Ahlul Bayt (AS) News Agency - ABNA: Given some moral and sexual anomalies in Islamic societies, some have sought to suggest that such inappropriate behaviors are the result of restrictions on men and women in interacting with the opposite sex. Restrictions and segregations that have been applied since the very establishment of Islamic society in early Islam (1) and gradually accumulate a sense of deprivation and frustration in every Muslim individual from childhood to adulthood in such a way that it may suddenly erupt and cause violence or rape.
In response to this claim, we must examine whether violence and sexual assault are directly related to the moral restrictions legislated by Islamic jurisprudence or not. We will examine this issue in the following sections.
Restrictions on relations between men and women are not exclusive to Islam
Before anything else, it should be noted that restricting relations with the opposite sex between men and women is not exclusive to Islam, and many non-Muslim societies and past civilizations have had restrictions in various ways on relations between men and women. The Church Fathers after Jesus (peace be upon him) and Paul elaborated on the teachings of Christianity. Based on the interpretation of the Pharisees of the Torah and the Talmud, they warned women against associating with non-mahram men in public and advised that women should not travel without a mahram man. (2)
This restriction never means suppressing the sexual instinct and prohibiting it. Rather, according to the verses of the Quran, including the verse (يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُبَيِّنَ لَكُمْ وَ يَهْدِيَكُمْ سُنَنَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَ يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ) (3) (Allah wishes to make clear to you and guide you to the ways of those before you and to accept your repentance), Allah wants to reveal the truths to humanity through these regulations and guide them to the paths that contain their interests and benefits. Moreover, a person is not alone in this program; the pure nations of the past also had such traditions.
Continuing, the above verses emphasize that (وَاللَّهُ يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَ يُرِيدُ الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الشَّهَواتِ أَنْ تَمِيلُوا مَيْلاً عَظِيماً) (4) (Allah wishes to accept your repentance, but those who follow lusts wish you to deviate a great deviation). Now think, is that restriction mixed with happiness and honor better for you, or this freedom and licentiousness mixed with pollution, misery, and degeneration!?
Explaining the true meaning of happiness and tranquility under religious rules
The above verses, in addition to their implications for their own time and previous nations, in fact answer those in our own era who criticize religious laws, especially regarding sexual matters, that these unconditional freedoms are nothing but an illusion, and their result is a great deviation from the path of happiness and human perfection and falling into wrong paths and abysses, many examples of which we see with our own eyes in the form of the disintegration of families, various sexual crimes, illegitimate children who become criminals, various sexually transmitted diseases and psychological disorders [and the humiliation of women and their transformation into tools for lust and hedonism, and young people being distracted from more important goals such as scientific and cultural progress, and thousands of other corruptions]. (5)
Islam's solutions for controlling sexual instinct and related crimes
Islam has also stated strategies for controlling the sexual instinct and preventing its eruption, including: self-purification and care in nutrition (6), fasting (7), controlling one's gaze (8), advising women to observe hijab (9), and ...
Even if a young person has tried to control his sexual instinct but it still blazes within him, Islam never suppresses this instinct; rather, it advises him to marry. And since a nearly universal excuse and public pretext for evading marriage and family formation is the issue of poverty and lack of financial means, the Quran addresses this, saying that one should not worry about the poverty and destitution of those eligible for marriage, and one must strive to facilitate their marriage because (if they are poor, Allah will enrich them from His bounty): (إِنْ يَكُونُوا فُقَراءَ يُغْنِهِمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ) (10) and Allah is capable of such a thing, because (Allah is All-Encompassing and All-Knowing): (وَاللَّهُ واسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ) (11), (12)
Even if someone truly cannot marry, Islam still provides appropriate solutions for his situation, including a solution called "temporary marriage" (mut'ah), which is like permanent marriage but does not have its costs, or marriage to slave girls (kaniz), which was common in early Islam. In any case, Islam never agrees with the eruption of sexual thirst or the suppression of this instinct, and it has stated various ways to satisfy this instinct through legitimate means. Because (يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُخَفِّفَ عَنْكُمْ وَ خُلِقَ الْإِنْسانُ ضَعِيفاً) (13) (Allah wishes to lighten your burden, and man was created weak); and in the face of the storm of various instincts that attack him from all sides, legitimate ways to satisfy instincts must be presented to him so that he can protect himself from deviation. (14)
The relationship between freedom in relations with non-mahrams and sexual violence and related insecurities
Contrary to what is claimed in the question, what causes violence and insecurity in society is freedom in relations between men and women, not proper and calculated restriction.
