Islam is the final Divine guidance, aiming at the wellbeing of the human being in this world and the Hereafter; it commands everything that leads to that good and forbids everything that takes one from it. Zina — sexual relations outside lawful marriage — sits among the gravest of those prohibitions, because it wounds the individual, the family, the next generation, and the society at once. This sermon treats the wisdom behind the prohibition, the paths that share in it, the value of chastity, and the door of repentance that Allah keeps open for those who err. The tone is educational, never moralistic; the door does not close.
What Is Zina, and Why Does the Qur'an Say "Do Not Even Approach"?
Zina is sexual relations between persons who are not in a lawful marriage. Islam commands marriage and forbids zina. In Surah Al-Isra, Allah Most High concentrates the matter into a single, decisive sentence:
وَلَا تَقۡرَبُواْ ٱلزِّنَىٰٓۖ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ فَٰحِشَةࣰ وَسَآءَ سَبِيلࣰ ا
— Surah Al-Isra 17:32Do not even approach zina. Truly it is an abomination, and an evil way.
The wording is precise. The verse does not say "do not commit zina" — it says "do not even approach" it. By that word approach, the Qur'an widens the prohibition to include the paths that lead to it: being alone with the opposite sex, the crossing of modesty's boundaries, the unguarded eye and tongue, the indulged appetite of the heart. In Surah Al-Furqan, when describing the true servants of the Most Merciful, Allah lists zina alongside two other society-shaking sins:
وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَدۡعُونَ مَعَ ٱللَّهِ إِلَٰهًا ءَاخَرَ وَلَا يَقۡتُلُونَ ٱلنَّفۡسَ ٱلَّتِي حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ إِلَّا بِٱلۡحَقِّ وَلَا يَزۡنُونَۚ وَمَن يَفۡعَلۡ ذَٰلِكَ يَلۡقَ أَثَامࣰ ا
— Surah Al-Furqan 25:68Those who do not invoke any other deity beside Allah, nor kill the soul Allah has forbidden except by right, nor commit zina — whoever does that meets the consequence of his sin.
Zina stands here in the same sentence as shirk and unjust killing — the three sins that strike at the foundation of human life together. The next two verses (25:69-70) describe the punishment, and then the rescue: "Except whoever repents, believes, and does righteous deeds — for those, Allah will change their evil deeds into good ones." The order matters. The Qur'an knows the human heart; it issues the warning and immediately holds open the door of return.
The Wisdom of the Prohibition — The Person, the Family, the Society
The prohibition of zina is not arbitrary; behind it lies a transparent wisdom that protects the individual, the family, and the society.
The family: The nucleus of every society is the family. Healthy generations grow in that nucleus; a child receives his physical development, his ethics, his upbringing, and his first lessons in love within it. Zina obstructs the formation of new families and disintegrates existing ones. In a society where a father cannot be certain of who his son's father is, nasab — the legitimacy of lineage — disappears. This is not a private matter of taste; it is an identity question that travels into the next generation.
Physical health: Many sexually transmitted diseases trace, medically, to extramarital sexual relations. The Prophet (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: "When fornication spreads openly among a people, plagues and diseases that did not exist among their predecessors will spread among them" (Sunan Ibn Majah, Book of Tribulations). The modern public-health record of every country bears this warning out.
The child: Children conceived in zina are often prevented from being born; those who are born often grow without the protection of a father's or mother's care. Reports of children abandoned at mosque gates or hospital steps periodically shake every society. What forces a mother — whose nature is, by Allah's design, profound tenderness for her child — onto that path? Almost always, the social weight of an unmarried pregnancy and the absence of supporting structures.
Chastity and dignity: Iffah (chastity) is one of the most important visible signs of the believer's standing with Allah. In Surah Al-Mu'minun, Allah lists the traits of those who have truly succeeded:
قَدۡ أَفۡلَحَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنُونَ ٱلَّذِينَ هُمۡ فِي صَلَاتِهِمۡ خَٰشِعُونَ
— Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:1-2The believers have succeeded — those who are humbly attentive in their prayers.
The traits that immediately follow — turning away from idle talk, paying zakat, guarding chastity — are listed in the same breath as the prayer itself. Chastity sits, in the Qur'an's own ordering, next to the foundation of worship.
Why the Paths Also Fall Within the Prohibition
The Prophet (peace be upon him) named even the small steps that lead to the act as forms of zina of the organs:
— Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Decree, no.Allah has decreed for the son of Adam his share of zina, which he will inevitably encounter. The zina of the eye is the look; the zina of the tongue is speech; the soul wishes and desires; and the private parts either confirm all of that or deny it.
The hadith makes a careful distinction. A wayward look, a loose word, a desire that visits the heart — none of these become zina unless they are completed by the physical act. Surah An-Najm 53:32 confirms the same principle: "Those who avoid major sins and shameful deeds, except for slight slips — surely your Lord is vast in forgiveness." The believer who catches a stray glance and disciplines the eye, or hears the tongue slip and pulls it back, is on the path Allah has named.
Islam therefore prohibits not only the act but its enabling conditions: khalwa (being alone with one of the opposite sex who is not a mahram), the loosening of modesty's boundaries, the burdening of marriage with unnecessary expense that puts it out of reach, and the failure to support someone trying to marry to preserve their chastity. To make lawful marriage easy is itself an obedience to the verse "do not approach."
