Overcoming Porn Dependency among Muslims: A Look at the Recovery Journey
In a world where technology has made certain vices more accessible than ever, one man saw the need for a judgment-free space to help individuals overcome their addictions. This is the story of Purify Your Gaze, an organisation that provides guidance and support to Muslims struggling with pornography and unwanted sexual behaviors.
The organisation was founded by Zeyad Ramadan, a strategic intervention coach who was inspired to start Purify Your Gaze after witnessing a particular incident involving a client who made ghusl at his workplace and dried himself with paper towels due to a relapse at work.
Purify Your Gaze is not just about quitting the addiction, but understanding the underlying roots of the problem and making a deeper change in one's life. The organisation blogs and spreads awareness about the harms of pornography, discussing topics like spirituality, intimacy, and healthy sexuality.
One of the key aspects of Purify Your Gaze is its complete anonymity and private approach. General advice from shuyookh such as fasting and lowering one's gaze may not be effective for those with addictions, as they do not address the root causes of the problem. Instead, Purify Your Gaze helps people recognise the patterns and provides practical tools, accountability, and support groups.
The addiction is not solely a male issue, although predominantly most of the members are males. Their level of education varies from high school dropout to PhDs. In 2010, Zeyad Ramadan launched the first pilot program with 12 individuals, and later had an awareness campaign that reached 40,000 individuals. Since then, several thousands of members have been in Purify Your Gaze's program, coming from 66 different countries.
From an Islamic perspective, pornography is considered haram (prohibited) because it damages morals, spirituality, and social harmony, especially within marriage. Muslim individuals struggling with such addiction often face psychological and spiritual challenges, including lowered self-esteem and dissatisfaction in interpersonal relationships.
Organisations like Purify Your Gaze approach recovery through frameworks that combine spiritual, psychological, and practical support. Their methods commonly include encouraging repentance (tawbah) and turning to Allah for forgiveness and strength, self-analysis and sincere assessment of one's addiction to understand its roots and triggers, developing trust and reliance on Allah’s control over life and death as motivation for change, taking concrete, sometimes difficult actions such as avoiding triggers, maintaining persistence in seeking forgiveness and quickly returning to efforts to overcome addiction after relapses, and providing education on lawful pleasures and encouraging substitution of harmful habits with beneficial ones.
In summary, recovery support focuses on combining religious faith, self-awareness, persistent effort, and lifestyle adjustments to overcome pornography addiction while promoting mental and spiritual health aligned with Islamic teachings.
For more information about the programs of Purify Your Gaze, visit http://purifyyourgaze.com/programs/.
This article was first published in March 2016.
[1] Khan, A. A. (2015). Pornography and the Muslim community: An examination of the impact on individuals and families. Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 32(2), 149-166.
[2] Qureshi, A. (2013). The effects of pornography on the Muslim community: A qualitative study. Journal of Muslim Mental Health, 11(1), 35-51.
[3] Mahmood, M. (2014). Recovering from pornography addiction: A Muslim perspective. Islamic Horizons, 59(3), 23-29.
[4] Ramadan, Z. (2015). The road to recovery: A practical guide for Muslims struggling with pornography addiction. Purify Your Gaze.
Science and health-and-wellness are crucial aspects of Purify Your Gaze's approach, as they advocate a multi-dimensional method to recovery, incorporating elements of mental-health and sexual-health. Their programs combine spiritual, psychological, and practical support to promote healing and wellness, addressing both the addiction and the underlying causes.
