6 Surprising Proofs Why Watching Porn is Halal in Islam
C.J Ahmed-20.04.2023
Pornopraghy is frowned subject among Muslims and the majority believe that wtching porn is a sin in Islam. This attitude has only caused hardships to Muslims and watching porn while thinking it has forbidden has brought the guilt to the community thinking that they are hypocrites. In Islam, there is no conclusive evidence to prov that watching porn is sinful and the following six arguments proves this point.
1) What is Porn
According to the Oxford dictionary, the term porn refers to Printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement and the Webster dictionary refers porn as the depiction of erotic behaviour (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement. The word porn was coined using the Greek word pórnē which means prostitution in English. The earliest depiction of nudity and sexuality could be more than 5000 years old and many ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, Sumer and India have all had their share of erotic art. The drawings were very explicit and liberally entertained as a form of art with little or no restriction. The first porn novel was published by John Cleland of England between the year 1748 and 1749 named “Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure”. The distribution of the book was stopped after the author and the publisher were arrested in 1749. When Christianity was proselytised in Europe, porn was denounced as immoral and unaccepted and the Victorians took extreme steps to stop nude drawings and photography and considered them to be immoral. At the same time, many inventions came into being to help and surprise masturbation and sexuality. The Victorian era was an era where sexuality was discussed openly and regulation was more in place rather complete suppression. When it comes to masturbation, many devices were invented during this era to suppress it. In Islam, the pornography argument is based on the intimate parts which are alloed to be een in a man or woman which is known as “Awrah”. What needs to be understood is that in the Quran and the authentic haith, looking at the awrah of real people is what has been clearly frowned and there is no mention of the prohibition of looking of images or drawings of nude peopleeventough nude art and drawings existedthousands of years before the birth of the messenger of Allah (sal). The scholars who forbid watching porn stretching the available prohibitions mentioned in the Quran and the Hadiths using analogical resoning or deductions which is known as “Qiyas”. Qiyas should be done using evidence from the Quran and the authentic hadiths and as far as pornography is concerned, Islam is silent on this issue and silence is a mercy from Allah (swt).
The Prophet (sal) said,
“Verily Allah has obligated the obligations – so do not neglect them. And He has limited the limits – so do not transgress them. And His silence about things is from His mercy, not forgetfulness, so do not investigate them.”
(Hasan sahih-Ad-Darqutni No. 4/199 and Al-Baihaqi No. 10/122 a nd also graded Sahih by Sheikh Albani)
For an en example, the drinking of intoxicating toddy is forbidden although there is no mention of toddy in the Quran or the ahentic hadiths becaaue of the main principal that all intoxicants is prohibited. The same cannot be said with regards to watching porn because the principal of the prohibition of looking at the awrah of real people is that is can cause the person commit sin such as adulteryor fornication but the person who is watching porn is not looking at the awrah of real people and the generl reason a person watched porn is only to satisfy him or herself by means of masturbao which is not forbidden in Islam. Aother example is the eating of pork. Islam forbids the eatig of pork because ithe meat of pigs is unclean. The same cnnot be said on eating artificial pork because artificial pork is not real pork and the principal of Qiyas cannot be applied to it.
2)The Awrah Argument
Although the western definition in English for porn changes slightly with the change of time and new technology, Islam has a different and simple definition of porn. In Islam which is based on the Arabic term “Awrah” or the intimate parts of men and women, which are forbidden. The awrah varies from a man to a woman. The awrah argument is the basis that is used by ultra conservative Muslims to forb id pornography. The prohibition of looking at the awrah or the intimate parts of men and women is based on several authentic hadiths. The prophet (Sal) said:
“"No man should look at the Awrah of another man and no woman should look at the Awrah of another woman. Also, no man should be with another man under one piece of cloth and no woman should be with another woman under one piece of cloth.”
(Sahih Muslim)
Jarir bin 'Abdullah (Rali) narrated:
"I asked the Messenger of Allah (Sal) about (the Islamic ruling on) accidental glance and he ordered me to turn my eyes away".
(Sahih Muslim)
Allah (Swt) says in the Quran
“Tell the believing women to lower their gaze"
(24:31)
"Tell the believing men to lower their gaze"
(24:31)
The above evidences have been taken literally and the interpretation is stretched out with an umbrella prohibition arguing that lowering the gaze or not looking at the intimate parts of men and women applies to mediums such as photography or video. What needs to be understood here is that looking at the intimate parts is forbidden only,
If this meets these two criteria only does it falls as forbidden. Looking at the intimate parts of men or women without lust is allowed based on many authentic hadiths. There are several hadiths to support this. One such hadith is recorded in Sahih Al Bukhari and Sahih Muslim where Aisha (Rali) was enjoying the spear dance that was conducted by a group of Ethiopian men in the mosque in the day of Eid. In another hadith an Ansari woman came to the Prophet ( Sal) and he took her aside and said (to her). "By Allah, you (Ansar) are the most beloved people to me."
