Sex education in schools

9-7-2003 | IslamWeb

Question:

I would really appreciate your reply to my question concerning sexual education in the curriculum in schools. When and how should this material be presented to our students? Please reply because I am working on a project.

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. Sex as a study and practice, is of two kinds: 1) Legal, (2) Illegal. Sex education in the legal contexts includes things having to do with the married couple, such as making a marriage contract, its conditions, the specified and unspecified Mahr, the instant Mahr and the delayed one, publicizing the wedding and proposal. It also includes what the suitor can see of the body of his fiancée and what he is not allowed to see, marriage etiquette and the permissible and impermissible portions. It includes as well, rights and obligations of both the husband and the wife, rules pertaining to wife's or husband's recalcitrance, rules of mutual enjoyment between the spouses, rules regarding sheltering and good relationship and sharing nights with other wives. It also includes the spousal rights to their children, rules regarding contraception, or family planning, recognizing husband's custodianship and how to and not use this right, and so on. Sex education in this context also includes rules regarding menstruation, postpartum, Janabah (state of impurity after sexual intercourse) and the defects that give each spouse rights of option. It includes also rules of divorce, divorce at the instance of wife, fosterage, Zihar and Lian. This also includes rules regarding looking at Mahaarim (women whom you are forbidden from marrying) and what a Mahram man can see from his Mahaarim. Sex education in the second context includes, adultery and fornication, masturbation, looking at alien women; and what one can see of alien women during periods of necessity and he is not allowed to see and the regulation for all that. It also includes anal sex, sex during menstruation, unrestricted intermingling of both sexes, and being in seclusion with an alien woman. Therefore, sex education in the first context should be explained in detail in the educational curricula, though the situation of the student and his or her age should be taken into consideration. The Islamic rule regarding sex education in the second context (illegal) should also be explained in a polite manner, and with polite words and terms. Allah knows best.