QUESTION
Mufti sahib, I am a very distressed young man. I am currently in my twenties and I have been masturbating since I was in my teens. During this time, I have
noticed many physical changes. When I was younger, I used to be incredibly handsome and highly intelligent.
I also had a naturally athletic body. However, over the years my body and my mind have become weaker. Also, my eyes have become sunken, my cheeks sallow and
my skin and lips are off-colour. I would like to know how can give up masturbating and how I can regain my former condition. Will giving up masturbating alone restore my health and beauty.
Answer
SOLO SEX (MALE AND FEMALE MASTURBATION)
Those who achieve insufficient satisfaction from sexual intercourse and return to masturbation, or never give it up, the torments are great. Everywhere
they look, their friends are unashamedly enjoying the pleasures of normal sexual relationship. No part of society caters for them and they are even cowardly shy
to campaign for "Masturbators Liberation." Sex life for most of them is fairly empty. One of the most humiliating problems that the constant
male masturbator suffers from when he attempts to have sexual relationship is premature ejaculation or the failure to maintain an erection. When he is masturbating, he tends to reach his orgasm as quickly as possible, but in sexual intercourse he normally has
to attempt to control his excitement, which can impose a great strain on a person who indulged in self-abuse
over a lengthy period.
Therefore people who continuously masturbate, lose out all round. The physical pleasure becomes reduced to a
natural act like urination, or excreting, and at the back of their minds there is an awareness that they
are missing on the real pleasures of life. No adult can honestly claim to masturbate without a guilty feeling of complete uselessness. Masturbation is
merely an exhaustive, rather than constructive undertaking, resulting in nothing but total loss. Once orgasm has been achieved there is Nothing else left,
except for a feeling of complete emptiness.
The following extracts from the writings of a dignified physician of the Unani medicine will give one some idea of the damage done through masturbation:
"Most often, students, bachelors or widowers and hypocritical godly persons are its victims. It is such an evil practice that has ruined many families and many more are being ruined today. The lack of manly vigor and decline in the standard of young men's health is evidence enough for this horrible social
evil, eating into the vitals of an otherwise healthy nation. If only our young men could foresee the consequences of this evil at their own hands bring on
them! It can be said with some certainty that eighty percent of our young men are the victims of masturbation. This accursed practice affects equally the heart, the brain, the liver, the stomach, the kidneys along with the reproductive organs. This practice makes the muscles and the nerves of the
reproductive organ sagging and lifeless. Accumulation of fluids in the veins makes it unfit for its normal function. There is extreme feebleness in the power of erection. The heat of the friction between the delicate muscles of the organ and the tough hide of the hand damages the former beyond repair." (Miftahi,Modesty and Chastity in Islam)
Following the excitement which accompanies masturbation, comes the feeling of shame, anger, humiliation, and the sense of futility. This sense of
guilty and humiliation deepens as the years go on, into a suppressed rage, because of the impossibility to escape. The one thing that it seems impossible to
escape from, once the habit is formed, is
masturbation. It goes on and on, on into old age, in spite of marriage. And it always carries this secret feeling of futility and humiliation. And this is,
perhaps, the deepest and most dangerous cancer of our civilization. Instead of being a comparatively harmless vice, masturbation is certainly the most dangerous sexual vice that a society can be afflicted with, in the long run.
MASTURBATION UNDER ISLAMIC LAW
Islam strictly forbids the waste of seminal fluid through masturbation. The one who discharges his seminal fluid with his hand is damned. This evil
practice removes the normal bright look of a man's face, and he looks melancholy and dejected. He loses his health and quite frequently his vitality and sexual stamina through this disgusting practice.
The Qur'aan declares: "The Believers are those who abstain from sex except with those joined to them in marriage bond, or those whom their righht hand possess
for (in their case) they are free from blame, but those who crave something beyond that are transgressors. "
Beyond the wife and slave woman all ways and means of sexual satisfaction are unlawful. They include adultery, sodomy, masturbation, etc. From this it can
be deduced that masturbation falls under the context 'but those who crave ...' and is therefore immoral and a sin in Islam. Views expressed by the Shafi'i jurists on this matter are clearly illustrated by Imam Nawawi whose opinion is typical of the Shafi'i Jurists as a
whole. He declared that masturbation was absolutely forbidden. It was only permitted when it was performed by the hand of a man's wife or concubine, for he has a right to the enjoyment of her hand as he has to the rest of her body."
The author of Subul al Salam according to al-Juzairi, states: "Some of the Hanbali and Hanafi Jurists are of the opinion that masturbation may be permissible in the event that one fears (that is, not engaging in it) would lead to his committing adultery, fornication.
But be cautious that such a view is weak and is not to be relied upon."
According to Maliki school of thought masturbation is deduced to be illegal from the following hadith narrated by 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (Radhiallaahu Anhu): "We were with the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) while we were young and had no wealth whatsoever. The Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam)
said: "O assembly of youths ; whoever among you possesses the physical and financial resources to marry, should do so, because it helps him guard his modesty, and whoever is unable to marry, should fast, as fasting diminishes his sexual power.'
Therefore, the jurists of this school are of the opinion that if masturbation was permitted, the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) would have acknowledged its permissibility because this is much
simpler than fasting. Since the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) did not mention it, demonstrates that it is prohibited.
From the evidence presented so far, it can be seen that Shari'ah not only classifies this type of unnatural waste of seminal fluid as illegal, but also
advocated strict measures for its prevention.
[ Morality in Islam, Acaciaville]
and Allah Ta'ala Knows Best
Mufti Ebrahim Desai
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