The Parameters of Intimacy (FATWA)

The Question

During intercourse, is it permissible or not:

For the husband to look at the private area of his wife to achieve maximum pleasure,

For the husband to touch the private area of his wife,

For the wife to touch her husband’s reproductive organ to make the reproductive organ erect?

The Answer

At the time of intercourse, for the spouses to touch each other’s private areas, without doubt, is permissible and with good intention is deserving of, and is a means to, reward as it was narrated from al-Imām al-A`ẓam V himself. But, at this [particular] time, looking at the private area has been disallowed in ḥadīth and it was said:

فإنه يورث العمى

For indeed, it leads to blindness.

The scholars have stated that it is possible that this may be a means to his blindness, or the child that will be born resulting from this intercourse will be blind, or (may Allāh forbid) the blindness of the heart which is the worst of all.

Allāh E knows best.

Answered by:

Imām Aḥmad Raḍā Khān V