Answer
Wa `alaykum as-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
What this man did are grave sins. Though these practices are not actual zina—in the technical sense of the word —they require sincere and immediate repentance.
In his response to your question, Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, president of the Fiqh Council of North America, illustrated:
Whatever you have described are sins. They are not considered full zina, but they are preludes to it. A Muslim should avoid anything that leads to zina. Allah says in the Qur’an, “Do not come near zina” (Al-Israa’ 17:32)
The person should sincerely repent, pray, and give sadaqah (Arabic for: optional charity). If the repentance is sincere, he will receive forgiveness from Allah.
Allah says in the Qur’an, “They [true believers] do not commit zina; (whosoever does these things), their penalties will be doubled on the Day of Resurrection and they will remain disgraced in torment; except those who repent, believe, and do good deeds. Allah will change the evil deeds of such people [i.e. the latter] into good ones. Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. People who repent and do good deeds truly return to Allah.” (Al-Furqan 25:68-71)
May Allah grant this person true repentance. He should not go on talking about this. He should sincerely regret, ask Allah for forgiveness, and pledge that he will not do such things again.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.