– aghaddu: spelled with a ghayn and a dotted ḍād. The Arabs say, ghadda tarfahu yaghuddu ghaddan—he lowered his gaze, restrained it, and kept it from what he is not permitted to see. In context, the word signifies that marriage is even more conducive to lowering the gaze and deters the married person’s eyes from forbidden looks.
– aḥṣan: They say, ḥaṣuna al-makān ḥiṣānan—“the place became fortified,” hence it is ḥaṣīn, “well-protected.” Likewise, az-zawāj aḥṣana ar-rajul—“marriage safeguarded the man,” and aḥṣana al-baʿl zawjatahu—“the husband safeguarded his wife.” Here the term means that marriage is better at safeguarding one’s private parts.
– fa-ʿalayhi bi-ṣ-ṣawm: Some grammarians take this as an exhortation addressed to one who is absent; that construction is eased by the fact that the person exhorted has already been mentioned. Others hold that the preposition bāʾ is superfluous, so the clause functions as a simple declarative statement.
– al-wijāʾ: The verb is wajāʾahu yajūʾuhu wajʾan, “to strike with a knife.” The noun—al-wijāʾ, with a kasra on the wāw and an extended vowel—technically denotes crushing the testicles (some say crushing the spermatic cord) while leaving the organs in place so that sexual desire disappears. Fasting acts in the same way, for it weakens the libido; in other words, fasting is a shield and protection against the evils of desire.
What is derived from the ḥadith
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Chastity is obligatory and its opposite is forbidden. A lapse occurs when strong desire meets weak faith, and youth feel stronger desire than the elderly. Therefore the Prophet ﷺ directed them to the path of chastity: whoever can bear the financial burden of marriage—dowry and maintenance—should marry, and whoever cannot should fast. Fasting brings reward and protects from sin, for it suppresses and weakens sexual appetite through abstaining from food and drink; thus fasting is a form of wijāʾ against overpowering lust.
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Shaykh al-Islam said that the “ability” (istiṭāʿa) meant in the ḥadith is the ability to meet the financial costs of marriage, not merely the physical capacity for intercourse, for the address is already to someone capable of intimacy. Hence the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever is unable, let him fast, for fasting will be a form of wijāʾ for him.”
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Given the very reason the youth were addressed, the command to marry applies to every person who possesses the means to do so.