The Great Virtue of Lowering the Gaze
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Creator: Imaam ibn al-Qayyim
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Identifier: http://www.islamworld.net/gaze.htm
Language: en
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Subject: character
Title: The Great Virtue of Lowering the Gaze
Created on: Thu Nov 08 09:27:17 -0500 2007
Updated on: Thu Nov 08 09:27:17 -0500 2007
Version: 1
Abstract: ... it is now imprisoned whereas before it was free. It has been oppressed by the eye and it complains to it upon which the eye replies: I am your guide and messenger and it was you who sent me in the first place! All that has been mentioned applies to the heart that has relinquished the love of Allaah and being sincere to Him for indeed the heart must have an object of love that it devotes itself to. Therefore when the heart does not love Allaah Alone and does not take Him as its God then it must worship something else. Allaah said concerning Yusuf as-Siddeeq (AS), “Thus (did We order) so that We might turn away from him all evil and indecent actions for he was one of Our sincere servants.” [Yusuf (12): 24] It was because the wife of al-Azeez was a polytheist that (the passionate love) entered her heart despite her being married. It was because Yusuf (AS) was sincere to Allaah that he was saved from it despite his being a young man, unamarried and a servant. The Second: the illumination of the heart, clear perception and penetrating insight. Ibn Shujaa` al-Kirmaanee said, “whosoever builds his outward form upon following the Sunnah, his internal form upon perpetual contemplation and awareness of Allaah, he restrains his soul from following desires, he lowers his gaze from the forbidden things and he always eats the lawful things then his perception and insight shall never be wrong.” Allaah mentioned the people of Lut and what they were afflicted with and then He went on to say, “Indeed in this are signs for the Mutawassimeen.” [al-Hijr (15): 75] The Mutwassimeen are those who have clear perception and penetrating insight, those who are secure from looking at the unlawful and performing indecent acts. Allaah said after mentioning the verse concerning lowering the gaze, “Allaah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.” [an-Nur (24): 35] The reason behind this is that the reward is of the same type as the action. So whosoever lowers his gaze from the unlawful for the sake of Allaah, the Mighty and Magnificent, He will replace it with something better than it of the same type. So just as the servant restrained the light of his eye from falling upon the unlawful, Allaah blesses the light of his sight and heart thereby making him perceive what he would not have seen and understood had he not lowered his gaze. This is a matter that the person can physically sense in himself for the heart is like a mirror and the base desires are like rust upon it. When the mirror is polished and cleaned of the ru... [Full Article...]
