A Study of the Degree of Sexual Chastity Convergence in the Perspective of the Islamic Seminary Elites and the People of the Society

Chastity in the Shari'a means abstinence and restraint of the soul against any extreme carnal desires, and in its specific sense, "sexual chastity" is the abstinence from extreme sexual desires, which is a strong barrier against shaking the foundation of the family and committing transgression and sin. The degree of convergence and common understanding of the concept of sexual chastity among the elites of religious sciences as the context providers of legislation and ordinary people as the followers of the law is of great importance in the executive guarantee and public satisfaction with the law. This study has been conducted in the framework of qualitative research method and thematic analysis. The seminary elites participating in the study were selected in a purposeful manner (authors and experts in the field of sexual chastity) and ordinary people were randomly selected from men and women in Tehran and Qom. The viewpoints of both groups were obtained through semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of data was extracted and classified by open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The Findings indicate that in the concept and realm of sexual chastity between the two groups, there is a relative convergence and in the objective examples of sexual chastity, the degree of convergence is clearly reduced.