following:
How can a heart become enlightened when the images of the world are imprinted on it? How can you travel to God when you are shackled with desires? How can you enter into His presence while you are not clean from heedlessness? How can you seek to understand the secrets of the world while you have not repented from your sins?[24]
Islam teaches that the heart receives and projects. If the heart is maintained as pure, then it can receive light and inspiration from God and in turn reflect this out. Ibn Aṭā’Allah writes, “actions are set images, and their soul is dependent on the level of sincerity you have in them.”[25] If the heart is not maintained, it becomes blackened with sin and cannot receive nor reflect light. The Prophet of Islam said of this,
Surely, when the servant commits a sin, a black dot appears on his heart. If he repents from it, his heart is polished clean. However, if he increases in the sin, the blackness continues to increase. That is the statement of God, “No, but that which they used to commit has covered their hearts with rust (Quran 83:14)-(Ḥākim).”
The internal images needed to aid in the act of masturbation are why al-Anṭākī said masturbation produces a darkness in the heart. It is to constantly keep illicit images, images we are asked to lower our gaze towards, in our heart and therefore reduce the amount of light and purity that resides therein.
As for the loss of sexual desire, it is now a known potential side effect of both excessive pornography and masturbation that there is, ironically, a reduction in real sexual desire.[26] Al-Anṭākī, it seems, also observed the same physical phenomenon amongst his patients.
OPPOSITION
If one were to research the issue of masturbation throughout the corpus of Islamic law, it is easy to find some quotes, but not many, attributed to various Imams on its permissibility. I do not wish to restate them here in detail as this would take us away from the main task, but rather I will discuss them in toto.
When it comes to legal issues, Islamic law distinguishes between issues of consensus (ijmā‘) and issues in which there is a difference of opinion. Issues of consensus are legally binding and therefore represent a unified position on a specific topic. It is impermissible to follow other than these positions, and they are few and enumerated. Most legal issues discussed throughout Islamic law, however, are issues that contain differences of opinion. Some of these differences are accepted by opposing schools, i.e., while one school argues one position, they openly acknowledge a valid alternative interpretation and therefore cannot criticize followers of that position. Sometimes, however, the difference of opinion is considered too weak to follow by the legal community, even if technically the opposing view is catalogued in the books of law. When it comes to masturbation, we cannot say that it is an issue of consensus, but we can say that the position of its permissibility is considered by most Muslim jurists to be too weak and spurious to be relied upon as a legitimate alternative legal option. The Andalusian judge and jurist Abū Bakr bin al-‘Arabī (d.543/1148) said it best concerning these opposing positions, “these opinions do not represent differences of opinion one can act upon.”[27] Yet, at the same time, there is another position out there and it is not hidden or obscured.
I am hesitant to say more on this opposing position as it could present a slippery slope where people will take it as an excuse for the blanket permissibility of masturbation and by so doing sidestep all the important first principles and moral teachings mentioned at the opening of this essay. However, one articulation of this alternative position held by Imam Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal (d. 241/855) explains how it might apply to a particular situation. His argument is that if one were in a predicament where there was a real threat to committing fornication (an act for which there is consensus of its prohibition and counted as one of the major sins), then masturbation would be a legitimate alternative and the lesser of two evils. There is no doubt that this position attributed to Imam Aḥmad is often quoted, and, I may add, often misused. The safer course of conduct is to abide by the majority position which, and as discussed above, provides a coherent legal and ethical teaching about masturbation.
REPENTANCE
The preceding pages represent a typical Islamic legal discourse on both the topics of pornography and masturbation. I hope the arguments are clear for non-legal experts and demonstrate not only the impermissibility of engaging in pornography and masturbation, but more importantly the rhyme and reason behind Islam’s prohibition of both.
Alongside this legal treatment, a word should be said on the importance and process of repentance since regardless of the legal argument, the proliferation of pornography and its increased normalization into many aspects of day-to-day life, coupled with the devastating consequence it has on many people is an unfortunate fact of life.
There is no sin or mistake that God will not forgive as long one turns to Him in repentance. In fact, the state of sinning is considered a part of the human condition. The Prophet of Islam said, “all people sin, and the best of the sinners are those who turn frequently to God in repentance (Tirmidhī).” While there is no disputing the legal and moral teachings of Islam regarding pornography and masturbation, there is also no denying the redemptive power of repentance. The Prophet also said, “ask God knowing with certainty that He has answered (Tirmidhī).”
