By Cyril Anderson

 Part One of Two

One question which comes up often given the stringent standards set by Islam with regards to premarital sex is the legality of masturbation in Islam, masturbation being the stimulation of one’s own genitals for sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm.  According to the vast majority of scholars, masturbation is generally understood to be forbidden in Islam.

 For men it is almost universally seen as forbidden, with few exceptions (some scholars making exception for mutual masturbation with one’s wife, or for the purposes of collection of semen for medical purposes).  This is based on the Qu’ranic verse saying that the believers guard their private parts except from their spouses.  Based on narrations from Muhammad and from his immediate family members and descendants, this is understood to include guarding ones private parts from oneself as well.  Some men will try to argue that an unmarried adult male needs to masturbate in order to “clear the inventory” so to speak of excess sperm.  The problem, however, with this argument is that the body has a natural means of getting rid of excess amounts of sperm; when the level gets too high, it naturally spills over in the young man’s sleep.  In this way the biological need is fulfilled.  There remains however a great psychological desire.  The general Islamic teaching remains, however that the young man must either try to marry, whether permanently or temporarily, or try to subdue his desires through a change of diet, prayer, fasting, or other attempts to distract the mind and direct it to other ends.

 As for women, opinions are mixed.  Some scholars say it is similarly forbidden for them, while others say it is disliked, but ultimately permissible.  There seems to be a recognition that there is some qualitative difference between masturbation in men and in women.  Some of these differences are known medically and from general experience; orgasm does not produce the same toll physiologically on the woman as on the man in terms of the feeling of wastedness and loss of energy.  This likely stems from the fact that unlike in the male orgasm, when up to 500 million sperm cells are expelled from the body, along with bodily fluids, the female orgasm does not involve the loss of reproductive cells.  (Such only happens for women during menstruation, when, interestingly, such feelings of wastedness and lack of energy are suffered by women generally)

 Indeed, some particulars of women’s bodies and lives seem to justify, in some limited sense, masturbation, or at least some sort of self-exploration so that a woman can become familiar with her body.  One example is their more complicated anatomy and more nuanced sexual arousal.  A woman needs to understand how her body works and what pleases her so as to be able to explain to her husband what pleases her.   While for a man, everything is very much self-evident, for a woman, things are not so much “out in the open,” so to speak, and so some sort of self-exploration is almost needed to ensure the woman to develop the proper awareness of her body.  This should not be taken however as giving women free rein to masturbate while men are forbidden to do so.  Yes, women have more complicated anatomy, and yes, it is more challenging and complicated for them to explore and learn about their anatomy than for men.  However, there comes a time in such exploration of the grounds when the basic details of the scenery have been seen, making further exploration nothing but pointless and frivolous wandering.

 An alternate way for her to gain such knowledge of herself and of her body while avoiding the issue of masturbation would be for her to have very open communication with her husband from the start, so that when they begin their sex lives together, they are comfortable to take it slow and explore and learn from each other.  But this is difficult for many to do when they are just starting to become sexually active, and just starting off in their marriage.

 Another difference between men and women under the Islamic system that may explain the difference in attitude with regards to masturbation is that while men can in theory marry more than one wife, a woman cannot marry more than one husband.  The question then comes as to what she should do if her husband needs to be away for a long period of time from home, and finds trouble with her sexual urges.  Unlike for a man, the option of a temporary marriage available as an emergency option for a man to prevent illicit activities when lesser solutions fail is not open to her.  Therefore, if desires are strong and cannot be curbed by the recommended solution of prayer and fasting, then masturbation may be available to her as a last resort to avoid more serious temptations.  Again, this is not meant to imply some sort of green light for women in this regard, but rather to try to shed some light as to why there might be some differences between the judgments for men and for women.

 There is overall a very selfish aspect to masturbation.  The person becomes accustomed to just working to get his orgasm.  It takes a major adjustment from this to be truly considerate toward ones partner.  Masturbation is self-oriented, and this experience, if repeated too often and regularly, can be crippling, because it makes it more difficult for the person to fully engage with their partner in love-making.  In a sense, such a man approaches sex still for all intensive purposes masturbating, with the only change that he is using his partner’s vagina to stimulate himself rather than his hand.  Sex is never perfect or completely ideal, but it is supposed to be an encounter between two people, a sharing, when it is at its best, of mind, body, and soul.  A history of masturbation can easily build up a psychological block to this from bad habits developed during masturbation, with one’s focus on oneself getting in the way of real encounter with ones partner.

                                         Part One             Part Two