What is the ruling on practicing the secret habit?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question : Honorable Shaykh, the questioner says: I am a young man who maintains the prayer and fasts on Mondays and Thursdays, and yet I practice the secret habit. Does the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) apply to me: "Whoever his prayer does not prevent him from obscenity and what is wrong, has no prayer"?
Answer : Regarding obscenity and what is wrong, I say to this young man: I ask Allah the Exalted to make him firm and to help him. I was pleased to hear what he said about himself, that he is committed and fasts on Mondays and Thursdays. But this sin he referred to, which is the secret habit—whether by the hand, by the pillow, or by anything else, meaning the emission of semen—is forbidden. Let him stop it and be patient. Allah Blessed and Exalted is He said:[An-Nur 24:33] So he should restrain himself as much as he can. I hope that Allah, the Exalted and Sublime, will make his prayers an expiation for what is between them, provided he avoids major sins.
Answer : Regarding obscenity and what is wrong, I say to this young man: I ask Allah the Exalted to make him firm and to help him. I was pleased to hear what he said about himself, that he is committed and fasts on Mondays and Thursdays. But this sin he referred to, which is the secret habit—whether by the hand, by the pillow, or by anything else, meaning the emission of semen—is forbidden. Let him stop it and be patient. Allah Blessed and Exalted is He said:
But let them who find not [the means for] marriage abstain [from sexual relations] until Allah enriches them from His bounty.
وَلْيَسْتَعْفِفِ الَّذِينَ لَا يَجِدُونَ نِكَاحًا حَتَّىٰ يُغْنِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِ
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[43 من 49] ما حكم ممارسة العادة السرية؟!! الشيخ ابن عثيمين - مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.