The lack of restriction on relations between girls and boys and women's nudity, which naturally brings consequences such as makeup, flirtation, and the like, keeps men, especially young people, in a state of constant stimulation. Stimulation that leads to lack of concentration and continuous psychological pressure on the nerves and causes morbid nervous excitements and sometimes mental illnesses. How much excitement can the human nervous system bear? Do not all psychiatrists say that continuous excitement is a cause of disease?
Especially note that the sexual instinct is the strongest and deepest-rooted human instinct and throughout history has been the source of deadly incidents and horrific crimes, to the extent that it has been said, "You will not find any major event in which a woman's foot is not involved"! Is constantly fanning the flames of this unbridled instinct through the mixing of men and women and through the nudity of girls not playing with fire? Is this a wise thing to do?
The social consequences of licentiousness in relations with the opposite sex
Away from all doubts and excuses, what we seek to explain here is that Islam wants, by establishing rulings, laws, and regulations to define the limits and rules of relations between men and women, that members of Muslim society have tranquil souls, healthy nerves, and pure eyes and ears. Because we have seen the disastrous consequences of licentiousness.
When we place the lack of restriction on relations between men and women in many countries alongside the problem of increasing nudity, we can conclude why divorce and the disintegration of marital life have continuously risen in the world. Because "whatever the eye sees, the heart remembers," and whatever the "heart" – meaning unbridled desires – wants, it pursues at any cost, and thus every day it becomes attached to one beloved and bids farewell to another, and practically women become a common commodity (at least in the non-sexual stage), and the sanctity of the marriage covenant can no longer have any meaning, and families disintegrate like a spider's web, leaving children orphaned.
Transferring sexual enjoyment from the home environment and marital relations within a legal family to society weakens activities and social institutions. In the shadow of such relations, marriage becomes an obstacle to unlimited and free pleasure-seeking. Free and licentious interactions turn marriage into a duty and restriction that must be imposed on young people through moral advice or possibly force. The difference between a society that restricts sexual relations between men and women to the family environment and within the framework of legitimate and legal marriage, and a society where free relations are permitted, is that marriage in the first society is the end of waiting and deprivation, while in the second society it is the beginning of deprivation and restriction! (15)
The spread of adultery and the increase in illegitimate children are among the most painful consequences of the breakdown of limits and rules in relations between men and women, and of unveiling and licentiousness. This needs no figures or statistics, and its evidence, especially in Western societies, is completely evident. Given that "adultery" and, even worse, "illegitimate children" have been and are the source of all kinds of crimes in human societies, the dangerous dimensions of this issue become clearer.
When we hear that in the so-called free countries of the world, hundreds of thousands of illegitimate babies are born each year, and when we see that a group of scientists in those countries have warned authorities about this – not because of moral and religious issues, but because of the dangers that illegitimate children have created for the security of society, to the extent that they are involved in many criminal cases – we fully understand the importance of this issue and conclude that the spread of moral licentiousness, even for those who attach no importance to religion and moral programs, is catastrophic.
Therefore, anything that expands the scope of sexual corruption in human societies is considered a threat to the security of societies, and its consequences, however we calculate them, are to the detriment of that society.
Educational studies have also shown that schools where girls and boys study together, and workplaces where men and women work together and licentiousness in their interaction prevails, have become suitable environments for the growth of laziness, backwardness, and irresponsibility. (16)
Answer to the fallacy of "sexual desire calming down in a free and licentious situation"
Sexual desire does not have a fixed limit so that leaving it free will make it subside. On the contrary, leaving relations free is like pouring gasoline on fire, and it never remains at the level of ordinary interaction and speech. When desire ignites and a young person becomes accustomed to lust and sexual relations every day, nothing can stop him, to the extent that his sister, mother, and even his daughter will not be safe from his sexual violence.
