Question: What is your opinion, oh virtuous Shaikh, on what some young girls do with each other or some young men do with each other in terms of massage. It is: when a person lies down on his/her stomach, for example, and another stands to rub his back, sides, neck, shoulders, shins and sometimes his thighs. Sometimes that is done on top of clothes and sometimes the rubbing is directly on the skin. Sometimes the masseur places oil to rub. This phenomen has become wide spread specifically in the university and college dorms for both genders. Please provide us with a verdict, May Allah reward you.
Answer: If a husband does it with his wife or the wife with her husband, then there is no harm in this because if the affair is like this, it is allowed even if his desires are aroused. His desires are fulfilled with his wife.
As for if it is done between other then them, then in it is fitnah. If a young man does that with another man, is it not feared that his desires will be aroused? Of course, even if a woman did it with another women it is feared her desires will be aroused because the woman has desires like how a man has desires. So I do not see this permitted except with a husband with his wife. Likewise, if we assume that the man is very old and he has daughters and he requests them to press his back, then there is no harm with this because desires in this situation are very far. An old man needs this and along with his need and desires being far, we say: there is no harm in this inshallah.
[al-Liqaa ash-Shahri (no. 66)]
Translated by
Faisal bin Abdul Qaadir bin Hassan
Abu Sulaymaan
