Chastity and restraint (iffa)

العِفّة

In the lexicon, iffa is restraint from what is unlawful or unbecoming; a man or woman is chaste when he or she refrains from forbidden things ¹. The word ihsan (protection or chastity) has four senses: chastity, marriage, freedom and Islam, and is wider than chastity ². Islam guards human dignity, so begging is forbidden to one who has enough, and permitted to the truly needy within limits ². Believers are praised for chastity and forbidden to approach what leads to adultery; the means of chastity are marriage for those able to bear its cost and fasting for those who cannot ^{2 3}. The jurists hold that one who can afford marriage, whose desire is strong, and who fears adultery must marry ³. They differ on whether a man must provide chastity for his ascendants and descendants ³. The majority hold that one partner's adultery does not bar the chaste from marrying the other; the Hanbalis require, for a woman, that her waiting period end and that she repent ³.