him for it. He gives up his desire and his food for My sake.” A person’s giving up what he desires for Allah’s sake is itself an intended act of worship for which he is rewarded, just as a pilgrim in ihrām is rewarded for giving up his customary clothing, perfume, and similar bodily comforts.

Sexual intercourse is among the greatest bodily pleasures and sources of joy and delight for the soul. It stimulates desire, the blood, and the body more than eating does. Since Satan flows through the son of Adam as blood flows, and nourishment increases the flow of blood, which is his pathway, eating or drinking makes the soul more inclined toward desires and weakens its resolve and love for worship. This effect is even more pronounced in intercourse: it increases the soul’s inclination toward desires and weakens its resolve to worship to a greater degree. Indeed, intercourse is the ultimate sensual pleasure, and the desire for it is stronger than the desire for food and drink. For this reason, one who engages in intercourse is required to offer the expiation prescribed for zihār: freeing a slave or performing its prescribed substitute, as established by the Sunnah and scholarly consensus. This is because the act is more serious, the urge toward it stronger, and its harmful consequences greater.

This, then, is the greater of the two underlying wisdoms in prohibiting intercourse. Its weakening of the body, like bodily evacuation, is another wisdom. In these two respects, it is comparable to eating and menstruation, but it exceeds them in these effects. Its invalidation of the fast is therefore more serious than invalidation through eating or menstruation.

Let us now explain the wisdom underlying the ruling on menstruation and how it accords with analogy. We say:

Islamic law has brought justice in all things. Excess in worship is a form of injustice