Surat al-Mu'minoon ayah 5

وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِفُرُوجِهِمْ حَـفِظُونَ

"alatheena hum lifuroojihim hafidhoon"

Stranger: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barokatuhu. We will cover what we can in tafsir of the fifth ayah of al-Mu'minoon. The ayah describes the mu'mineen as those who gaurd their sexual desires. I looked up the word faraja and furooj and all the different sarf of the word before coming to the session today and found a number of meanings from an opening to desire, enjoyment and comfort to newly hatched chicks. Let's unpack this word to the meaning intended by Allah the Most High.

Dr: Furooj is a really nice polite way to say sex. It can be described as that which is between your legs. This word is in plural form so it is quite extensive in breadth of meaning, it means more than just the actual act of sexual intercourse. I want to make a grammar point before I expand upon the meaning. Allah has revealed the word farooj with the possessive pronoun afterwards - furoojihim - to imply that a Muslim is individually responsible for his or her own guarding of the private parts. So if a man blames a woman for tempting him, ok yes she was sinful in that act but he was personally responsible for himself and needed to take heed of Allah's command in guarding oneself from illegal sexual relations starting right from the eyes.

Stranger: Allah the Most High says in Surat al-Isra' 32 not to even come near to illegal sex (zina and fahisha/fawahish)

32﴿وَلاَ تَقْرَبُواْ الزِّنَى إِنَّهُ كَانَ فَاحِشَةً وَسَآءَ سَبِيلاً

And do not come near to unlawful sex. Verily, it is Fahishah (immoral sin) and an evil way.

Dr: Yes, don't even come NEAR it, it is very dangerous and a very dirty way the dirtiest. To slam the door before you even get a change to go through the door just start by of course fearing ALlah's punishment and in your actions LOWER YOUR GAZE. This is requiested of us by Allah in Surat an-Nur ayah 30 and 31.

قُلْ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّواْ مِنْ أَبْصَـرِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُواْ فُرُوجَهُمْ ذلِكَ أَزْكَى لَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ

 Tell the believing men to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts. That is purer for them. Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what they do.

and the same advice for the women in the very next ayah:

...وَقُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنَـتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَـرِهِنَّ وَيَحْفَظْنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts...

The ayah is longer and talks about wearing hijab (jilbab) we will get onto this later as it is to do with a woman protecting herself from the gaze of men (because men really love to look and are more desirous of women than women of men so to help them out a little we cover to protect ourselves from harrassment and to protect them from their gaze which can lead to other things).

The eyes are the begining of zina. We see something that attracts us, it is normal but we must have control so we lower the gaze. Rasool ALlah (sas) said in a hadith to Ali ibn abi Talib to not follow the nathr (look/gaze), the first glance is for your self (unintentional) but the second (on purpose) is against your self.

They eyes looking at what is not halal in the sense of sexual desires, is zina as in a hadith "al-ainan taznian wa zinahuma an-nathr" the eyes do zina and their zina is the gaze.

This gazing at what is not halal is often refered to as "siham iblis" the arrow of satan - like how the disbelievers have that shirk of cupid aiming his bow so people fall in love, the arrow is from satan and the nathr - gaze is an arrow from satan to make us listen to our desires and follow them and end up in serious sin.

Stranger: Islam does not condone celibacy though.

Dr: Celibacy is not from the natural disposition of man - Allah created sex to be enjoyed but in the halal way. The haram way is destructive to the individuals involved and the society. We will cover the halal sex in the next ayat of al-Mu'mineen.

Stranger: Jazakum Allahu khairan.