(Bukhari)
In the above hadith it is clear that the prophet (Sal) spoke to a woman and there is no mention of him turning his face towards the ground. He also took her to a side and spoke to her. There are ample hadiths to prove that you can look at a woman without lust. Unfortunately, many Muslims have turned in to extremists by gazing down their face all the time when looking at a woman and even refusing to speak to the opposite sex. The above hadiths only mention looking at the intimate parts with your own eyes. One might argue that the teachings of Islam is universal and is for all ages and times irrespective of how technology has advanced. This is true if there were hadiths prohibiting the ogling or looking of images but the truth is, there aren’t any. The other stretch of the argument of those who forbid watching porn is that the hadiths and the verses in the Quran that prohibit looking t the intimate parts of men and women does not differentiate between looking at real people or images, videos or other manipulative technological creations such as cartoons or CGI generated imagery or videos. My answer to this is that drawings of nude men and women existed before the prophet Muhammad (sal) and even with the existence of such pornographic art, neither did the prophet (sal) forbid looking at them nor was it forbidden in the Quran. This means that Islam is silent on the issue of looking at nude men and women which are either in drawings or videos.
Abu Darda reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said,
“What Allah has made lawful in his book is lawful, and what he has made unlawful is unlawful. Whatever he has remained silent upon, it is for your benefit, so accept benefit from Allah. Verily, Allah is not forgetful.” Then the Prophet recited the verse, “Your Lord is not forgetful.” (19:64)
(Sunan al-Darqutni-Graded authentic by Sheikh Albani)
Let’s take the next hadith
The Prophet (sal) said,
"A woman should not look at or touch another woman to describe her to her husband in such a way as if he was actually looking at her."
(Bukhari)
Now, if a husband tells appearing on TV and quotes the above hadiths stating that she should not look or touch a woman, it doesn’t apply because what is mentioned in the hadith is describing a real woman because it involves touching her physically as well which cannot be done in a TV screen. Taking the hadith literally and stating it applies to everything is baseless because the Greeks, Romans and other civilizations used nude pornographic imagery even before the prophet (sal) and even in such a scenario it wasn’t forbidden.
“No, no; the voice on the tape is nothing and will not serve any purpose, because it cannot be said that one has read or recited Quran; rather it may be said that one has listened to the voice of somebody who recited it before. Hence if we record the adhan of a muadhdhin, then when the time comes we play it over the loudspeakers, and we leave it to call the adhan, is that acceptable? It is not acceptable. If we record a moving khutbah (sermon), then on Friday we play this recording of the “imam of the microphone”, and the recording says “As-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmat-Allahi wa barakatuhu (peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings),” then the muadhdhin gives the call to prayer, then the recording of the khutbah is played, is this acceptable? It is not acceptable; why is that? Because this recording is a voice that was recorded in the past. It is like if you wrote it on a piece of paper or put a Mushaf in the house; is that sufficient instead of reading or reciting it? It is not sufficient. (As’ilat al-Bab al-Maftuh (question no. 986))
4)Does Porn Addiction Exist?
Many researchers, authors and even physicians and psychologists have wrongly brought forward the argument that porn addiction exists. The arguments that are put forward to support such arguments and theories are mostly based on anecdotal evidence. It is very clear that you cannot rely on anecdotal evidence when proving a point in science. Scientific arguments are based on scientific and medical research evidence to back it. As far as science is concerned, there is no evidence whatsoever to prove that porn addiction exists. Dr David Ley, who is a clinical psychologist, published a study (David Ley, Nicole Prause, Peter Finn. The Emperor Has No Clothes: A Review of the ‘Pornography Addiction’ Model. Current Sexual Health Reports, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-014-0016-8)
debunking the argument that porn addiction exists. Dr Ley argues that people who report about being addicted to porn are likely to be male, have non-heterosexual orientation and have religious values that conflict with their sexual behaviour and desires. Most people among the religious community have porn addiction counselling which are based on pseudoscientific methods and this has become a very lucrative practice. Take the Mormon church for an example, who have Masturbation and Porn addiction counselling sessions which are based on unscientific nonsense and the person is thought to shun masturbation and pornography, which is near impossible to achieve due to the simple reason that biologically people love to enjoy porn and masturbation after getting exposed to it.
There are sex,porn and masturbation addition, therapists who are just bogus men and women who are using pseudoscientific methods to fool people into thinking that such addictions exist.
Pathologizing individuals as addicts could increase the guilt and hence other psychological, physical conditions such as stress, Anxiety, diabetes and blood pressure can develop as a result. Masturbation is associated with pornography and a wrong analogy is derived to make it a sinful act among Muslims. There are many Muslim counsellors as well who counsel Muslims, especially men to stop Masturbating and watching porn. Similar to porn there is no such thing as a masturbation addiction.
