Hujjatul Islam Ustad Syed Jawad Naqvi
(Principal Jamia Orwatul Wuthqa – Lahore)
Delivered at: Masjid Baitul ul Ateeq
Lahore – Pakistan
Friday Sermon 24th October – 2025
Sermon 1: Taqwa in Sexual Affairs (12) – Marriages made difficult
Sermon 2: Pakistan government crushes one but support another group of extremists
1. The Purpose of Sexual Ability and Marriage
The sexual ability is present by birth in human beings and it matures over time. The solution for regulating this ability is marriage (Nikah), which means both man and woman become a pair, dissolving their personalities into each other. The purpose of this union is to achieve tranquility (Sukoon). They both find peace in this relationship, and when this happens, the gifts that come from Allah are Mawaddat (love and affection) and Rahmat (compassion).
2. The Natural Strength of Sexual Desire
All human beings possess sexual ability, apart from very rare cases of the insane or the sick. This ability does not and cannot be ignored. It is a powerful force that draws and drags a person towards itself. Outwardly, we may see some people pretending to be too busy to think about sexual needs and orientation. Some may ignore marriage, but they have definitely not ignored their sexual orientation, because it is a natural desire that inevitably rises.
It is like hunger — not intentional, but instinctive — and it dominates a person to the extent that it cannot be ignored. Similarly, sexual need and orientation are even more powerful than hunger and cannot be neglected by anyone. People try to manage and satisfy it in various ways, even those who do not get married. One such method is masturbation, considered by many as the safest and cheapest way since it is hidden.
However, in the long term, its effects appear on the mind and body, and the person becomes a victim of many calamities. This becomes more evident after marriage when such a person realizes he has destroyed himself. There are also people who, even after marriage, do not manage their sexual life as Allah has instructed. Instead, they turn to other sources such as media, films, and sexual corruption. The majority of media content today is sexual in nature.
Even in Pakistan, Iran, and everywhere, if we survey what people watch most, it is sexual content. This shows that people seek pleasure and peace through it. They also take guidance from these sources for fulfilling their needs.
3. Ignoring Religious Guidance and Following Media Influence
The scholars of Islam have censured the guidance that religion has given for sexual affairs, considering it shameful to discuss, while others have openly exposed it without any consideration, making it easily accessible to everyone. Thus, despite having a religious solution, it is ignored, and people turn to other sources.
They take guidance from films and dramas whose central themes are love, romance, and lust. Even if the storyline does not contain such elements, the characters in these films serve as open sexual advertisements that arouse desires. This video content—films, dramas, and social media—has become a source of tranquilization for people.
4. Cultural and Social Stimulation
Another source is our social culture. At wedding ceremonies, people wear attractive clothes; women spend thousands on makeup to attend functions, creating an atmosphere of sexual stimulation. In markets, the way women dress when leaving home—tight clothes, glossy makeup, and attention-seeking appearances—shows a desire to be looked at by everyone.
The same applies to men, though by nature, women are more inclined to demonstrate their attributes. For example, in all performing arts—movies, dramas, stage shows—women play the central role. For men, this presentation is learned, not innate. This is the reason Hijab is prescribed for women: it creates an obstacle to such display.
Men, by contrast, are oriented towards women and are tranquilized by seeing, hearing, or interacting with them. Man takes every opportunity to satisfy his sexual needs. Allah has created a perfect system to regulate this, but even religious people ignore it.
5. Abandoning Allah’s System and the Concept of “Nabz”
The Qur’an uses the word Nabz for a social disease present in human beings. It means something useless, wasteful, and thrown away. The Qur’an says they throw away Allah’s guidance behind their backs like something worthless.
We have discarded the religion of Allah as if it were waste. The sign of this is that the entire sexual management system made by Allah has been completely thrown away, even though sexual desire still dominates everything. It is like throwing away the cage while leaving the wild animal inside — the animal remains free and dangerous.
Allah created the system of Taqwa, Iffat (chastity), and Marriage, but we have abandoned it. Consequently, people have turned to other sources to manage their sexual affairs. This is evident in the fact that the most difficult thing in Muslim societies today is marriage.
6. Difficulties in the Institution of Marriage
The first big difficulty is whether to get married or not. Culture and family become obstacles in making this decision. Everyone gets involved when someone wants to get married.
The next difficulty is where to get married — the family and background of the spouse are made into complications. The criteria for selecting a spouse have been set so wrongly that achieving marriage becomes difficult.
Even after selection, another problem arises — when to get married. Some decide to marry only when their parents grow old and need a daughter-in-law to take care of them. In such cases, they seek a nurse rather than a wife for their son.
7. Problems of the Joint Family System
Another issue is the joint family system, where the entire family lives in one house. It was once necessary for social cooperation, but in the present era, this model has become highly damaging. Families trying to maintain it experience daily conflicts — abusive fights from morning till evening, followed by ceasefire attempts.
