THE ADULTERY...OF THE EYES!!! ...

THE ADULTERY OF THE EYES!!!

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim.
In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.

Assalaamulaikum Warahmatulahi Wabarkatahu dear respected brothers and sisters.

“Tell the believing men to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts. That is purer for them. Verily! Allah is All-Aware of what they do.
And tell the believing women to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent…”
[Surah An-Nur 24:30-31]

Alhumdulilah, college break is here, exam results are out of the way, Allah Subhana Wa’talaa has blessed us with hot summer days, and naturally one wants to go out and have fun, so one calls up the brothers/sisters, they set a date, that day comes, so they are all preparing for the day ahead, finding nice clothes to wear, brothers combing their beards/or sisters fixing that lose bit of Hijaab, brothers drowning themselves in Atr, Sisters trying to find matching accessories to their Hijaab trying to find that lost hand bag that matches so perfectly with that green scarf, she can’t find it so she has to change into another Hijaab.

Once all ready, one gets ready to leave the house, giving their love and salaam to their parents and siblings, but as one opens the door and get ready to leave, before our eyes we see a wave of indecency, which is not accepted by the Islamic dress code.

One cannot help but look either intentionally or unintentionally, so SubhanAllah, what can one do???
One can’t just barricade themselves in their bedroom and take refuge under the bed, (where the sister finally finds that lost bag/and brothers find all their empty bottles of Atr)!!

One may question, how is the adultery of the eyes defined?

Abu Hurairah Radi Allahu Anhu narrated that the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said “…the adultery of the eyes is looking (at [that] which is not allowed)…”
[Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

One maybe thinking, it’s only one look, what can one look do?
Indeed brothers and sisters it all begins with a lustful glance. This one glance leads to lustful talk and flirting, then meeting, then becoming “an item”, and I am sure we are all well aware of what comes next.
In his Hadith, Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam says “And the eyes commit zina (adultery). Their Zina is gazing.”
So that’s the harm it does, that one look, that one look is the zina of the eyes, the adultery of the eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, on the authority of Jarair Radi Allahu Anhu, who said: “I asked the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam about the sudden glance (that is cast) on the face (of a non-Mahram). He commanded me that I should turn away my eyes.”
[Reported by Muslim]

Furthermore, Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said to Ali Radi Allahu Anhu: “Ali! Do not look once after another, for the first look is for you (since it happens accidentally) while the second is against you.”

A Muslim/Muslimah is decent and pure, therefore it means all of his/her body must be decent and pure, and a natural consequence of this is lowering of the gaze.
Allah Azza Wa Jall says in the Qur’an:

“O you who believe! Do not follow Satan’s footsteps: If any will follow the footsteps of Satan, he will command what is shameful and wrong…”
[Surah An-Nur 24:21]

And indeed, looking at another man/woman after Allah and His Messenger Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam have said it is wrong and evil, to do it is a shameful and wrong act.

Indeed one must not submit to his/her desires; instead remember the beautiful words of Allah, and His clear warnings:

“Do not go near fornication and adultery, it is an abomination and an evil way.”
[Surah Al-Israa’:32]

Remember, brothers and sisters that when one of us lowers our gaze, it is a good deed and Allah has promised a ten-fold reward for good deeds, so lets strive for these good deeds, these tiny acts of obedience which seem small now, but will make a huge difference, where it counts; in the Akhirah, when our scale of good and bad deeds will be measured!

“He that does good shall have ten times as much to his credit:
He that does evil shall only be recompensed according to his evil:
And no wrong shall be done unto (any of) them.”
[Surah Al-An’ am 6:160]

&

“So whosoever does good equal to the weight of an atom, shall see it,
And whosoever does evil equal to the weight of an atom, shall see it.”
[Surah Az-Zalzalah: 7-8]

Whilst preparing this post, a sister recommended a site where a post was put up, InshAllah the author makes some excellent points:
---
Are we going beyond the limits without realizing it?
By Sikander Ziad Hashmi,

A few weeks ago, Montreal hosted the F1 Canadian Grand Prix. That weekend, my parents and I were heading west on the highway, and many of the race fans who had come from out of town were sharing the roads with us on their way back home.

One thing really caught my attention, more than anything else: almost every single one of these race fans was driving extremely fast and was zipping by us, as if they themselves were race drivers competing in a F1 race.
I found this to be interesting because here were the race fans, after only a few hours at the race track, already acting like F1 drivers. The point being that only a few hours in the racing environment (without even actually racing) had such a profound effect on them that its effect was shown in their actions.

By just being around racers, driving around 300km/h, driving fast had become a second nature for these fans.
This clearly shows the potential effects that the environment can have on a person’s thinking as well as actions.