Firebrand Muslim preachers preach on how masturbation and pornography affect marital life and all of it is based on personal anecdotes. Science has proven beyond doubt that there is no such thing as a masturbation or porn addiction. Some celebrity talk show hosts and doctors have come on record claiming that sex addiction exists which is once again a baseless myth based on anecdotal evidence. What needs to be understood is that a medical pathology should be based only on scientific research evidence and not on personal anecdotes. This fact is agreed by all scientists. Most of the porn, masturbation and sex addiction therapies are faith based and not based on science. Someone might ask then why do so many people complain that they are struggling to cope with porn? The answer to this is that most people who complain about porn, masturbation or sex addictions are mostly coming from a religious background. Take an example of a Muslim boy who was raised by his religious parents. He is thinking that watching porn or masturbating is a sin and Allah (Swt) is watching him.
This fear induced religious learning impacts the boy not only in his childhood, but it also affects his adulthood as well.
Religious learning induced by extreme fear creates a lot of guilt and the young Muslim man or woman end up interpreting his/her compulsiveness to a porn or masturbation as an addiction. As a result of this he/she tries to force themselves into unethical physical and mental control by reading books or watching/listening to various Islamic lectures of Muslim preachers telling them how bad porn and masturbation are. Just because someone is compulsive does not mean that he is addicted. In most cases compulsiveness is totally harmless as in the case of watching porn and masturbating. It’s the fear, guilt mind-set that has been turned into a victim mind-set due to frequent brainwashing that’s done during childhood through induced fear of punishment. The change in mindset to a positive one will help the Muslim to understand that compulsiveness is not an addiction and many people are enjoying their lives being compulsive without any hindrance. Take for an example of people who are avid readers. Sometimes theses avid readers finish reading four or five books in a week and there are people who watch TV, movies and even travel the world frequently and such compulsiveness are never deemed as an addiction. If you fear that compulsiveness is hindering your day to day life as in the case in obsessive compulsive disorder, you can always solve such trivial issues with a qualified therapist but what needs to be understood is that compulsiveness is not an addiction.
5)Amazing Health Benefits for Couples Who Watch Porn
Leaving aside the bogus claims by dogmatists, there is scentifi evidence to prove that watching porn actually helping couples. An article titled “Romantic partners who watch pornography together report higher relationship quality, study finds” which appeared in Psypost dated-18th October 2021, said the following,
New research indicates that shared pornography use in adult relationships is associated with greater relationship functioning. In other words, couples who frequently watch pornography together tend to be more satisfied with their romantic relationship and their sex life.
“The findings, published in Frontiers in Psychology, call into question claims that pornography use inevitably causes relationships to deteriorate.
The new research represents “the culmination of several lines of thinking that my colleagues and I have been developing over the years,” said study author Taylor Kohut, a lecturer at the University of Louvain and an adjunct research professor at Western University.
“The first concerns a criticism of the field that we first raised nearly a decade ago; if the goal is to understand the effects of pornography on relationships, how much can we really learn if we don’t collect data from both relationship partners? While the number of dyadic studies is not zero, and may even be increasing, most research that is published continues to collect data from only one person in the relationship.”
“Another issue that played a role in shaping this paper is the general academic obsession with framing pornography use as a causal agent of harm in correlational research. Sure, it’s possible that pornography use causes a range of problems (and potentially benefits too) but our narrow-minded focus on that specific mechanism of action is so limiting and it has prevented us from considering some interesting alternative explanations for correlations between pornography use and poor relationship quality.”
For their study, the researchers examined two cross-sectional and two longitudinal datasets that were collected by three independent laboratories. The datasets included information about 761 heterosexual couples in total. After analyzing the data, the researchers found a positive relationship between shared pornography use and relationship quality. Partners who frequently watched pornography together tended to have higher relationship and sexual satisfaction compared to partners who did not.
“Use of pornography with a romantic partner is reliably associated with better rather than worse sexual and relationship satisfaction,” Kohut told PsyPost.”( https://www.psypost.org/2021/10/romantic-partners-who-watch-together-report-higher-relationship-quality-61975)
6 The Release of Dopamine to The brain and Pornography an it’s False Argument.
As explained earlier in this book, there is no such thing as a porn addiction yet some try to convince people that watching porn could be addictive because the neurotransmitter to the brain called dopamine increases in the brain, resulting in the person who watches porn becoming an addict due to the increased craving he has towards porn.
A research published by Cambridge Neuroscientist Dr Valerie Voon (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102419) has highlighted that dopamine increases in people watching porn.
