Looking at spouse's private parts

10-5-2004 | IslamWeb

Question:

Did Prophet (peace be upon him) never ever in his life looked on His (peace be upon him) private parts of his wives? This Hadith is narrated from Ayisha (Allah bless her) that he (peace be upon) never looked at my private parts and i never looked at his (peace be upon him) private parts? Why did he never do that? Was that for modesty and shyness? Is this Hadith true? Because there is also narrated a Hadith where Ayisha narrated that me and Prophet (peace be upon him) bathed together in a single pot of water? Was they not naked in front of each other on this event? Is that Haram for every Muslim husband and wife to look at each others private parts?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is permissible for the married man and woman to look at each other’s whole body - including the private parts.

However, it is disliked to look at the private parts as this contradicts bashfulness.

Al-Dusooqi said in his footnotes: “It is permissible for the spouses to look at the private parts of each other whether while having sexual intercourse or at any other time.”

However, some scholars disliked that a person looks at his/her own private parts without a need. The author of Mughni Al-Muhtaaj said, “It is disliked for each of them to look at the private parts of the other or look at his/her own private parts, and worse than that is to look inside them.”

The evidence about the permissibility of looking (at the private parts) is the Hadeeth reported by At-Tirmithi in which it is stated: “…. Do not show (preserve) your private parts except from your wife or what your hand possesses.”

As regards the Prophet , having a bath with some of his wives in the same tub, then this was narrated by 'Aa'ishah and Maymoonah and reported by Imaam Muslim in his Saheeh, but this does not imply looking at the private parts.

With regard to the saying of 'Aa'ishah where she reportedly said, “I did not see his private parts, and he (the Prophet ), did not see mine,” we did not come across it at all in all the sources of Hadeeth.  What we found in the books of Fiqh (Islamic Law) is the Hadeeth mentioned with the wording that we have stated above.

Allaah Knows best.