commit adultery, and their adultery is looking. The ear commits adultery, and its adultery is listening. The hand commits adultery, and its adultery is grasping. The foot commits adultery, and its adultery is walking. The heart yearns and desires, and the private parts either confirm this or deny it.” If someone who regards what Allah has forbidden as lawful is an unbeliever, then what of someone who makes it a means of drawing near to Allah Most High and a path to Him?

Allah Most High says:

“When they commit an indecency, they say, ‘We found our forefathers doing it, and Allah has commanded us to do it.’ Say, ‘Allah does not command indecency. Do you say about Allah what you do not know?’”

The occasion for the revelation of this verse was that the Arabs, apart from the Hums, used to circumambulate the House naked. Allah therefore described their exposure of their private parts as an indecency and made clear that He does not command indecency. Accordingly:

“When Abū Bakr al-Siddīq performed the pilgrimage before the Farewell Pilgrimage—at a time when both Muslims and polytheists performed the pilgrimage—he proclaimed, at the command of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: ‘After this year, no polytheist shall perform the pilgrimage, and no naked person shall circumambulate the House.’”

What, then, of someone who regards committing the greater indecency, or lesser acts, as lawful and makes this a form of worship and a spiritual path? Although a group of would-be philosophers, together with the misguided, perverse people who agreed with them, made infatuation with beautiful forms part of the path by which souls are purified, this is not part of the religion of the Muslims, the Jews, or the Christians. Rather, it is the religion of the polytheists, who instituted religious practices for which Allah gave no permission.