Many anti porn crusaders use this dopamine theory to push the argument that dopamine acts as an erotoxin that gets released to the brain when a person views porn. The truth is dopamine acts as a vasodilator that expands the blood vessels in the body. Dopamine is something that is important to the human body and the lack of dopamine could cause many nervous system disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Trying to prove that porn is addictive because dopamine increases as a result of watching porn is totally wrong. There are many activities and foods that increase dopamine. Exercising, consuming prebiotics, taking a good rest will increase dopamine. The increase in dopamine is good for the body and it’s elementary to base an argument on the increase or decrease of a neurotransmitter. The research, published by Valarie Voon also argues that the person who watches porn is as addictive as a heroin addict.
This argument does not hold water because an article published in Psychology Today dated 06/01/2017 debunks this as a flawed argument. The article explains:
“When a person is about to experience pleasure, dopamine is released in the brain, and in the parts of the brain that experience and process pleasure. Dopamine’s role here is NOT that it makes you feel good. It doesn’t – the pleasure and hedonic or euphoria feeling comes from opiates in the brain, neuro chemicals which increase pleasure and deaden pain. Dopamine’s role in pleasure and reward is that it helps your brain to recognize “incentive salience.” This means that it’s like a little red flag to your brain, saying “hey, pay attention, this is about to feel good, and you want to remember this, so you can do it again” .
A critical issue here is that a lack of dopamine doesn’t actually make the experience feel less well. In studies with rats, where dopamine was suppressed, rats showed “normal hedonic reaction patterns,
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9858756)” and still showed normal pleasure responses even though dopamine was suppressed. In another rat study,
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7826571) it was shown that dopamine transmission increased in the anticipation of the heroin administration, but decreased sharply once the drug was administered (by the rat itself). Notably, this effect wasn’t present the first time the rat self-administered the heroin. Why? Because they hadn’t learned yet that the heroin was about to feel really good”
There are a few researches published that argue that watching porn could affect marital intimacy. The research was a survey that was published by the American Urological Association dated 12/05/2017 (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/results-vary-by-gender-on-whether-pornography-use-leads-to-sexual-dysfunction-300456647.html) arguing that watching porn can affect a man’s performance in bed.
This survey, which is titled ‘Results Vary By Gender on Whether Pornography Use Leads to Sexual Dysfunction’ is yet to be proven with more scientific evidence and there is a research published by Samuel L. Perry of the Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma (http://www.seksonderzoek.be/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Does_Viewing_Pornography_Reduce_Marital.pdf) and the Samuel L. Perry mentions the hypothesis needing further research.
He says:
“I conclude by discussing the implications and limitations of this study and outlining directions for future research. All the research evidence and surveys are hypothetical and needs further scientific evidence to back it, but there are many health benefits of watching porn. A study done by Cambridge University
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269763975_
(Viewing_Sexual_Stimuli_Associated_with_Greater_Sexual_Responsiveness_Not_Erectile_Dysfunction) proves that there is a positive correlation between watching porn and sexual desire. A research titled “The Effect of a Primary Sexual Reward Manipulation on Cortisol Responses to Psychosocial Stress in Men” was published by Carnegie Mellon University (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236193328_ (The_Effect_of_a_Primary_Sexual_Reward_Manipulation_on_Cortisol_Responses_to_Psychosocial_Stress_in_Men) Proved that watching porn or nude images can decrease stress).
Another paper was published in 2009 in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19665229)
By Milton Diamond and he concludes as appeared in Psychology Today dated 22/01/2010 stated:
"Indeed, the data reported and reviewed suggests that the thesis is a myth and, if anything, there is an inverse causal relationship between an increase in pornography and sex crimes. Further, considering the findings of studies of community standards and widespread usage of SEM [sexually explicit material], it is obvious that in local communities as nationally and internationally, porn is available, widely used and felt appropriate for voluntary adult consumption.
If there is a consensus against pornography it is in regard to any SEM that involves children or minors in its production or consumption. Lastly, we see that objections to erotic materials are often made on the basis of supposed actual, social or moral harm to women. No such cause and effect has been demonstrated with any negative consequence."
There is also evidence to prove that porn helps relationships. A research titled “Erotica Viewing Effects on Intimate Relationships and Self/Partner Evaluations” (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-012-0034-4#/page-1) show that watching porn can help have a good sexual relationship among couples.
Another study titled “Viewing Sexual Stimuli Associated with Greater Sexual Responsiveness, Not Erectile Dysfunction” (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/sm2.58) Argued that men who watch porn have more sexual sensitivity.
After analysing all the evidence on this subject it his very clear that there is no conclusive evidence) to prove that porn is unhealthy for humans and the evidence and surveys that prove against it are an assertion based on correlational data and nothing more.
