Question: Please explain to teens that why “zina” is prohibited.
Answer:
Note: As Muslims, we believe that things are forbidden or permissible solely because Allah Ta’ala said so. It is not our place to question Allah Ta’ala on any of His rulings. That being said, what we can do is try to understand the infinite wisdom behind Allah Ta’ala’s commands based on the Qur’an and Sunnah using our limited intellects.
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The institution of marriage is one of the most fundamental and beautiful aspects of Islam. Allah Ta’ala mentions it as one of His many signs stating, “And of his signs is that He has created for you, from yourselves, spouses, so that you may find comfort in them. And He has placed between you love and mercy.” [1] Furthermore, marriage has been the practice of the prophets of the past [2] and our beloved Prophet (s.a.w.) as well. The Prophet (s.a.w.) greatly emphasized marriage stating, “When a man marries, he has fulfilled half of the religion; so, let him fear God regarding the remaining half.” [3]
On the other hand, zina (fornication) is considered an abomination in Islam. It is completely forbidden and is one of the greatest sins. Allah Ta’ala warns us stating, “Do not even go close to fornication. It is indeed a shameful act, and an evil path.” [4] The Prophet (s.a.w.) stated, “One who fornicates is not a believer as long as he is actively involved in fornication.” [5]
To understand the wisdom behind the prohibition of zina (fornication), we need to understand that one of the maqasid (higher objectives) of the Shariah is preservation of lineage i.e., the building block of society which is family. To this end, the institution of marriage ensures that the family structure is maintained in society such that spouses care for each other and bear children who are looked after by their parents. The children then look after each other and their parents when older. When each individual in society is part of a family, then the needs of the whole society are met through family support. This is the ideal scenario that the Shariah guides Muslims toward and it is for this reason that marriage is greatly emphasized by Allah Ta’ala and the Prophet (s.a.w.).
The concept of zina (fornication) disrupts the establishment of this ideal society by breaking the building block of society i.e., the family. When a man fornicates, because he is not married to the woman, he will not feel obliged to bear responsibility for her needs when pregnant or for the needs of the child when it is born. Furthermore, he will not feel obliged to raise and nurture the child when older. This leaves the mother to fend for her own and her child’s needs, which distracts her from giving attention to the child and raising him/her properly. In the crucial early stages of childhood, the child is sent to daycare wherein he/she is not given proper attention at best and sexually abused at worst. When the child is older, having not received proper nurturing, he/she might end up choosing the wrong path in life. Moreover, the child will not feel obliged to care for the needs of his mother who was too busy to raise him or of his father who was never in his life.
If the woman gets an abortion, then this could amount to murder. If the man and woman use contraceptives, then that is still not without harmful effects. Either of the two individuals is sometimes left with love and longing for the other, leading to mental health issues. The lack of a permanent companion also leaves people with mental health issues, along with feelings of loneliness. The lack of permanent sexual gratification leads to masturbation and pornography, which leads to porn addiction and development of heinous sexual fetishes and fantasies. The lack of a family leaves people without emotional and material support in their lives, especially in old age wherein they either live alone or are sent to nursing homes and treated poorly.
Obviously, these are all worst-case scenarios, and each situation turns out different, but these scenarios occur on a wide scale, as proven by statistics:
- In America, there were 10.9 million one-parent family groups with a child under the age of 18 in 2022 with 80% of one-parent family groups maintained by a mother. [6]
- “Single motherhood is linked to reduced income, a high risk of poverty, worse maternal mental health, poor parenting practices, and a range of other disruptions, such as home and school moves and multiple family transitions.” [7]
- “Single mothers were more likely to engage in psychologically controlling behaviors, which predicted to their adolescent offspring experiencing higher rates of depressive symptoms and externalizing disorders… Further, single mothers were more likely to engage in rejecting parenting behaviors, which predicted to a higher prevalence of adolescent externalizing disorders.” [8]
- “Children raised by single mothers are more likely to fare worse on a number of dimensions, including their school achievement, their social and emotional development, their health and their success in the labor market. They are at greater risk of parental abuse and neglect (especially from live-in boyfriends who are not their biological fathers), more likely to become teen parents and less likely to graduate from high school or college.” [9]
- “In 2019, approximately 59 percent of children age 5 and younger and not enrolled in kindergarten were in at least one weekly nonparental care arrangement, as reported by their parents.” [10]
- “In 2017, 2,237 daycare providers were found to be abusing and neglecting children in their care.”[11]
- “In the U.S., 27% of adults ages 60 and older live alone.” [12]
- “Over 1.3 million elderly adults live in nursing homes across the United States… An additional 918,700 elderly Americans reside in assisted living facilities.” [13]
- There were 930,160 abortions in the US in 2020, which “does not account for the use of abortion pills that were obtained outside of clinical settings.” [14]
- 54% of Americans reported feelings of loneliness in 2018, which was before this statistic increased greatly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. [15]
- “Every minute, almost 220,000 views were added to Pornhub videos in 2019. That is 13,199,100 video views every hour. That’s more than 316,778,400 videos every day.” [16]
As we can see, there are widespread societal ills that can in some way be tied back to zina (fornication) and the erasure of marriage in Western society. In fact, we have only scratched the surface of the harms of zina (fornication), namely societal problems. There are a host of other harms such as the spread of STIs (sexually transmitted diseases), increase in the number of “incels” (involuntary celibates), accidental incest, infringement of people’s familial honor and respect, and difficulty in applying Shariah laws of inheritance, and more. It is for these reasons that Allah c, out of His infinite wisdom, has forbidden zina (fornication) and has legislated contractual responsibilities upon the man or woman intending to involve in sexual relations i.e., the institution of marriage.
And Allah Ta’ala knows best.
Answered by Ahaz B. Atif
Checked by Mawlana Asadullah Khan
Project Ihya Questions Department
Disclaimer: Project Ihya Q&A is not a fatwa-issuing body. Please only submit questions pertaining to defending or explaining the theology, core principles, texts, morals, and worldview of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama‘ah. For fatwas or fiqh-related matters, please contact your local muftis and fatwa-issuing bodies. JazakaAllah.
[1] Qur’an: 30:21.
[2] Abu Ayyub h narrates that the Messenger of Allah g said: “Four things are sunnahs of the messengers: bashfulness, applying perfume, using the siwak, and marriage.” (Tirmidhi: 1080)
[3] Bayhaqi: 5,100.
[4] Qur’an: 17:32.
[5] Muslim: 114.
[6] https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/americas-families-and-living-arrangements.html
[7] https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdev.13342
[8] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5226056/
[9] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/are-children-raised-with-absent-fathers-worse-off/#foot1
[10] https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=4
[11] https://www.d2l.org/daycare-abuse-statistics/
[12] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/03/10/older-people-are-more-likely-to-live-alone-in-the-u-s-than-elsewhere-in-the-world/
[13] https://www.aplaceformom.com/caregiver-resources/articles/elderly-nursing-home-population
[14] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/11/what-the-data-says-about-abortion-in-the-u-s-2/
[15] https://www.cigna.com/static/www-cigna-com/docs/about-us/newsroom/studies-and-reports/combatting-loneliness/cigna-2020-loneliness-factsheet.pdf
