Is It Permissible for Me to Swallow My Own Semen So That It Does Not Go to Waste?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

I am a 32-year-old man with two children. I usually ejaculated the semen out of the vagina whenever I had sex with my wife. I sometimes feel like it’s going to waste, and I’ve discovered that the wife can’t swallow it. Is it, therefore, possible for me to do so?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Ingesting Impurities

It is strictly prohibited to ingest any impure substance without dire necessity. This applies to one’s own semen or that of their spouse, just as it applies to all other types of impurities. [Ala’ al-Din Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-`Ala’iyya]

Coitus Interruptus

It is from the purposes of marriage and the spouse’s rights that one has ejaculation inside his wife. It is permitted in the Hanafi school to ejaculate externally with her permission, even though it is prohibitively disliked without a legally recognized need. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Some legally recognized needs are as follows:

• If becoming pregnant would cause sickness for the wife.
• If the wife is breastfeeding and becoming pregnant would harm her or her child. Etc… [Ibid.]

Wasting Semen

This ruling is based on the fact that ejaculating externally is antithetical to the aforementioned purpose of marriage. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and give him peace) clearly encouraged marrying for the sake of having children. Furthermore, he encouraged having many children.

The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Marry a loving, fertile woman, for I will boast of your abundance on the Day of Judgment.” [Abu Dawud]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.