Repentance from moral sins in Islam has three conditions:
- An actual repentance to God for the sin.
- Feeling remorse for the sin committed.
- A sincere determination that one will not go back to the act.
Even if one were to fall into the same sin over and over, repentance is not only open but accepted and wipes the slate clean. The Prophet said, “the one who repents is like the one who didn’t commit the sin in the first place (Bayhaqī).” This act allows the heart to remain pure and allows the light and inspiration of the Divine to shine through and radiate out. Islam does not posit a perfect condition for mankind, but rather begins with the reality of the human condition.
Personal redemption and salvation are not the only benefits of repentance as posited by Islam. One of the main components to repentance is that it acknowledges sin as sin and admits the fallibility of the human state. This is importance because, and as stated above, modesty is a first principle in Islam. When sin is argued away, the protective covering of modesty is cast aside and what is meant to be private becomes public; what is meant to be covered becomes exposed. When this happens, society starts to lose its sense of propriety and moral decay sets in and is defended as a “personal choice” which serves as the foundation for the argument for moral subjectivity. As a religion based on revelation, Islam holds that permitted and prohibited actions are those established by God alone and therefore immutable. The human condition is to struggle with these injunctions and prohibitions and to try to comply as best one can. The act of repentance, therefore, is the ultimate acknowledgement of one’s humanity as well as the ultimate act of worship since as the Prophet taught, “supplication is itself worship (Aḥmad).”
CONCLUSION
My first professor of Islam and mentor S. H. Nasr used to tell us frequently in class, “in the accordance of the real nature of things it is the human who must conform to the Divine and not the Divine to the human.” This is a restatement of a well-known tradition of Prophet Muḥammad, “none of you truly believes until his inclination is in accordance with what I have brought (Bukhārī & Muslim).” Although the preceding pages were heavy on the legal treatment of pornography and masturbation, it must be remembered that Islam is not just a legal tradition, but ultimately a spiritual path that takes a person to their Creator in this world before the next and allows them to live to their full potential. One of the early figures of Islam’s conquests, Rab‘iy ibn ‘Āmir, summarized this sentiment with the following statement to the Persian General Rustum when asked what motivated them to leave Arabia:
We came to take people who want from servitude of other men to the servitude of God; from the narrowness of this world to its great expanse; from the injustice of religions to the justice of Islam.[28]
The legal arguments of Islamic law are therefore not meant to limit and punish the human experience but expand them by confirming and submitting to the will of the Divine (orthopraxis and orthodoxy). Accordingly, this expansion cannot happen at the expense of man’s greater mission of vicegerency and the first principles necessarily deduced from this nobility amongst all creation: Indeed, we have ennobled the children of Adam (Quran 17:70).
Both pornography and masturbation represent the opposite of a dignified life. They are acts of moral transgression that allow the lower self to take hold of a person denying them the joy and ecstasy of the journey within, the greater jihād. Both activities are aided by the bombardment of images we allow through the senses to take hold and imprint themselves on our hearts and soul. Without remembering Islam’s moral teachings of modesty and lowering the gaze, and how both naturally derive and link to other first principles, the teachings of Islam outlined above will be lost. It is not enough to say they are impermissible; one must be shown why.
