Masturbation or Premarital Sex: Which Is Worse?
As-salamu `alaykum Masturbation or premarital sex, which is worse? In this day and age, and with the ongoing hyper-inflated sex education in schools, practices like masturbation are far common than ever before. One explanation that I got from a student was that at least it keeps her from having premarital sex. The way we were brought up, we never had any sex education, so I have no percentages to cite. I am afraid all such practices were just as common before, but just not talked about. Please highlight what would be worse between the above two. I believe both are major sins, but at least masturbation keeps our children from getting all the sexually transmitted diseases so prevalent now, unfortunately. I apologize if the directness of this question offends our readers, but my pure intention is educational only. As-salamu `alaykum.