The hardest discipline in this matter is to turn the gaze toward oneself, not toward the failure of others. Allah's name As-Sattar — the Concealer — establishes the value of not spreading the visible faults of another believer. If you hear of someone's slip, refrain from broadcasting it; this discipline also strengthens your own repentance when you need it.
Stories — Chastity and Repentance
Prophet Yusuf's Refusal
Prophet Yusuf (peace be upon him) was a young man in the house of the Aziz of Egypt. The Aziz's wife called him into a room with all the doors closed, and offered herself to him. The Qur'an records his answer: "I seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, he is my master, and he has made my stay good. Truly the wrongdoers do not prosper" (Surah Yusuf 12:23). This is the most luminous example in the Qur'an of replying to the invitation of a person of high station with "I fear Allah." Yusuf preferred prison: "My Lord, prison is more beloved to me than that which they call me to" (Surah Yusuf 12:33). Allah honoured him in this world with the treasury of Egypt and in the next with the rank of prophethood.
The Repentance of Ma'iz and the Ghamidiyya Woman
A Companion named Ma'iz ibn Malik, after committing zina, came to the Prophet and said: "O Messenger of Allah, purify me." He confessed four times. The Prophet sent him back each time — "Perhaps you are drunk, perhaps mistaken, return." When at last the sincerity of Ma'iz's repentance was unmistakable, the Prophet allowed the legal penalty to be applied. Afterward he said: "Ma'iz has made such a repentance that if it were divided among the people of a town, it would suffice them" (Sahih Muslim, Hudud 1695). In a separate event a woman from the tribe of Juhayna (the Ghamidiyya) came with the same request; the Prophet kept her case suspended until she had borne her child and weaned it. After the penalty was applied, a Companion who saw blood on Khalid ibn al-Walid's clothing began to curse her. The Prophet stopped him: "Be gentle. By Allah, she has repented in such a way that if seventy people of Medina repented in the same way, it would be accepted of all of them" (Sahih Muslim, Hudud 1696). Islam is a faith that receives the one who returns; it does not turn the sinner away at the door.
The Three Trapped in the Cave
Three men sheltering in a cave during a storm were trapped when a great rock sealed its entrance. Each prayed to Allah, offering as intercession the most sincere deed of his life — one his honour to his parents, another the wage he had faithfully invested for an absent labourer. The third recounted: "O Lord, I loved a cousin of mine deeply, but I could not have her honourably. A year of hardship put her in need; I gave her one hundred and twenty dinars on the condition that she would yield to me. When she was within my power, she said: 'Fear Allah; do not break the seal except by its right.' I rose and left her, leaving the money to her. O Lord, if I did this only for You, lift this rock from us." Allah lifted the rock (Sahih al-Bukhari, Adab). The story illustrates the hardest possible test — opportunity present, desire alive, no witness — and the slave who withdraws his hand for fear of Allah. The fifth of the seven who will be shaded on the Day of Judgment is "the man whom a woman of high standing and beauty calls to herself, and he says: 'I fear Allah'" (Sahih al-Bukhari, Adhan).
The End of the People of Lot
The community of Prophet Lot (peace be upon him) had normalized moral perversion and the robbing of travellers. They demanded their prophet leave them alone; when the angels of punishment came to him as guests, the community attempted to assault even them. Allah turned their cities upside down and rained stones of baked clay upon them (Surah Hud 11:82-83). The lesson is that when zina and fornication move from individual sin to social acceptance, the corrosion of the community precedes the visible destruction. A society's protection of itself begins in the chastity of its individuals.
Putting Chastity and Repentance Into Practice With VAAZ
The path of chastity is not only the discipline of "not doing"; it is also the turning of the heart toward another center. The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah collection in the VAAZ app features At-Tawwab (the Acceptor of Repentance) and As-Sattar (the Concealer of Faults), names whose daily remembrance gives the heart both the security of being shielded and the certainty that the door of return remains open. The dua archive contains Sayyid al-Istighfar, the master supplication of forgiveness, to be recited once a day for sins of any kind.
The series on major sins — Major Sins Sermon (Part 1) and Major Sins Sermon (Part 2) — situates zina within the wider grammar of kaba'ir and shows its links to the other six. For the conditions and the limits of repentance, see the Sermon on Tawbah; for the inner training that sustains chastity, see the Sermon on Taqwa.
Allah Most High has said: "As for those who repent, believe, and do righteous deeds — Allah will replace their evil deeds with good ones" (Surah Al-Furqan 25:70). Islam does not cast the sinner out; it rewrites the past of the one who returns.
References
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Isra 17:32.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Furqan 25:68-70.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Al-Mu'minun 23:1-5.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah An-Najm 53:32.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Yusuf 12:23-33.
- The Noble Qur'an, Surah Hud 11:82-83.
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Decree (Zina of the eye, tongue, and soul); Book of the Adhan (The seven who will be shaded); Book of Adab (The three in the cave).
- Sahih Muslim, Book of Hudud, no. 1695 (Ma'iz) and no. 1696 (the Ghamidiyya woman).
- Sunan Ibn Majah, Book of Tribulations (Diseases spreading where fornication spreads).
- Elmalili Hamdi Yazir, Hak Dini Kur'an Dili, commentary on Surah Al-Isra 17:32.