A Muslim televangelist has advised male followers to stop masturbating — because it will leave their hands pregnant in the afterlife.
Turkish preacher Mücahid Cihad Han told viewers that masturbation was forbidden in Islam.
“One hadith states that those who have sexual intercourse with their hands will find their hands pregnant in the afterlife, complaining against them to God over its rights,” he said during his program on private television station 2000 TV, according to The Hurriyet Daily News.
“If our viewer was single, I could recommend he marry, but what can I say now?”
The self-styled televangelist made the astonishing comments in response to a viewer’s question during a May 24 show.
The viewer said he “kept masturbating, although he was married,” including during his holy pilgrimage to Mecca, known as Umrah.
According to The Hurriyet Daily News, a news source for Turkey and the region, the Quran does not make a clear reference to masturbation “and the authenticity of many hadiths is questionable.”
Han, who has more than 12,000 followers on Twitter, was mercilessly mocked on social media after newspapers published his TV “fatwa.”