Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad
Question
One of my friends has been trying to get married for a long while and still hasn’t been able to. She has settled for a single life if that is what Allah has willed for her. Does she have a special reward for this? She’s been devoted to staying on the right path and not going astray. She keeps saying that Allah will have the best reward for her and will await it. What are these rewards? Are ladies who leave this world unmarried and untouched more blessed?
Answer
Thank you for your question. May Allah reward you for caring for your friend and being encouraging and supportive to her.
Celibacy
As far as I know, there is no specific reward for celibacy, but there is a great reward for patience and resisting temptation. If, perchance, she used this opportunity for great good and did something that brings benefit to many, her reward would naturally be commensurate to that. At the same time, she should not give up on marriage. She sounds like she would make a very pious wife, and it may be written for her to marry later on in life.
Reward
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Seven are (the persons) whom Allah will give protection with His Shade [s. of throne] on the Day when there will be no shade except His Shade, and they are: A just ruler; a youth who grew up with the worship of Allah; a person whose heart is attached to the mosque; two persons who love and meet each other and depart from each other for the sake of Allah; a man whom a beautiful and high ranking woman seduces, but he (rejects this offer by saying): ‘I fear Allah’; a person who gives a charity and conceals it (to such an extent) that the left hand might not know what the right has given; and a person who remembers Allah in solitude and his eyes well up.” [Bukhari & Muslim]
Please see these links as well:
I Feel like a Failure Being Single
Is It Permissible to Choose to Stay Single?
Being a Daughter, a Woman, and Living This Life
May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.
[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria for two years where she studied aqida, fiqh, tajweed, tafsir, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Masters in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She later moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.