Sex qua sex in Islam is praised, not vilified, but has a proper place within the confines of a marriage contract. Since so many of society’s relationships are based on what Islam understands as lineage, sex becomes the act that establishes these ties and associated responsibilities and should not be wasted and squandered away. In a poem on moral teachings and advice, the famous philosopher and physician Ibn Sīna (d. 427/980) – known in the West as Avicenna- said along these lines the following: “protect your semen as much as possible since this is the liquid of life that is poured into the wombs.”[29] While I am not one to argue with Ibn Sīna and it his teachings of medicine that were used not only throughout the Muslim world, but Europe for centuries, perhaps the issue was more poetically stated by Shakespeare who wrote in his sonnet 129 the following:
Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so,
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
Al-Rāghib al-Isfahānī, al-Dharī‘a ilā Makārim al-Sharī‘a (Beirut: n.p., 1980), 31-32. ↑
James A. H. Murray, Henry Bradley, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary 22 vols., (Oxford: Oxford University Press,1991), 13:568. ↑
Jonathan Barnes ed., The Complete Works of Aristotle, 2 vols., (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) 2:1987 (or Book 1, 1253a). ↑
Tarek Elgawhary & Nuri Friedlander trans., Responding from the Tradition (Louisville: Fons Vitae, 2011), 46-53. ↑
Sins in Islam are divided into major and minor. Major sins are those in which there is a specific primary text that associates the sin with either God’s wrath, the Prophet’s wrath, everlastingness in the hell fire, or a specific earthly punishment. All other sins are considered minor. The major sins require a specific repentance for each occurrence, whereas a Muslim’s daily devotional life absolves the minor sins. ↑
My study on codification of personal status laws in Egypt is a vignette into this: Tarek Elgawhary, Rewriting Islamic Law: The Story of Codifying Egypt’s Personal Status Laws (New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2019). ↑
Abdul Aziz Suraqah & Mohammed Aslam trans., al-Shamā’il al-Muhammadiyya (Imam Ghazali Institute: Turkey, 2019), chapters 9 & 52. ↑
Ibid., 233. ↑
Al-Murtaḍa al-Zabīdī, Tāj al-‘Urūs, 10 vols., (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 2011), 7:598. ↑
A dual system of dating is used throughout this essay (e.g., 911/1505). When both dates appear together, the first is the Islamic Hijri date and the second is the Gregorian date. When a single date appears, unless otherwise specified, it will be the Gregorian date. ↑
The Association Between Exposure to Violent Pornography and Teen Dating Violence in Grade 10 High School Students. Doi 10.1007/s10508-019-1435-4. ↑
Imām al-Nawawī, al-Minhāj Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim bin al-Ḥajjāj, 19 vols., (Beirut: Dār al-M‘arifa, 2006), 16:422. ↑
James A. H. Murray, The Oxford English Dictionary, 12:136. ↑
While this is not related at all to this essay, I should mention that while some primary texts mention forms of slavery, one of the meta-principles of Islamic law is to seek to eradicate the practice all together. Accordingly, the focus of Islamic law is on the manumission of slaves, not the acquiring of them. Thankfully by the mid 19th century the slave trade was officially abolished globally. As part of revelation, we do not remove anything by way of texts regardless of their current applicability or lack thereof, and rather use the opportunity to comment and interpret. ↑
Al-Qurtubī, al-Jāmi‘ li Aḥkām al-Qur’ān, 24 vols., (Beirut: Mu’assat al-Risāla, 2006), 15: 11-12. ↑
Muḥammad bin Idrīs al-Shāfi‘ī, Kitāb al-Umm 9 vols., (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2007), 6:217-218. ↑
Ibid. ↑
Al-Nawawi, al-Minhāj Sharḥ Muslim, 9:177. ↑
Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī, Fatḥ al-Bārī bi Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 14 vols., (Cairo: al-Maktabat al-Salafīyya, 1380 AH), 9:14. ↑
‘Abdullah bin Siddīq al-Ghumārī, Mawsū‘at al-‘Allāma al-Muḥadith al-Mutafannin Sayyidī al-Sharīf ‘Abdullah bin Siddīq al-Ghumārī al-Ḥussaynī, 19 vols., (Cairo: Dār al-Salām, 1438 AH), 11:98 (al-Istiqṣā’ li Adilat Taḥrīm al-Istimnā’). As for the other traditions in the two sound collections, they can be found here: al-‘Asqālānī, Fatḥ al-Bārī, 9:19-23 & al-Nawawī, al-Minhāj Sarḥ Muslim, 9:180. ↑
Ibn ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī, al-Talkhīs, 4 vols., (Cairo: Mu’asasat Qurṭuba, 1995), 3:381 ↑
Ghumārī, Mawsū‘at, 9:104-15. ↑
Dawūd al-Anṭākī, Tadhkirat Uli’l Albāb wa Jāmi‘ li’l ‘Ajab al-‘Ujāb 2 vols., (Cairo: al-Maktabat al-Tawqīfīyya, nd), 2:85. ↑
Tarek Elgawhary trans., The Aphorisms of Ibn ‘Aṭā’Allah (London: Ta-Ha Publishers, 2023), 29 (Aphorism 13). ↑
Ibid., 26 (Aphorism 10). ↑
Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports, DOI 10,3390/bs6030017. ↑
Ghumārī, Mawsū‘at, 11:117. ↑
Abī J‘afar Muḥammad bin Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī, 11 vols., (Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 2024), 3:520. ↑
Ghumārī, Mawsū‘at, 11:131. ↑