Quran Garden

Session 241

Chapter 2

Verse 223

Your wives are the bearers of your seed; so, approach your tillage however you wish and send good ahead for yourselves.  Act in due reverence for God, and know that you are to meet with Him; and give glad tidings to the believers (Chapter 2: Verse 223)

In this verse, Allah explains what is lawful when it comes to sexual relations between married couples.  The key to the verse lies in the phrase “bearers of your seed” translated from the Arabic origin ‘Harth.’  ‘Harth’ is the fertile soil for sowing seeds.  You may remember this word from an earlier verse.  God says in the 205^th verse of ‘The Cow’:

And when he turns his back, he strives about the earth to foment disorder and corruption; destroying crops and future generations.

Allah is directing the believers to have sexual relations from the place of cultivation; more specifically, the place which results in continuity of the human race, and nowhere else.  Some people have misunderstood this verse and used the phrase “so, approach your tillage however you wish’ to prove that sexual intercourse is allowed in all parts a woman’s body.  We answer: read the verse closer, and study the phrase “so, approach your tillage’ which specifically means that you can only enter into the place of germination and reproduction.  The verse does not generalize; it specifies the location of intercourse.  

Another proof to support this approach lies in the phrase “and send good ahead for yourselves.” God is asking you not to think of marriage as only for sexual pleasure; rather, He wants you to think of it as an investment in the offspring that will come from the sexual relation.  Pleasure from sexual desire should be regarded as secondary while raising pious offspring should be the primary goal.  God advises you to focus on the future.  He says: “and send good ahead for yourselves.”     

How do you send good ahead for yourself, you may ask? More importantly: How do you avoid bringing on hardship and misery to yourself? We answer that you should choose your spouse carefully and based on the criteria of faith as God advised.  You should also do as the prophet taught us to do.  He –peace be upon him- advised that when you are about to have physical intimacy with your spouse, you should remember God and recite the following prayer: “O God, keep the devils away from us and keep the devils away from what You have blessed us with.” In this manner, if your sexual relations produce a child, he or she would start life in God’s protection and aid.  How could this be? We answer that if –at the time you sow your seed- you remember the One who creates, nourishes and protects; then He Almighty will protect your child.  On the other hand, a child whose parents neglect to acknowledge God’s blessings and bounty in marriage, sexual pleasure, and reproduction would have children that could easily fall prey to evil.

Allah –the All-Merciful- wants you to “send good ahead for yourselves” and have righteous children that comfort you and increase your good deeds.  A righteous child will pray for you, and teach his or her children to pray for you.  This chain will remain unbroken, and it is a wonderful way for your good deeds to continue well past your death.  Prophet Muhammad –peace be upon him said-: “When the son of Adam dies, all his good deeds cease except for three: a charity that continues to bear fruit, knowledge that benefits people, and a righteous child who supplicates for him.”

Even in awful circumstances the values of “and send good ahead for yourselves” still apply.  Suppose that you kept God in mind while selecting a spouse, and during the marriage.  Then you were blessed with the birth of a child that died soon after.  Rest assured that God will reward you in return.  In such case, your child will close a door of the doors of hellfire and be one of the reasons to bring you closer to paradise. 

The verse ends with: “Act in due reverence for God, and know that you are to meet with Him; and give glad tidings to the believers.”  Allah is advising you to have reverence for Him in all your actions, even those that are done in private.  As a believer, you are confident that you will meet God on the Day of Judgment, so you should always act accordingly at all times.  God will reward you with paradise in return.