2- Shaykh al-Islām said: The ability meant here is the capacity to bear the financial burden of marriage, not merely the physical ability to have intercourse, for the address was directed to those already physically capable. Consequently, whoever lacks the means is instructed to fast, for fasting serves him as a restraint (wijāʾ).

3- From the very reason the youth were addressed, it follows that the command to marry applies to anyone—middle-aged or elderly—who can meet its costs and whose desire overpowers him.

4- The rationale is that marriage lowers the gaze and affords the private parts greater protection from prohibited acts.

5- Whoever cannot afford the expenses of marriage is encouraged to fast because fasting weakens sexual desire; the impulse is fueled by food, and foregoing it diminishes that impulse.

6- Shaykh al-Islām also said: As for the one who possesses no wealth, whether it is recommended for him to borrow money and marry is a matter of dispute within the school of Imām Aḥmad and others. Allah the Exalted says: “Let those who cannot find the means to marry keep themselves chaste until Allah enriches them out of His bounty.”

Second Ḥadith
Anas ibn Mālik d. ― reported that a group of the Prophet’s Companions asked the wives of the Prophet ﷺ about his private acts of worship. Some of them said, “I will not marry women,” others said, “I will not eat meat,” and others said, “I will not sleep on a bed.” When the Prophet ﷺ was informed of this, he praised and glorified Allah and said, “What is the matter with people who say such-and-such? I pray and I sleep; I fast and I break the fast; and I marry women. Whoever turns away from my sunnah is not of me.” (1)

Overall meaning
This sublime religion is built on ease and facilitation, on satisfying the soul with the wholesome delights of life that it has declared lawful, and on its aversion to harshness, severity, and self-imposed hardship that would deprive a person of the world’s blessings.

For this reason, a number of the Prophet’s Companions—driven by their love of goodness and eagerness for it—went to ask about the Prophet’s private worship, that which only his wives witnessed. When the wives informed them, the Companions deemed their own efforts insignificant; such was their vigor and determination to excel in righteousness. They said, “How far are we from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when Allah has already forgiven his past and future sins?”