Answer
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:
In order to empower yourself to stop watching porn, you should seek beneficial counseling and therapy. You can make use of the tips listed below.
Responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Since you are addicted to a highly pernicious habit that destroys your spiritual soul and thus leads to self-destruction, you must urgently summon your willpower and take all the necessary steps you can muster to wean yourself of it immediately.
However, in order to empower yourself to stop watching porn, you should seek beneficial counseling and therapy preferably from those professionals in the field who are conscientious Muslims; if such Muslim professionals are not available from those who are ethically and morally conscious.
It is important for you to wean yourself of these pernicious habits; the consequences of persisting in watching porn are simply unthinkable; they would undoubtedly corrode your spiritual soul and cause your spiritual death.
Sins by their very nature are addictive, for it is in the very nature of carnal soul to seek pleasure in sins. As Imam al-Busiri has rightly said, “Carnal soul is a like a baby; if you neglect him, he will grow up clinging on to the breast-milk forever, but if you wean him off, he will be weaned off.”
I suggest a few tips which you can use to empower yourself:
- Visualize and meditate on the ugliness of this heinous sin and conjure up images of hell fire as painted in the Quran and the Sunnah as many times as possible until such time that whenever you are tempted to visit such sites or view such scenes will be constantly playing in the screen of your mind; thus even as you have associated this addiction with pleasure you will come to associate it with pure pain and suffering.
- Convince yourself—by taking all measures such as listing all the negative things about such habits, and listing the verses and traditions about the gravity of sins—of the urgency of removing this malignant cancer from your life; remember it is far more serious than cancer attacking your body since your soul survives you even after your physical body has disintegrated in the earth.
- Imagine how terrible a loss you will be facing were you to die while being addicted to this most heinous sin?
- Seek strength from Allah by crying to Him for succour; but you can never seek the help of Allah unless you seek to establish connection with Him through regular Prayers; so never be slack in Your Prayers.
- Schedule your time in such a way that you are never left with any time to think of such matters; Imam Shafi said: “If you don’t occupy your mind with good works, your carnal soul will make you busy in bad deeds!”
- Surround yourself with spiritual and Islamic influences and virtually immerse yourself in them.
- Always hang around with good Muslims who are busy doing good works; join a halaqah where spiritual training is imparted together with study of Islam.
- Make your mind and tongue busy with dhikr Allah; say the following words and others frequently:
Subhaana Allaah; al-hamdu li Allah; laa ilaaha illa Allaah, Allaahu akbar; wa laa hawla walaa quwwata illaa bi Allaah; astaghfir Allaaha al-azeem min kulli dhanbin wa atoobu ilaahi
(Glory be to Allah; praise be to Allah; there is no god but Allah, Allah is Great; there is no power or strength except by the will of Allah; I ask forgiveness of Allah from all my sins and repent to Him.)
- Once you have been weaned of these pernicious habits, you should seriously consider marriage; marriage is the protection against temptations.
I pray that the Beneficent Lord of Mercy save us all from the evil inclinations of our souls and make us hate disbelief, transgressions and sins; and may He endear to our hearts faith and good works.
Almighty Allah knows best.