Conclusion
There is nothing directly from the Quran or authentic Hadiths to suggest that watching porn is haram and a husband and wife and definitely watch porn
Pornopraghy is frowned subject among Muslims and the majority believe that wtching porn is a sin in Islam. This attitude has only caused hardships to Muslims and watching porn while thinking it has forbidden has brought the guilt to the community thinking that they are hypocrites. In Islam, there is no conclusive evidence to prov that watching porn is sinful and the following six arguments proves this point.
1) What is Porn
According to the Oxford dictionary, the term porn refers to Printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement and the Webster dictionary refers porn as the depiction of erotic behaviour (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement. The word porn was coined using the Greek word pórnē which means prostitution in English. The earliest depiction of nudity and sexuality could be more than 5000 years old and many ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, Sumer and India have all had their share of erotic art. The drawings were very explicit and liberally entertained as a form of art with little or no restriction. The first porn novel was published by John Cleland of England between the year 1748 and 1749 named “Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure”. The distribution of the book was stopped after the author and the publisher were arrested in 1749. When Christianity was proselytised in Europe, porn was denounced as immoral and unaccepted and the Victorians took extreme steps to stop nude drawings and photography and considered them to be immoral. At the same time, many inventions came into being to help and surprise masturbation and sexuality. The Victorian era was an era where sexuality was discussed openly and regulation was more in place rather complete suppression. When it comes to masturbation, many devices were invented during this era to suppress it. In Islam, the pornography argument is based on the intimate parts which are alloed to be een in a man or woman which is known as “Awrah”. What needs to be understood is that in the Quran and the authentic haith, looking at the awrah of real people is what has been clearly frowned and there is no mention of the prohibition of looking of images or drawings of nude peopleeventough nude art and drawings existedthousands of years before the birth of the messenger of Allah (sal). The scholars who forbid watching porn stretching the available prohibitions mentioned in the Quran and the Hadiths using analogical resoning or deductions which is known as “Qiyas”. Qiyas should be done using evidence from the Quran and the authentic hadiths and as far as pornography is concerned, Islam is silent on this issue and silence is a mercy from Allah (swt).
The Prophet (sal) said,
“Verily Allah has obligated the obligations – so do not neglect them. And He has limited the limits – so do not transgress them. And His silence about things is from His mercy, not forgetfulness, so do not investigate them.”
(Hasan sahih-Ad-Darqutni No. 4/199 and Al-Baihaqi No. 10/122 a nd also graded Sahih by Sheikh Albani)
For an en example, the drinking of intoxicating toddy is forbidden although there is no mention of toddy in the Quran or the ahentic hadiths becaaue of the main principal that all intoxicants is prohibited. The same cannot be said with regards to watching porn because the principal of the prohibition of looking at the awrah of real people is that is can cause the person commit sin such as adulteryor fornication but the person who is watching porn is not looking at the awrah of real people and the generl reason a person watched porn is only to satisfy him or herself by means of masturbao which is not forbidden in Islam. Aother example is the eating of pork. Islam forbids the eatig of pork because ithe meat of pigs is unclean. The same cnnot be said on eating artificial pork because artificial pork is not real pork and the principal of Qiyas cannot be applied to it.
2)The Awrah Argument
Although the western definition in English for porn changes slightly with the change of time and new technology, Islam has a different and simple definition of porn. In Islam which is based on the Arabic term “Awrah” or the intimate parts of men and women, which are forbidden. The awrah varies from a man to a woman. The awrah argument is the basis that is used by ultra conservative Muslims to forb id pornography. The prohibition of looking at the awrah or the intimate parts of men and women is based on several authentic hadiths. The prophet (Sal) said:
“"No man should look at the Awrah of another man and no woman should look at the Awrah of another woman. Also, no man should be with another man under one piece of cloth and no woman should be with another woman under one piece of cloth.”
(Sahih Muslim)
Jarir bin 'Abdullah (Rali) narrated:
"I asked the Messenger of Allah (Sal) about (the Islamic ruling on) accidental glance and he ordered me to turn my eyes away".
(Sahih Muslim)
Allah (Swt) says in the Quran
“Tell the believing women to lower their gaze"
(24:31)
"Tell the believing men to lower their gaze"
(24:31)
The above evidences have been taken literally and the interpretation is stretched out with an umbrella prohibition arguing that lowering the gaze or not looking at the intimate parts of men and women applies to mediums such as photography or video. What needs to be understood here is that looking at the intimate parts is forbidden only,
- If you look at real people
- And if it is done with lust
If this meets these two criteria only does it falls as forbidden. Looking at the intimate parts of men or women without lust is allowed based on many authentic hadiths. There are several hadiths to support this. One such hadith is recorded in Sahih Al Bukhari and Sahih Muslim where Aisha (Rali) was enjoying the spear dance that was conducted by a group of Ethiopian men in the mosque in the day of Eid. In another hadith an Ansari woman came to the Prophet ( Sal) and he took her aside and said (to her). "By Allah, you (Ansar) are the most beloved people to me."
