The Ruling on Masturbation: Prohibitively Disliked

Walaikum assalam,

Masturbation is sinful, being prohibitively disliked, and having many personal and societal ill-effects that are known and recognised in sane traditional societies and by balanced people the world over. The early Muslims used to say, "The one who weds his hand is accursed." (Fath al-Qadir)

It is only allowed in the very rare situation where if the person did not do this, they would fall into actual zina (i.e. unlawful sexual intercourse), because of their uncontrollable desire, on condition that they are unable to marry and have taken all reasonable means to lessen their passion (such as fasting, lowering their gaze, avoiding meat and dairy products, avoiding those things that stir their desires, such as bad company, spending unnecessary time outdoors, especially in public places such as shopping malls where there is fitna, avoiding watching tv and surfing the internet, etc).

Even in such cases, it could only be done to lessen sexual desire, not for sexual gratification. Otherwise, it would remain sinful. These conditions are extremely rare.

[derived from: Ibn Abidin's Hashiya, al-Lakhnawi's Naf` al-Mufti wa'l Sa'il, and al-Nahlawi's Durar al-Mubaha, Kamal ibn al-Humam's Fath al-Qadir]

Wassalam,

Faraz Rabbani