This is because the sexual instinct is not like the desire for water or food, which can be gotten rid of by satisfying it. Those who criticize gender segregation in Islam under the pretext of creating sexual complexes have not paid attention that just as restriction and prohibition suppress the instinct and produce complexes, releasing it and surrendering to it and exposing oneself to stimulations and excitements drive it insane.
Two things are necessary for the calm of an instinct: one is satisfying the instinct to the extent of natural need, and the other is preventing its excitation and stimulation. In terms of natural needs, a human being is like an oil well where the accumulation of internal gases creates a risk of explosion. In that case, the gas must be released and set on fire, but this fire can never be satisfied by a large amount of fuel. (17)
Also, sometimes in these free relations, an unintended conflict arises between several people, which itself causes much violence in society, and no man or woman will have security for having peaceful relations that lead to the birth of children who can grow up in a family under the care of compassionate parents, and without any commitment to the sacred institution of marriage, at any moment one of the parties may break this relationship by force, threats, betrayal, or whim.
In conclusion, what causes corruption and insecurity is absolute freedom and lack of restriction in relations between men and women, and proper and calculated restriction brings calm and security to society.
Footnotes:
(1). According to some narrations, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) separated the entrances for men and women in the Prophet's Mosque and even ordered that men walk in the middle of the street and women along the side to prevent their mixing: Sunan Abi Dawud, Sijistani, Sulayman ibn Ash'ath, Dar al-Hadith, Qom, 2014 CE (1393 AH solar), first edition, vol. 1, p. 19; Al-Kafi, Kulayni, Muhammad ibn Ya'qub, Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyyah, Qom, 1984 CE (1363 AH solar), fifth edition, vol. 5, p. 518.
(2). Sexual Liberation: The Scandal of Christendom, Lawrence, Raymond, no publisher, London, 2007 CE, p. 20.
(3). Surah An-Nisa, verse 26.
(4). Surah An-Nisa, verse 27.
(5). Tafsir Nemuneh, Makarem Shirazi, Nasir, Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyyah, Tehran, 1995 CE (1374 AH solar), 32nd edition, vol. 3, p. 353.
(6). As mentioned in many narrations about the properties of certain foods, including chickpeas, etc., that they increase desire, and some foods decrease desire, for example: "Bread with vinegar stew eliminates the desire for adultery." See: Aseman va Jahan (Translation of Kitab al-Sama' wa al-'Alam from Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 54), Majlisi, Muhammad Baqir ibn Muhammad Taqi, translated by Kamarei, Muhammad Baqir, Eslamiyyeh Publications, Tehran, 1972 CE (1351 AH solar), first edition, vol. 10, pp. 81 and 110, etc.
(7). "Fasting kills the selfish desires and natural lust..." Misbah al-Shari'ah, attributed to Ja'far ibn Muhammad, the sixth Imam (AS), Alami Publications, Beirut, 1980 CE (1400 AH), first edition, p. 136.
(8). "Tell the believing men to lower their gaze..." Surah An-Nur, verse 30.
(9). "And let them draw their head covers over their chests..." Surah An-Nur, verse 31.
(10). Surah An-Nur, verse 32.
(11). Ibid.
(12). Tafsir Nemuneh, same, vol. 14, p. 458.
(13). Surah An-Nisa, verse 28.
(14). Tafsir Nemuneh, same, vol. 3, p. 354.
(15). Collected Works of Shahid Motahhari, Motahhari, Morteza, Sadra Publications, Qom, 2000 CE (1379 AH solar), second edition, vol. 19, p. 438.
(16). See: One Hundred and Eighty Questions and Answers, Makarem Shirazi, Nasir, Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyyah, Tehran, 2007 CE (1386 AH solar), fourth edition, pp. 467-469 (summarized and with additions).
(17). Collected Works of Shahid Motahhari, same, pp. 460 and 461.
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