Source: Fatāwā Amunpūrī by Shaykh Ghulām Muṣṭafā Ẓahīr Amunpūrī
❖ Question:
What is the meaning of the verse:
“Your wives are a tilth for you, so come to your tilth as you wish”?
❖ Answer:
◈ The verse in question is:
﴿نِسَاؤُكُمْ حَرْثٌ لَّكُمْ فَأْتُوا حَرْثَكُمْ أَنَّى شِئْتُمْ﴾
“Your wives are a tilth for you, so come to your tilth however you wish.”
(Sūrah al-Baqarah: 223)
❖ Background and Explanation from the Sunnah:
Sayyidunā Jābir ibn ʿAbdillāh رضي الله عنه narrated:
The Jews believed that if a man had intercourse with his wife from behind (but in the front private part), the child would be cross-eyed.
In refutation of this false belief, Allah revealed the above verse.
He further clarified:
“One may approach his wife from the front or the back, but only in the vaginal canal (i.e., the birth passage).”
(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: 1435, Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān: 4197 – Authentic)
❖ Interpretation by the Salaf (Pious Predecessors):
✔ ʿIkrimah رحمه الله:
“This verse refers specifically to the vaginal canal (الفرج) only.”
(Sunan al-Dārimī: 1164 – Authentic)
✔ Narration in
“One may have intercourse with his wife while standing, sitting, or in any position — **as long as it is not in the back passage (anus).”
(Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah, 4/228 – Authentic)
✔ Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī رحمه الله:
The Jews used to mock Muslims, saying: ‘You’re only allowed one way to approach your wives.’
So Allah revealed this verse to remove that restriction and reject their superstition.
(Sunan al-Dārimī: 1165 – Authentic)
✔ Murrah ibn Sharāḥīl al-Hamdānī رحمه الله:
The verse refutes the Jewish claim about back-entry resulting in deformity.
The purpose is to confirm that any angle of approach is permitted, as long as intercourse is in the vagina.
(Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah: 4/230 – Authentic)
✔ Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī رحمه الله:
“A man may approach his wife from the front, back, lying down, standing, tilted, etc., as long as it is in the vaginal canal.”
(Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: 3/747 – Sound Chain)
✔ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Suddī رحمه الله:
“You may approach your tilth however you wish, but in the vaginal canal only — never in the anus.”
(Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: 3/747 – Sound Chain)
✔ Imām Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī رحمه الله:
“Allah meant that your wives are the field for bearing your children, so come to them where the seed is sown (i.e., the vagina), however you wish.”
(Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: 3/745 – Sound Chain)
❖ Additional Supporting Verse:
﴿فَإِذَا تَطَهَّرْنَ فَأْتُوهُنَّ مِنْ حَيْثُ أَمَرَكُمُ اللَّهُ﴾
“Once they (women) have purified themselves, then go into them as Allah has commanded.”
(Sūrah al-Baqarah: 222)
❖ Commentary by Imām Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله (d. 751 AH):
In his masterwork Zād al-Maʿād, he extensively discusses this issue and enumerates around twenty harms and evils of engaging in anal intercourse, including:
① It violates Allah’s command to approach the wife only where childbirth occurs (the vagina).
② It resembles the act of Lūṭ’s people and leads to moral perversion.
③ It can lead to infertility, which goes against the goal of marriage.
④ It can become a gateway to homosexuality.
⑤ It does not fulfill the wife’s right to pleasure, causing emotional and physical harm.
⑥ It contradicts natural anatomy and divine wisdom.
⑦ It causes medical complications, including incomplete release, strain, and infections.
⑧ It leads to psychological and emotional alienation between spouses.
⑨ It results in darkness on the face, loss of spiritual light, and exposure to divine anger.
⑩ It destroys modesty (ḥayāʾ), which is the essence of faith and human dignity.
⑪ It flips human disposition upside down, leading to corrupted speech, behavior, and perception.
⑫ It brings shame, disgrace, and humiliation — spiritually and socially.
⑬ It brings about divine wrath, curse, and deprivation of Allah’s mercy.
⑭ A person who persists in it becomes deprived of goodness and plunged into evil.
(Zād al-Maʿād, Vol. 4, p. 257)
❖ Statement of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنه:
“تُؤْتَى مُقْبِلَةً وَمُدْبِرَةً فِي الفَرْجِ“
“One may approach his wife from the front or from behind — but only in the vagina.”
(Al-Sunan al-Kubrā by al-Bayhaqī: 7/197 – Authentic Chain)
✅ Summary of the Ruling:
✔ The verse does not allow anal intercourse (دُبُر).
✔ The phrase “however you wish” refers to various positions and angles — front, back, standing, lying down, etc. —
✦ But always in the front passage (vagina), not the back.
This is supported by:
☑ Qur’anic context
☑ Authentic Prophetic traditions
☑ Statements of Companions and Early Scholars
☑ Logical and moral wisdom
هَذَا مَا عِندِي وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِالصَّوَابِ
This is what I hold to be correct, and Allah knows best.
