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IslamQA: On how to stop masturbating

Assalamu alaikum, can i ask on how to stop masturbating? Ive tried and stopped for a week, but then i accidentally started again. Repetitively failing to control myself had me felt useless, and ive starting to lose hope with myself. Thank you for your consideration.

Your ability to control your impulses only matures after the age of 25, since this is when brain development completes. Before this age it is always going to be difficult to control your impulses. Since masturbation is such an easy source of getting an intense climax, it is going to be difficult to resist for many people.

The way to stop masturbating is to realize that your will power will likely not be able to resist it, so the solution is to make it difficult and inconvenient to masturbate, for example by not living alone, by spending your time with other people, and by spending time outside. Rather than staying home, go to a library to do your reading or studies.

And rather than losing hope when you again succumb to it, use it to motivate yourself to do good deeds. God says:

... good deeds take away the bad deeds. This is a reminder for those who remember.

The Quran, verse 11:114

So to make up for it, make it a rule that every time you do it, afterwards you will spend 30 minutes reading Quran (as an example).

Additionally, the closer you are to God the easier it becomes to resist temptations. You cannot stay close to God unless you do the daily work needed to maintain this closeness. I recommend spending at least an hour a day reading the Quran for the rest of your life. This is the best way to maintain a high level of faith and piety and resist sins.

For more on masturbation please see: Masturbation is not clearly forbidden or allowed in Islam

And God knows best.
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