LINK OF FASTING TO SEX AND CHASTITY
In their month-long retreat
during the fast of Ramadan Muslims are specifically permitted, as we noted
earlier, to approach their wives during the night which follows the day of fasting. This union of husband and wife
during the nights of Ramadan injects a spiritual content into sexual relations
and then elevates that spiritualized sex to a status worthy of participation in
a spiritual retreat. Now what Islam achieves here is nothing less than
revolutionary, for the satisfaction of the sexual needs of man have almost
universally been held to be incompatible with his highest spiritual strivings.
The religious mind through the ages has maintained an aloofness from sexuality
which it has either held in contempt or reluctantly tolerated. Islam makes a
break with the immediate past and works for the integration of man's sex life into
the period of his most intense and sustained spiritual mobilization In doing so it spiritualized the sex bond and
establishes a philosophy of sex which is the sine qua non for the
emancipation of woman in this modem age.
So long as sex is considered to
be incompatible with man's spiritual strivings woman's status in society will
always be problematic. Such a philosophy of sex, which excludes sexual life
from the world of the sacred, and which recognizes no reality for woman beyond
her material reality, almost naturally causes man to eventually approach woman
for the satisfaction of lust and base carnal passion. Whensoever this occurs
the mind creates an image of woman as a toy, a plaything and an object to be
used and abused; and herein lies the explanation for the continued exploitation
of woman in the modem world. The feminist movement in the western world seems
to have completely overlooked this aspect of the problem.
As soon as sex is
spiritualized, as it
is in the fast of Ramadan, man approaches
woman with light rather than lust. And in the flame of spiritual illumination
sex attains a status which is truly sacred, a gift from God through which a man
and woman attain peace, tranquillity, intense pleasure and contentment and most
important of all, a union and unity which facilitates the approach to The One. It is in this context that we can properly examine the
statement of the Prophet (sallalahu
ta’alah ‘alaihi wa sallam): "Three (things) have been made dear to me (by Allah) in this
world of yours - women, and fragrance (of perfume), and prayer has been the
cooling of my eyes."
Ibn Arabi, in his famous work Fusus
al- Hikam, comments on this saying of the Prophet (sallalahu ta’alah ‘alaihi wa sallam) in some detail:
"Then God drew forth from
him (namely man) a being in his own image, called woman, and because she
appears in his own image, man feels a deep longing for her, as something yearns
for Itself...
Thus, women were made beloved to him, for God loves that which He has
created in His own image...,1
For Ibn Arabi the love for
woman is founded on the conception of woman as a being who emerged from man.
Now whatever may be the merits of this conception of woman (which is basically
a Christian conception) on which Ibn Arabi bases his explanation of the
statement of the Prophet (sallalahu
ta’alah ‘alaihi wa sallam), it does not appear to be supported by the Qur'an which speaks of
spiritual· creation of the male and the female from the same nafs (self).
From that single nafs did Allah (subhanahu wa ta’alah) create its mate. (Qur'an 4: 1) No gender has been specifically
recognized for that original nafs.
In so far as biological
creation is concerned the Qur'an says that Allah (subhanahu wa ta’alah) has caused (all) mankind to emerge from the earth in the manner of
trees and plants. (Qur'an 71: 17) It also
states that the nutfa (sperm) becomes an alaq (fertilized embryo
which clings to the wall of the womb). And it is at this stage that Allah (subhanahu wa ta’alah) causes either the male or the
female to emerge. (Qur'an, 75:37-9)
Ibn Arabi is more convincing
when he speaks of woman as a medium in which, and through which, man can
contemplate God:
"When a man loves a woman,
he seeks union with her, that is to say the most complete union possible in
love. And there is in the elemental sphere no greater union than that between
the sexes. It is precisely because such desire pervades all his parts that man
is commanded to perform the major ablution (i. e. to take a bath after sexual
intercourse). Thus the purification is total, just as his annihilation in her
was total at the moment of consummation. God is jealous of His servant that he
should find pleasure in any but Him, so He Purifies him by the ablution, so
that he might once again behold Him in the one in whom he was annihilated, since
it is none other than He whom he sees in her. "
[p.274J1
Indeed woman is the most
perfect such medium, according to Ibn Arabi:
"Contemplation of the
Reality without formal support is not possible, since God in His Essence, is far
beyond all need of the Cosmos. Since, therefore, some form of support is
necessary, the best and most perfect kind is the contemplation of God in women.
"
[p.275J2
It is important that we should note that the Prophet (sallalahu ta’alah ‘alaihi wa sallam) said:"Three things have been
made dear to me . . . ". He did not say: "Three things did I
love." The implication is that it was the Divine will which ordained that
women be loved more than all the world. The reason, as Ibn Arabi explains, is
that of all the Ayat (signs and symbols) of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’alah) which exist in the world,
woman is the closest Ayatullah (symbol of Allah) to man. She is the
closest 'window' to heaven! Hence man should approach woman with the respect which
is due to the sacred. And, through woman, he should seek to approach his Lord.
Yet another approach to the
subject is to be found in Dr. P.R. Ansari's observations that "the
satisfaction of the sexual need bears a certain relationship with an expansion
in man's spiritual release."3 This is not to say that the celibate is
incapable of spiritual progress. It is
rather a view to the effect that in negating sex in order to pursue spiritual
growth, man is, in fact, disregarding an in-built mechanism in his own nature
which constantly balances the physical and the spiritual.
Finally we may note that the
spiritualization of sex, which is initiated in fasting, makes a significant
impact on sexual morality since it establishes the firmest possible foundations
for chastity. It is in the context of the
permission to approach wives during the nights of Ramadan that the Qur'an finds
it appropriate to observe that:
"They (your wives) are
apparel for you, and so are you for them."
(Qur'an 2:187)
Thus when a husband goes to a
woman other than his wife for his sexual satisfaction, he is, in fact,
depriving his wife of her clothing and thus subjecting her to a certain kind of
nakedness with all its attendant vulnerability, embarrassment and shame.
Chastity is an imperative for stable and happy family life. And this is the
foundation of the stable family unit without which an enduring civilization
cannot be established.
To Be Continued ....