In such families, the entire household burden falls on one girl who has just been married into the family. She marries the boy, but everyone else—mother-in-law, father-in-law, and others—begin to control her. Relatives should not replace the husband’s role. Allah has ordained an easy system for managing daily life, but we have made it difficult.
In big families, even deciding what to cook becomes a major issue. Hunger increases until lunch, and when it’s still undecided, arguments begin. In some cases, husbands or sons have even killed wives or mothers due to food not being ready on time. When hunger dominates, man loses control. Allah has made it easy to satisfy hunger—just as an infant receives mother’s milk freely—so marriage, too, should be easy to regulate sexual need.
8. Ignoring Divine Criteria in Marriage
Traditions mention that if one rejects the first marriage proposal that meets Allah’s criteria (but not one’s own), then when that person marries according to his own criteria, the spouse will become the cause of that family’s destruction.
This tradition, narrated from Imam Sadiq (a.s), states that when someone rejects a trustworthy relationship that meets Allah’s criteria and instead depends on others for marriage, Allah destroys that family through the same person.
9. The Example of Ahlulbayt (a) and Hypocrisy of Followers
The first stage of marriage should be made easy. We claim to be followers of Ahlulbayt (a), but our actions—especially regarding marriage—do not reflect their behavior. We even disregard their guidance in our attire, as even some Shia scholars trim their beards.
At least get married according to the criteria of Ahlulbayt (a). They made marriage simple, but we feel insulted to follow their way. Recently, in Iran, a very responsible revolutionary commander’s daughter got married in a corrupt and indecent manner, shocking everyone.
He was among the top ten revolutionary figures, yet his daughter’s actions brought great disgrace. This damage was greater than any missile from America or Israel. Those who loved the Iranian Revolution were disheartened to see the difference between outer image and inner reality. Allah exposes hypocrites — such acts must be condemned.
10. The Simplicity of Prophetic and Ahlulbayt Marriages
Marriages should be made easy, following divine criteria, not our self-made customs. Even opponents of Ahlulbayt (a) could not find faults in them. The Ahlulbayt (a) married ordinary individuals, and through them, their light spread.
If you study the wives of the Holy Imams (a), you will see the simple families they came from. Our orators portray them as princesses because they dislike the idea of an Imam marrying anyone less than royal. But the wives of the Prophet (s) were ordinary women with noble qualities, and their marriages were simple.
The marriage of Imam Ali (a) was so modest. The Prophet (s) asked him to marry his daughter, though he had no money for dowry. Imam Ali (a) owned only a camel, a sword, and armor. The Prophet (s) told him to sell the armor and spend on the wedding, and even bought household items himself with that money. Someone once said that the most esteemed man’s marriage was held in the simplest home.
Today, our marriages are lavish displays of extravagance. Presenting three hundred dishes at weddings is madness. When Ambani’s son held such a marriage, he did so as a Taghoot (tyrant). Should believers follow his example? We take the names of Ahlulbayt (a) but do not adopt their ways.
If we truly love them, we should at least conduct one marriage as they did. Even after marriage, there is a system from day one on how to spend life — a system ordained by Allah.
SERMON 2
O servants of Allah! I advise you all and myself to adopt Taqwa (God-consciousness). I exhort you towards Taqwa and urge that your lives be lived according to it. Let your affairs be based on Taqwa, for it is a divine protective system granted by Allah to safeguard human life. Without Taqwa, life loses its human essence, for when life becomes insecure, the first thing that perishes is humanity itself.
We witness this reality today in our times, and history testifies to it as well. It has never been otherwise—whenever a people decided to live without Taqwa, whether professing faith or not, their lives turned inhuman.
Today, we have a living example before our eyes: Gaza and Palestine. History can only be read and analyzed, but the suffering of today’s generation can be seen before our eyes—their lives, their struggles, and their reactions reveal the moral collapse of modern humanity.
The greatest test of humanity today is in Palestine and Gaza. Although oppression there is not new, the recent barbarities committed by tyrants and aggressors have exposed the world’s hypocrisy. For two years, they carried out genocide—slaughtering seventy thousand Palestinians, including twenty-two thousand women and children—and now they proclaim peace. Those who massacred the innocent now wave the flag of peace, and those who aided the genocide now stand beside them again in this false peace process, claiming credit for their crimes as if they have done humanity a favor.
When the Prime Minister of a Muslim country tells the butcher, the killer, the tyrant, “Because of you, peace is established in the world, and we pray to God to keep you alive,” and then even proposes him for the Nobel Peace Prize, it shows that genocide has become a reason for honor and reward.