(Bukhari)
In the above hadith it is clear that the prophet (Sal) spoke to a woman and there is no mention of him turning his face towards the ground. He also took her to a side and spoke to her. There are ample hadiths to prove that you can look at a woman without lust. Unfortunately, many Muslims have turned in to extremists by gazing down their face all the time when looking at a woman and even refusing to speak to the opposite sex. The above hadiths only mention looking at the intimate parts with your own eyes. One might argue that the teachings of Islam is universal and is for all ages and times irrespective of how technology has advanced. This is true if there were hadiths prohibiting the ogling or looking of images but the truth is, there aren’t any. The other stretch of the argument of those who forbid watching porn is that the hadiths and the verses in the Quran that prohibit looking t the intimate parts of men and women does not differentiate between looking at real people or images, videos or other manipulative technological creations such as cartoons or CGI generated imagery or videos. My answer to this is that drawings of nude men and women existed before the prophet Muhammad (sal) and even with the existence of such pornographic art, neither did the prophet (sal) forbid looking at them nor was it forbidden in the Quran. This means that Islam is silent on the issue of looking at nude men and women which are either in drawings or videos.
Abu Darda reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said,
“What Allah has made lawful in his book is lawful, and what he has made unlawful is unlawful. Whatever he has remained silent upon, it is for your benefit, so accept benefit from Allah. Verily, Allah is not forgetful.” Then the Prophet recited the verse, “Your Lord is not forgetful.” (19:64)
(Sunan al-Darqutni-Graded authentic by Sheikh Albani)
Let’s take the next hadith
The Prophet (sal) said,
"A woman should not look at or touch another woman to describe her to her husband in such a way as if he was actually looking at her."
(Bukhari)
Now, if a husband tells appearing on TV and quotes the above hadiths stating that she should not look or touch a woman, it doesn’t apply because what is mentioned in the hadith is describing a real woman because it involves touching her physically as well which cannot be done in a TV screen. Taking the hadith literally and stating it applies to everything is baseless because the Greeks, Romans and other civilizations used nude pornographic imagery even before the prophet (sal) and even in such a scenario it wasn’t forbidden.
- Debunking the Muslim Anti-Porn Argument Even Further.
“No, no; the voice on the tape is nothing and will not serve any purpose, because it cannot be said that one has read or recited Quran; rather it may be said that one has listened to the voice of somebody who recited it before. Hence if we record the adhan of a muadhdhin, then when the time comes we play it over the loudspeakers, and we leave it to call the adhan, is that acceptable? It is not acceptable. If we record a moving khutbah (sermon), then on Friday we play this recording of the “imam of the microphone”, and the recording says “As-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmat-Allahi wa barakatuhu (peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings),” then the muadhdhin gives the call to prayer, then the recording of the khutbah is played, is this acceptable? It is not acceptable; why is that? Because this recording is a voice that was recorded in the past. It is like if you wrote it on a piece of paper or put a Mushaf in the house; is that sufficient instead of reading or reciting it? It is not sufficient. (As’ilat al-Bab al-Maftuh (question no. 986))
4)Does Porn Addiction Exist?
Many researchers, authors and even physicians and psychologists have wrongly brought forward the argument that porn addiction exists. The arguments that are put forward to support such arguments and theories are mostly based on anecdotal evidence. It is very clear that you cannot rely on anecdotal evidence when proving a point in science. Scientific arguments are based on scientific and medical research evidence to back it. As far as science is concerned, there is no evidence whatsoever to prove that porn addiction exists. Dr David Ley, who is a clinical psychologist, published a study (David Ley, Nicole Prause, Peter Finn. The Emperor Has No Clothes: A Review of the ‘Pornography Addiction’ Model. Current Sexual Health Reports, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-014-0016-8)
debunking the argument that porn addiction exists. Dr Ley argues that people who report about being addicted to porn are likely to be male, have non-heterosexual orientation and have religious values that conflict with their sexual behaviour and desires. Most people among the religious community have porn addiction counselling which are based on pseudoscientific methods and this has become a very lucrative practice. Take the Mormon church for an example, who have Masturbation and Porn addiction counselling sessions which are based on unscientific nonsense and the person is thought to shun masturbation and pornography, which is near impossible to achieve due to the simple reason that biologically people love to enjoy porn and masturbation after getting exposed to it.
There are sex,porn and masturbation addition, therapists who are just bogus men and women who are using pseudoscientific methods to fool people into thinking that such addictions exist.
Pathologizing individuals as addicts could increase the guilt and hence other psychological, physical conditions such as stress, Anxiety, diabetes and blood pressure can develop as a result. Masturbation is associated with pornography and a wrong analogy is derived to make it a sinful act among Muslims. There are many Muslim counsellors as well who counsel Muslims, especially men to stop Masturbating and watching porn. Similar to porn there is no such thing as a masturbation addiction.
