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— especially from the head and brain; and it calms a person's anger, dispels unwholesome thoughts, and benefits against melancholy.
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And most important of all: it is the cause of the rational, wise human being's existence. And the cause of people's intimacy and friendship lies only in it.
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If it were something reprehensible, the Exalted God would have prohibited His prophets and messengers from it. Do we not see one of them say, without embarrassment, 'Give me my wife' (Gen. 29:21), and another say, without hesitation, 'And I came to the prophetess' (Isa. 8:3)?
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I examined what they said and found it excessive. For they neglected to consider its harms and vices.
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Among them: it harms the eyes, destroys the appetite, saps strength, and often brings on consumptive fever, pain in the loins, and intestinal wasting.
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It softens the body and wears it out rapidly, and hastens senility. About this it says: 'Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to those who destroy kings' (Prov. 31:3).
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And the preoccupation of hearts, the captivation of the mind, and the decline of sight come only with it — as it says: 'Harlotry, wine, and new wine take away the heart' (Hos. 4:11).
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And whoever pursues it, the fire of its blaze burns in him and does not go out except at the moment of satisfaction alone — as it says: 'All of them are hot as an oven, burning like a baker's fire' (Hos. 7:4).
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And the filth and pollution he feels in himself — even were there a fragrance with him — is as if his garments had soiled him, however hard he tried to clean them.
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As it says: 'If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, then you plunge me into the pit and my own garments abhor me' (Job 9:30–31).
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And disgrace, scandal, and public humiliation that linger through all time as an ill reputation — these come only through it — as it says: 'He who commits adultery lacks heart; he who does it destroys himself; wounds and dishonor',
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'he will find, and his disgrace will not be wiped out' (Prov. 6:32–33).
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And the contempt and united opposition of all people — until shameful acts are done openly while he thinks no one knows — as it says: 'Your adulteries and your lewd neighings, your shameless harlotry — on the hills and in the fields I have seen your abominations' (Jer. 13:27).
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And the harlot houses become havens for every vagrant, robber, and libertine — yet their companion alone is unaware — as it says: 'When I fed them to the full they committed adultery, and at the harlot's house they trooped' (Jer. 5:7).
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And he may be so dissolute with himself and his children that no legitimate offspring is clear to him — just as he was dissolute with others' households — for that is an ugly retribution.
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As it says: 'If my heart was enticed by a woman and I lay in wait at my neighbor's door — let my wife grind for another and let others kneel over her, for that would be lewdness, a crime to be judged' (Job 31:9–11).
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This desire is beautiful for a person only for sustaining offspring — as it says: 'As for you, be fruitful and multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply in it' (Gen. 9:7).
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Let him release it with reason when it is called for, and restrain it when that time has passed.
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Section VII. Chapter Four: Romantic Passion (ʿIshq).
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Though this subject may seem indecent, it is no more indecent than the doctrines of heretics; and just as we described those in order to refute them and guard hearts against their resemblance, so too we describe this in order to refute it and guard the heart against its resemblance.
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Certain people hold that romantic passion (ʿishq) is the finest thing a person can pursue. They claim it refines the spirit and makes the temperament delicate, until the soul becomes shimmering and vibrant from its refinement.
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They say it is a state of intense subtlety, and explain it through nature's action: it is a material that flows to the heart — its origin is a glance, then desire, then attachment, then other materials augment it until it becomes fixed.
And they went so far as to