Recently, Trump declared that if Hamas does not abide by the agreement, “we will destroy it.” Two days later, he announced that powerful Islamic armies allied with the U.S. have promised to help destroy Hamas completely. His vice president reaffirmed that Middle Eastern and other strong Muslim armies are ready to enter Gaza under the pretext of “peacekeeping forces,” seize Hamas’s weapons, destroy tunnels, and dismantle their weapon factories.
These are not rumors but official statements—recorded and published in U.S. and Pakistani media, White House briefings, and Trump’s own posts. Just yesterday, Israel’s cabinet formally approved the annexation of the West Bank, where Mahmoud Abbas governs. The Prime Minister of Pakistan and fifteen other countries condemned the decision, but Trump stated that if Israel proceeds, U.S. aid will cease.
Meanwhile, the same twenty-two countries, including Pakistan, shamelessly gathered in Sharm al-Sheikh, showing obedience to tyrants. Eight Muslim states even visited Trump, offering support for his plan to reward Israel and suppress Gaza’s resistance.
An American author—Bob Woodward, in his book on the Gaza war—revealed that after the “Al-Aqsa Storm” operation, when the U.S. Secretary of State toured Arab capitals (Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia), Arab rulers complained: “We have been telling you for long—do not allow Hamas to survive. Do not let the Muslim Brotherhood or such movements live. They threaten Israel, America, and our own regimes. You delayed too long—now finish them swiftly.”
Thus began the brutal bombings. Even after mass slaughter, Israel admitted failure to destroy Hamas and appealed to Muslim allies to intervene militarily. These “Islamic” armies that claim to represent Islam are now preparing to finish the remaining ruins of Gaza.
This is today’s humanity—humanity without Taqwa. These are Muslim nations without faith, and on the other side stand Netanyahu and Trump—godless men. What difference remains between the two? Without Taqwa, humanity vanishes, even in the name of Islam.
Situation in Pakistan
Within our own country, extremism is at its peak. The government has banned one extremist group—a group it itself nurtured, organized, and supported under state patronage. After using it for violent ends, the state banned it, lifted the ban, and now re-imposes it again. This is nothing but political theater.
If the government truly intends to end extremism, then all extremist factions—of every sect—must be controlled from the start.
Recently, a Deobandi scholar, Mufti Abdul Rahim of Jamia Tur Rashid, publicly declared: “Lal Masjid is a Khawarij (deviant extremist) mosque, its imam and followers are Khawarij.” When even Deobandi scholars and the state itself recognize them as Khawarij, why does the government still allow them to hold gatherings in Islamabad, chanting slogans like “Shias are infidels”?
On one side, the government crushes one extremist group; on the other, it sponsors another. This duplicity is not governance—it is deceit and hypocrisy.
If the aim truly is to end terrorism, then the root of all extremism—the Khawarij ideology—must be eliminated, along with every faction that carries its banner. These people on Islamabad’s streets spread hatred against Muslims themselves, yet no police, commissioner, or minister acts against them.
When action is taken against one group, they cry “Shia minister killed Sunnis,” but the same minister allows Khawarij to insult Shias publicly. This is a charade, not governance.
Warning of Sectarian Manipulation
It seems history is repeating itself—the same scenario once created by General Zia-ul-Haq for persecuting Shias is resurfacing.
Now, whenever a criminal or robber is caught in Karachi, if he happens to be Shia, they label him Zainabiyoon (a resistance fighter). Two mobile thieves were caught—they called them Zainabiyoon. Another robbery happens—they say Zainabiyoon again. This is sheer anti-Shia bias.
A thief might have any name or sect on his ID card—but calling every Shia a terrorist is madness and bigotry. Just like the Babusar massacre years ago, where passengers were identified by chest marks of self-flagellation and then shot—this same mindset is emerging again.
Meanwhile, Shia leadership stays silent, busy preparing for elections instead of defending their community. The oppression of Shias in Pakistan must be addressed intellectually and lawfully—not through violence but through dignified reasoning.
Double Standards and Hypocrisy
The government raises the Qur’an, claiming solidarity with Palestine, while their actions show alliance with Trump and Israel.
It’s like the Persian proverb:
A thief was caught carrying away a stolen chicken under his arm, with its tail visible. When confronted, he swore by God he hadn’t stolen it. The owner replied: “Shall I believe your oath or the chicken’s tail?”
Similarly, the government swears loyalty to Palestine while the “chicken’s tail” (their alliance with Trump) betrays the truth.
If they are sincere, let them now protect the West Bank they claim to support—since Gaza has already been sold out. Either implement the so-called peace deal genuinely or withdraw from it and stand openly with Palestine.
Within Pakistan, the state must act consistently—if it calls Khawarij terrorists, then whether they come from Afghanistan or Islamabad, treat them equally. Do not embrace one and shoot the other.