Firebrand Muslim preachers preach on how masturbation and pornography affect marital life and all of it is based on personal anecdotes. Science has proven beyond doubt that there is no such thing as a masturbation or porn addiction. Some celebrity talk show hosts and doctors have come on record claiming that sex addiction exists which is once again a baseless myth based on anecdotal evidence. What needs to be understood is that a medical pathology should be based only on scientific research evidence and not on personal anecdotes. This fact is agreed by all scientists. Most of the porn, masturbation and sex addiction therapies are faith based and not based on science. Someone might ask then why do so many people complain that they are struggling to cope with porn? The answer to this is that most people who complain about porn, masturbation or sex addictions are mostly coming from a religious background. Take an example of a Muslim boy who was raised by his religious parents. He is thinking that watching porn or masturbating is a sin and Allah (Swt) is watching him.
This fear induced religious learning impacts the boy not only in his childhood, but it also affects his adulthood as well.
Religious learning induced by extreme fear creates a lot of guilt and the young Muslim man or woman end up interpreting his/her compulsiveness to a porn or masturbation as an addiction. As a result of this he/she tries to force themselves into unethical physical and mental control by reading books or watching/listening to various Islamic lectures of Muslim preachers telling them how bad porn and masturbation are. Just because someone is compulsive does not mean that he is addicted. In most cases compulsiveness is totally harmless as in the case of watching porn and masturbating. It’s the fear, guilt mind-set that has been turned into a victim mind-set due to frequent brainwashing that’s done during childhood through induced fear of punishment. The change in mindset to a positive one will help the Muslim to understand that compulsiveness is not an addiction and many people are enjoying their lives being compulsive without any hindrance. Take for an example of people who are avid readers. Sometimes theses avid readers finish reading four or five books in a week and there are people who watch TV, movies and even travel the world frequently and such compulsiveness are never deemed as an addiction. If you fear that compulsiveness is hindering your day to day life as in the case in obsessive compulsive disorder, you can always solve such trivial issues with a qualified therapist but what needs to be understood is that compulsiveness is not an addiction.
5)Amazing Health Benefits for Couples Who Watch Porn
Leaving aside the bogus claims by dogmatists, there is scentifi evidence to prove that watching porn actually helping couples. An article titled “Romantic partners who watch pornography together report higher relationship quality, study finds” which appeared in Psypost dated-18th October 2021, said the following,
New research indicates that shared pornography use in adult relationships is associated with greater relationship functioning. In other words, couples who frequently watch pornography together tend to be more satisfied with their romantic relationship and their sex life.
“The findings, published in Frontiers in Psychology, call into question claims that pornography use inevitably causes relationships to deteriorate.
The new research represents “the culmination of several lines of thinking that my colleagues and I have been developing over the years,” said study author Taylor Kohut, a lecturer at the University of Louvain and an adjunct research professor at Western University.
“The first concerns a criticism of the field that we first raised nearly a decade ago; if the goal is to understand the effects of pornography on relationships, how much can we really learn if we don’t collect data from both relationship partners? While the number of dyadic studies is not zero, and may even be increasing, most research that is published continues to collect data from only one person in the relationship.”
“Another issue that played a role in shaping this paper is the general academic obsession with framing pornography use as a causal agent of harm in correlational research. Sure, it’s possible that pornography use causes a range of problems (and potentially benefits too) but our narrow-minded focus on that specific mechanism of action is so limiting and it has prevented us from considering some interesting alternative explanations for correlations between pornography use and poor relationship quality.”
For their study, the researchers examined two cross-sectional and two longitudinal datasets that were collected by three independent laboratories. The datasets included information about 761 heterosexual couples in total. After analyzing the data, the researchers found a positive relationship between shared pornography use and relationship quality. Partners who frequently watched pornography together tended to have higher relationship and sexual satisfaction compared to partners who did not.
“Use of pornography with a romantic partner is reliably associated with better rather than worse sexual and relationship satisfaction,” Kohut told PsyPost.”( https://www.psypost.org/2021/10/romantic-partners-who-watch-together-report-higher-relationship-quality-61975)
6 The Release of Dopamine to The brain and Pornography an it’s False Argument.
As explained earlier in this book, there is no such thing as a porn addiction yet some try to convince people that watching porn could be addictive because the neurotransmitter to the brain called dopamine increases in the brain, resulting in the person who watches porn becoming an addict due to the increased craving he has towards porn.
A research published by Cambridge Neuroscientist Dr Valerie Voon (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0102419) has highlighted that dopamine increases in people watching porn.