We all know that we are members of a decaying society. Morality, decency, modesty, and the sense of shame are in a freefall, and things are progressively getting worse.

All this is very evident. It’s not hard to tell, especially in the summer. Just head downtown and you’ll notice the billboards on the highway, take a stroll at the mall, watch a few commercials on TV, take in a movie or two, and you’ll be faced with stuff that’s nowhere near being decent or modest.

So basically, indecency and immorality are rampant these days. And the worst part? We live in the midst of it, and are faced with this stuff day-in, day-out.

Unfortunately, the environment around us is bound to have some sort of effect on us. Just like on those race fans after the Grand Prix, we can easily become immune to indecency and immodesty, and used to seeing it all.

In fact, it IS so easy to get used to, and that’s extremely dangerous, because all this indecency and immodesty is clearly against the moral fabric of Islam. After all, modesty is a branch of faith.

Abu Hurairah Radi Allahu anhu narrated that the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said: “Imaan has over seventy branches, and modesty is a branch of Islam.”
[Reported by Muslim]

Sa’eed Ibn Abu Hasan said to Hasan Radi Allahu Anhuma: “the non-Arab women bare their chests and heads (so what should I do)? The Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said: “Turn away your eyes.”
[Reported by Al-Bukhari]

The danger is we can easily become accustomed to this haraam that we don’t realize that we are seeing something forbidden, and as a result, we knowingly go and see things we clearly shouldn’t be seeing.

So before we walk into a movie theatre, attend that social function, gaze at those billboards, flip through that magazine, chill at the beach, surf the net, or spend an evening in front of the TV, lets try to make a moment to ask ourselves, ‘are we going beyond the limits without even realizing it?’
--------This article may be reproduced on other sites freely, provided it is left intact in its entirety, and the leading "sunniforum.com" tag is NOT removed.------
Dear brothers and sisters, lowering the gaze does not mean keeping our eyes constantly glued to the ground and not looking up at all, so the next thing you know you’ve bashed your head into a street lamp post!!!
Lowering your gaze doesn’t even mean to make one anti-social, it is merely turning our faces away when we see a less-than-decently dressed woman or man walking the streets or wherever we may be, which is so much more common in the summer months.

One common mistake people make is to think that lowering the gaze is only required when one has encountered nakedness or indecency “in the flesh” or in person. No brothers and sisters, lowering the gaze must also be practiced when watching a film or television program consumed with nakedness, indecency and intimate scenes of couples, or when one feels attracted to someone on the TV, so this includes when Pamela Anderson is doing her Baywatch run, and one thinks ‘I want my wife with a figure like that’ or when an attractive Sheikh comes on the TV and one thinks ‘yeah I want a brother like that to get marred to!’

And my last advice brothers and sisters, is avoid going to places of such lewdness and indecency such as the beaches where all you’ll find is women in bikinis and guys in swimming trunks, lowering your gaze in such a place is IMPOSSIBLE!!!
The same goes for parks, where everyone is baring all and sitting out in the sun for a sun tan, this doesn’t mean never step foot in the park, just goes on days that are cooler or go later on in the day, when the peak time for sunbathing is gone.

Brothers and sisters do not put yourself in such situations by your own hand!!! And finally seek refuge in Allah Subhana Wa’talaa from such places and continuously make du’a!!!

Before leaving I would like to share with you 2 very small articles, but have a big impact!!!
---
‘If a person casts lustful glances at a non-Mahram person then this feeling of momentary satisfaction is limited and restricted. Whilst if one protects his glances, one will feel the sweetness of Imaan and this feeling is eternal. And those that cast evil glances feel regret and sorrow for minutes and hours on end:
- For the religious minded: they will regret that they disobeyed Allah’s command.
- For the lustful and immoral: they feel down because they desire for such a thing that they know they’ll never get, and this feeling of despair and frustration hurts them.
http://shaykh.wordpress.com/?s=gazing
---
Once, on a hot summer’s day, a few students were counting a big pile of sadaqah money, when Sheikh walked into the room. After uttering a few words of praise, he said-in Urdu-Shall I not tell you a great remedy to cure the evil gaze?

When counting this money, does any of you feel any desirous joy? Obviously not, because you all know that this money does not belong to you. In the same way, when our gaze falls upon a non-Mahram woman (or man) outside we should think that, ‘the person I am unlawfully gazing at does not belong to me,’ doing this should kill our momentary pleasure, resulting in dislike for our evil actions in the future.
http://shaykh.wordpress.com/2006/07/25/remedy-an-evil-gaze/#more-149
-----

May Allah Subhana Wa’talaa enable us to implement upon this tiny bit of Ilm in our lives and help others to do the same, Ameen! X

Keep the Ummah in your dua’s,

Wasalaamulaikum, XXX Sister Mehak XXX