The fourth directive mentioned is that no one should even go near fornication. The reason stated for this is that it is open lewdness and a very dreadful practice. The implication is that no argument is required to prove its awfulness and lewdness. Human nature has always regarded it to be a grave sin and a terrible crime. It is an indubitable reality that the institution of family is as essential a need for a person as air and water are. This institution can only sustain on natural feelings and emotions if the relationship between the spouses is permanent. If this aspect is missing, then a society can only consist of a herd of cattle which is devoid of natural and spiritual feelings and emotions; it cannot be founded on right footings. Mawlana Abu al-Ala Mawdudi (d. 1979) writes:

The fact that this act is immoral or a religious sin or against social norms is something which has been universally acknowledged in all times and no one save a few people who have surrendered their intellect to base desires or who in their madness invent novel things and then philosophize them has differed in this regard. The reason for this universal consensus is that human nature itself requires that fornication be prohibited. The survival of human race and the establishment of a human society both require that a man and a woman should not be free to merely sexually gratify themselves and then split away; on the contrary, the relationship between them should be of a permanent contract in which they remain sincere to one another – a relationship which is known and acknowledged in the society and is also given protection by it. Without this, human race cannot survive a single day because a child needs several years of care and affection for his upbringing and a woman single-handedly can never be able to bear this responsibility unless the man who was responsible for bringing the child into existence is ready to support and help her. Similarly, without such a contract, human society also cannot remain intact because society itself has been created through the union of a man and a woman in the form of a family and then through relationships between various families with one another. If a man and a woman, while disregarding a family set-up, come together to merely sexually gratify themselves for sometime, human beings will end up dispersed from one another, the roots of collective life will be severed and the very foundation on which the edifice of the society was built would be razed to ground. For these reasons, an informal relationship between a man and a woman which is not based on a contract of sincerity that is known and recognized in the society is against human nature. Consequently, man has always regarded fornication as a grave folly and an act of great immorality and, in religious terms, an atrocious sin.[1]

It is this very terrible nature of fornication because of which the Almighty has not merely forbidden it, He has asked us to not even go near it. This means that one should keep away from things that may lead to it or may ultimately entice a person to it. The etiquette of gender interaction mentioned in Surah Nur is stated for these very reasons. A summary of this etiquette is that a man a woman with regard to their physical and psychological needs should guard their gazes and properly cover their private parts and should not do something that rouses sexual emotions. The reason for this is that when Satan wants to give currency to fornication in a society, he first of all begins from these places. It is evident from the Quran that it was through this very way that he had attacked Adam and Eve:

يَا بَنِي آدَمَ لاَ يَفْتِنَنَّكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ كَمَا أَخْرَجَ أَبَوَيْكُم مِّنَ الْجَنَّةِ يَنزِعُ عَنْهُمَا لِبَاسَهُمَا لِيُرِيَهُمَا سَوْءَاتِهِمَا إِنَّهُ يَرَاكُمْ هُوَ وَقَبِيلُهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لاَ تَرَوْنَهُمْ إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا الشَّيَاطِينَ أَوْلِيَاء لِلَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ (27:7)

Children of Adam! Let not Satan tempt you again the way he had expelled your parents from the orchard [in which they were living] stripping them of their garments in order to reveal their private parts to them. He and his associates see you from where you cannot see them. Indeed, We have made such devils associates of those who do not profess faith. (7:27)

What sort of an attack is this? Imam Amin Ahsan Islahi writes:

… he first strips a person of his apparel of piety and virtue – the apparel which the Almighty had blessed him with together with his real apparel to elevate his inner-self. When this inner apparel is taken off, modesty and chastity, which are the actual motives for the real apparel, fade away. Then this real apparel starts becoming burdensome. Immodesty and profligacy induce a person to expose body parts which hold an attraction for the opposite gender – parts whose concealment is a requirement of human nature. Then comes fashion to support this tendency; it provokes a person to wear clothes in such a bizarre way that he or she appears to be naked in spite of being adorned with clothes, and in this way – concealment of the body – the very objective of clothes is sacrificed. The only thing left in these clothes now is embellishment and the real objective is now to enhance the degree of nudity as much as possible. Then gradually human intellect is overwhelmed and nudity is now dubbed as culture and covering the body is considered to be an old-fashioned act which exudes abhorrence. Then educated ruffians come to the scene and present the philosophy in the light of history that nudity is real human nature. Clothing has become in vogue because of restrictions of customs and etiquette. It is at this stage that shamelessness overcomes people and the whole society is poisoned with lust and licentiousness.[2]

On this very basis, popularizing fornication and creating opportunities which lead to it are regarded a crime by the Almighty. The Quran says that when the Hypocrites and miscreants of Madinah in the time of the Prophet (sws) adopted these ways, the Almighty said:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُحِبُّونَ أَن تَشِيعَ الْفَاحِشَةُ فِي الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ (19:24)

Indeed those who like shamelessness and lust to spread among Muslims shall be sternly punished in this life and in the life to come. [They deserve only this] and God knows [them], but you know not. (24:19)

For this very objective, the Prophet (sws) forbade Muslim women from putting on pungent perfumes when going out, from sitting alone with men and from travelling alone. [3] When people asked about the brother-in-law, the Prophet (sws) told them that sitting alone with him is tantamount to death. [4]

The wisdom in the directive of taking a mahram relative along in long journeys is no different. [5] Turning away one’s gaze from ladies after the first sight is also for this purpose. [6] Certain types of music have been prohibited for the very reason that they may lead a person to this sin. [7] The Prophet (sws) is reported to have said that the children of Adam necessarily get some share from fornication. Thus ogling women is the fornication of the eye, lustful talk is the fornication of the tongue, amusing oneself with such talk is the fornication of the ears, touching and walking for this purpose is the fornication of the hands and the feet. Then the heart and the mind show their yearning and one’s private parts sometimes confirm this and sometimes negate it. [8]

All these directives are meant to nip the evil of fornication in its bud.

(Javed Ahmed Ghamidi)

(Translated by Dr. Shehzad Saleem)

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[1]. Abu al-A‘la Mawdudi, Tafhim al-Qur’an, 5th ed., vol. 3 (Lahore: Idarah tarjuman al-Qur’an, 1985), 319.

[2]. Amin Ahsan Islahi, Tadabbur-i Qur’an, vol. 3, 246.

[3]. Al-Bukhari, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 175, 496, (nos. 1088, 3006); Muslim, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 187, 566, (nos. 997, 3272); Abu Da’ud, Sunan, vol. 4, 77, (no. 4173).

[4]. Al-Bukhari, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 935, (no. 5232); Muslim, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 966, (no. 5674).

[5]. Al-Bukhari, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 175, (no. 1086); Muslim, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 566, (no. 3270).

[6]. Muslim, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 961, (no. 5644); Abu Da’ud, Sunan, vol. 2, 252, (no. 2149).

[7]. Al-Bukhari, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 992, (no. 5590).

[8]. Al-Bukhari, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 1087, (no. 6243); Muslim, Al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 1157, (no. 6754).