“A man came to the Messenger of Allah — may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him — and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, permit me to be castrated.’ The Messenger of Allah — may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him — replied: ‘The castration of my Ummah is fasting and night-prayer.’”
Narrated by Aḥmad (6612) and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (108) from the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr — may Allah be pleased with them both.
Authenticated in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ (3228) and Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ṣaḥīḥah (1830), wherein he said — after verifying the ḥadīth: “In summary, the ḥadīth, by virtue of all these chains collectively, is ṣaḥīḥ — except for the mention of ‘al-qiyām (night-prayer),’ for it is munkar.”
Brief Explanation of the Hadith
This ḥadīth came to clarify the wisdom of Islam in disciplining natural impulses and regulating desire. A Companion came to the Prophet — may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him — seeking permission to undergo castration, meaning: to abolish sexual capacity altogether and eliminate its causes, hoping thereby to avoid temptation, escape the hardship of celibacy during travel and military expeditions, and free himself entirely for worship — thinking that this would bring him closer to chastity and greater in self-discipline.
The Prophet — may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him — thus clarified to him that the path of this Ummah toward chastity is not through depriving the self of its natural disposition nor through tormenting the body, but rather through disciplining it by means of fasting. Fasting is a legislated means that diminishes desire without harming the self or suppressing its natural inclination. The Prophet — may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him — affirmed this in another ḥadīth: “O young people, whoever among you is able to marry, let him marry; and whoever is unable, then let him fast, for it is a shield for him.” Thus, this is the “castration of Islam” to which the Prophet — may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him — directed. As for physical castration — the removal of the testicles — the Sharīʿah has prohibited it, and the scholars have unanimously agreed upon its prohibition, whether performed upon one young or old, free or enslaved. This is because it entails altering the creation of Allah and nullifying the purpose of marriage. Likewise, they prohibited every method intended deliberately to eliminate desire or cut off progeny.
It is authentically reported that the Messenger of Allah — may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him — rejected the idea of tabattul (perpetual abstention from marriage) from ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn. The narrator said: “Had he permitted him, we would have castrated ourselves.” In this is a clear indication that monastic abstinence, castration, and the abandonment of marriage constitute a prohibition of what Allah has made lawful, and a neglect of the objectives the Sharīʿah seeks to establish through marriage and procreation. Thus, whoever pursues such practices imagining that they constitute a path of asceticism and nearness to the Hereafter has indeed erred in judgment, for this resembles a form of blameworthy monasticism for which there is no basis in Islam.
In this ḥadīth is a call directed to the youth toward moderation between natural desire and worship. There is no monasticism in Islam, nor withdrawal from worldly life; rather, there is purification and cultivation of the soul so that it remains upright upon Allah’s command — without excess and without neglect.