Sex is one of the natural instincts created by Allah in all His living creatures. For human beings, the urge to mate is aroused as soon as they attained puberty. Being an inevitable natural instinct, Islam has neither placed a total ban on sex by promoting monasticism, nor has it permitted sexual indulgence without restrictions, thereby promoting adultery, fornication and prostitution. Rather, it has designed certain mechanisms to check the abuse of sex in order to protect man’s chastity against unholy acts such as bestiality and homosexuality.
The religion of Islam advocates الوَسَطِيَّة (moderation) in everything so much that it condemns both الإِفْراط (extremism) and التَّفْرِيط (laxity). If one studies the injunctions of the Shari’ah carefully, one will realize that they are tailored towards making life easier for the believers by lessening his burdens of obligations and providing him with exceptional clauses out of every difficulty.
The institution of marriage in Islam is a divine immunity to protect the believer from self-destruct and also safeguard the 5 fundamental objectives of the Shari’ah which are:
Protection of life: An adulterer or fornicator may likely lose his life to sexual promiscuity. By jumping from one woman to another, he risks contacting Sexually Transmitted Diseases and ultimately death. In typical African societies, many adulterous folks have contacted “thunderbolts” from their concubines which have led to their death. Some people have also died here in Nigeria during a sex romp after allegedly consuming “maaganin buran taashi”. With marriage, he’s insured and immune for life from avoidable and shameful death.
Protection of the religion: Abu Huraira reported that the Prophet (upon him be peace) said: “A fornicator who fornicates is not a believer as long as he commits fornication.” What this statement implies is that the fornicator sheds some megawatts of faith whenever he indulges in the act. Marriage will help protect his religion from total collapse. It is why the Prophet (upon him be peace) said, “whoever marries has satisfied half of his faith…”
Protection of the intellect: Fornication messes up the reasoning faculty of man and turns him into a beast. He becomes overwhelmingly obsessed with it to the extent that whenever he sees the opposite gender, the only thing that comes to his mind is sex. Once he gets married, his mind becomes settled and his organs restrained.
Protection of wealth: Marriage teaches you the practical aspect of economics and safeguards your wealth from unnecessary and wasteful spending. It inculcates you with a deep sense of responsibility and financial prudence and austerity.
Protection of dignity/blood lineage: Marriage confers you with the right claim to paternity and parenthood. It grants you the right to lawful enjoyment of your spouse, without the fear of exposure, pregnancy or disease. It also gives you the rightful claim to inheritance.
It is so unfortunate that this sacred institution is gradually being undermined and adulterated with unfounded traditions and cultural shenanigans which have not only made it difficult for the youth to desire marriage, but has also opened a floodgate of opportunities to fornication without much ado.
In the next episode, we shall address the issue of marriage introduction without ‘aqd and its implications for the sanctity of marriage in Islam.
Credit : Sirnucy Lafiagi
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