The hadith also demonstrates the duty to avert harms to the extent one can, and by whatever means will effectively stop them; for the Prophet ﷺ urged them to marry, and for anyone who lacked the means he pointed them to another course.

One understands from the hadith that the dowry (mahr) and the wife’s maintenance are obligatory upon the husband, for he is the one addressed with those responsibilities.

The hadith further establishes the obligation to anticipate dangers and strive to block them at the points from which they are feared to emerge. Moral corruption is most likely to arise among the youth whose urges are strongest, so the Prophet ﷺ focused special attention on them in this regard. Thus every reformer ought to inspect the places of vulnerability and the breaches through which danger may enter.

According to the majority of scholars, the command to marry—addressed to anyone who is able, whose soul yearns for it, and who does not fear falling into temptation—is a recommended act, not an obligation. Allah the Exalted says, “Marry those women who are lawful to you…” until His words, “or those whom your right hands possess” (al-Nisaʾ 4:3). Had marriage been obligatory He would not have given a choice between marriage and concubinage. Those who held it obligatory include Dawud al-Zahiri and, in one narration, Imam Ahmad, based on the command found in this hadith.