Commenting on the words of the Most High,

“While those who follow their desires wish you to go far astray,”

Shaykh al-Islām discussed human desires and the various things people crave, including women and beardless youths. He said:

A servant who falls into any of these things must struggle against his own self and desires, and his struggle must be for Allah Most High alone.

He then said:

Attraction to women is part of the natural disposition common to all human beings. Many may also be tried with attraction to males, such as beardless youths. If a person does not commit the gravest sexual indecency, this may take the form of lesser acts of physical intimacy; if not that, then looking. The effects this has upon the soul are well known. People have related accounts of passionate lovers that would take a long time to recount.

When a Muslim is tried with any of this, he must struggle against his own self in obedience to Allah Most High. He is commanded to undertake this struggle. What he must refrain from is not something he has forbidden himself, such that he would be obeying his own self and desires. Rather, it is something Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and there is no evading that. Thus, the struggle against his own self is undertaken in obedience to Allah and His Messenger.