Many anti porn crusaders use this dopamine theory to push the argument that dopamine acts as an erotoxin that gets released to the brain when a person views porn. The truth is dopamine acts as a vasodilator that expands the blood vessels in the body. Dopamine is something that is important to the human body and the lack of dopamine could cause many nervous system disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Trying to prove that porn is addictive because dopamine increases as a result of watching porn is totally wrong. There are many activities and foods that increase dopamine. Exercising, consuming prebiotics, taking a good rest will increase dopamine. The increase in dopamine is good for the body and it’s elementary to base an argument on the increase or decrease of a neurotransmitter. The research, published by Valarie Voon also argues that the person who watches porn is as addictive as a heroin addict.
This argument does not hold water because an article published in Psychology Today dated 06/01/2017 debunks this as a flawed argument. The article explains:
“When a person is about to experience pleasure, dopamine is released in the brain, and in the parts of the brain that experience and process pleasure. Dopamine’s role here is NOT that it makes you feel good. It doesn’t – the pleasure and hedonic or euphoria feeling comes from opiates in the brain, neuro chemicals which increase pleasure and deaden pain. Dopamine’s role in pleasure and reward is that it helps your brain to recognize “incentive salience.” This means that it’s like a little red flag to your brain, saying “hey, pay attention, this is about to feel good, and you want to remember this, so you can do it again” .
A critical issue here is that a lack of dopamine doesn’t actually make the experience feel less well. In studies with rats, where dopamine was suppressed, rats showed “normal hedonic reaction patterns,
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9858756)” and still showed normal pleasure responses even though dopamine was suppressed. In another rat study,
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7826571) it was shown that dopamine transmission increased in the anticipation of the heroin administration, but decreased sharply once the drug was administered (by the rat itself). Notably, this effect wasn’t present the first time the rat self-administered the heroin. Why? Because they hadn’t learned yet that the heroin was about to feel really good”
There are a few researches published that argue that watching porn could affect marital intimacy. The research was a survey that was published by the American Urological Association dated 12/05/2017 (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/results-vary-by-gender-on-whether-pornography-use-leads-to-sexual-dysfunction-300456647.html) arguing that watching porn can affect a man’s performance in bed.
This survey, which is titled ‘Results Vary By Gender on Whether Pornography Use Leads to Sexual Dysfunction’ is yet to be proven with more scientific evidence and there is a research published by Samuel L. Perry of the Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma (http://www.seksonderzoek.be/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Does_Viewing_Pornography_Reduce_Marital.pdf) and the Samuel L. Perry mentions the hypothesis needing further research.
He says:
“I conclude by discussing the implications and limitations of this study and outlining directions for future research. All the research evidence and surveys are hypothetical and needs further scientific evidence to back it, but there are many health benefits of watching porn. A study done by Cambridge University
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269763975_
(Viewing_Sexual_Stimuli_Associated_with_Greater_Sexual_Responsiveness_Not_Erectile_Dysfunction) proves that there is a positive correlation between watching porn and sexual desire. A research titled “The Effect of a Primary Sexual Reward Manipulation on Cortisol Responses to Psychosocial Stress in Men” was published by Carnegie Mellon University (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236193328_ (The_Effect_of_a_Primary_Sexual_Reward_Manipulation_on_Cortisol_Responses_to_Psychosocial_Stress_in_Men) Proved that watching porn or nude images can decrease stress).
Another paper was published in 2009 in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19665229)
By Milton Diamond and he concludes as appeared in Psychology Today dated 22/01/2010 stated:
"Indeed, the data reported and reviewed suggests that the thesis is a myth and, if anything, there is an inverse causal relationship between an increase in pornography and sex crimes. Further, considering the findings of studies of community standards and widespread usage of SEM [sexually explicit material], it is obvious that in local communities as nationally and internationally, porn is available, widely used and felt appropriate for voluntary adult consumption.
If there is a consensus against pornography it is in regard to any SEM that involves children or minors in its production or consumption. Lastly, we see that objections to erotic materials are often made on the basis of supposed actual, social or moral harm to women. No such cause and effect has been demonstrated with any negative consequence."
There is also evidence to prove that porn helps relationships. A research titled “Erotica Viewing Effects on Intimate Relationships and Self/Partner Evaluations” (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-012-0034-4#/page-1) show that watching porn can help have a good sexual relationship among couples.
Another study titled “Viewing Sexual Stimuli Associated with Greater Sexual Responsiveness, Not Erectile Dysfunction” (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/sm2.58) Argued that men who watch porn have more sexual sensitivity.
After analysing all the evidence on this subject it his very clear that there is no conclusive evidence) to prove that porn is unhealthy for humans and the evidence and surveys that prove against it are an assertion based on correlational data and nothing more.
Conclusion
There is nothing directly from the Quran or authentic Hadiths to suggest that watching porn is haram and a husband and wife and definitely watch porn