(Photo: Matthew Fang)
Note: This post is slightly longer. The 5 tips and a few Hadith are in the second half.
Let’s start with a clear order from Allah (swt):
قُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّوا مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُوا فُرُوجَهُمْ ذَلِكَ أَزْكَى لَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ
Tell the believing men to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts, etc.). That is purer for them. Verily, Allâh is All-Aware of what they do. (An-Nur 24:30)
This is something that we should be doing on a daily basis anyway. But, we are human and we forget. Sometimes, we don’t forget but our emaan is just too weak and we forget this aspect of our deen. So that is why I wanted to post this reminder. Keep reading for tips on how to do it and two Hadith to motive you
Lowering your gaze is something you can do virtually everywhere you go. So I wanted to provide a few quick tips.
5 Ways to Help You Lower Your Gaze
- Change the wallpaper of your cell phone. Write a reminder to lower your gaze on a sheet of paper, take a picture of it, and set it as the wallpaper for your phone. Now every time you open your phone you will be reminded
- Focus on your shoes. You can follow your feet with each step you take, count the steps, or even try to remember the different places those particular pair of shoes have taken you before.
- Make du’a. This is one of the best times to make du’a. Why? Because you are intentionally, and consciously, lowering your gaze and struggling for the sake of Allah (swt). Allah (swt) is Aware both when you are looking up and when you are looking down.
- Read Qur’an. One way to look down is by simply looking down into the palm of your hands where you can be holding a pocket Mushaf. You’d be surprised how much reading you can get done like this.
- Plan your day. Our lives can get pretty messy and chaotic. A lot of us have to cut out time to make our plan and organize our time. So instead of looking around. you can lower your gaze and use this time to plan what you will do once you get to work, home, or school.
These are just some quick ideas that will, Insha’Allah, help you. But there are many different strategies that each of us use. I encourage you to leave comments and share the things you do to help you lower your gaze.
As usual, we want to make sure that we always, always, always turn back to the Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah of the Prophet (saw). Did the Prophet Muhammed (saw) talk about lowering our gaze? Of course! We know this deen is complete in every sense. So, let’s take a look at two Hadith of our belove Prophet (saw).
The First Hadith:
Jareer ibn ‘Abdullaah said: “I asked the Messenger of Allaah (saw) about an accidental glance at a woman. He commanded me to turn my gaze away.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, who said: This is a saheeh hasan hadeeth. See al-Sunan, 2700)
The Second Hadith:
The Messenger of Allaah (saw) said: “O Ali, do not follow a glance with another, for you will be forgiven for the first, but not for the second.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 2701; see Saheeh al-Jaami’, 7953)
In closing, I wanted to make a few recommendations. I pulled these two Hadith out this answer to a question on Islam QA. So I would recommend you take a look at the whole text. The second recommendation is to pick one particular lecture given on the issue of modesty: Sheikh Safi Khan’s Selected Khutba Series: Volume 8.
I know, you’re at a site called Deed of the Day. So yes, this is something you should do today. At the same time, however, this is also one of those deeds that Allah (swt) and His Prophet (saw) have told us we need to do everyday.
Jazakallahu khairun for the tips . I find them VERY useful especially the mobile Phone Wallpaper.
May Allah grant showers his favours and mercies upon upon you.
Ma Salaam.
A sister in Islam.
Should we lower our gaze if our intentions are bad or should we lower our gaze any way?
assalmu alayikum wr wb
MashAllah excellent advice–should be given to all the sisters and brothers who are not lowering their gaze-may Allah forgive us all for this sin inshAllah-very haram indeed-if you were living in a muslim country a person would not be doing this out of fear of what others will think BUT if u are living in a country like canada then pple choose to do it cause no is watching BUT Allah swt is watching.
May Allah bless you all. In todays world, especially on internet it is very difficult to save your eyes from seeing vulgarity.
There is a need to write more on this topic.
for all muslims i would suggest to read the link i have posted below
http://islamworld.net/docs/gaze.htm
THE GREAT VIRTUE OF LOWERING THE GAZE – By Imaam ibn al-Qayyim
you can also download this book from scribd.com
thanx, and spread this book, e mail to others
assalam alaikum, brothers and sisters in islam.
i’m 13 years old, and i find looking on the ground good and telling myself allah is watching very useful. great tips jazakallahu khair!
assalamu alaikum,
i took a seerah class at a masjid and i was told that the prophet (SAW) used to look at fellow muslim sisters in a kind and say salam to them and that what many guys these days do is that they lower their gaze in a rather obvious or pathetic way instead of acting natural.
Mashallah! Jajakallahu Khairan for putting this up. You thought of some good stragedies alhamdulilllah, and one again Shukran. May ALlah reward you in Jannah, Inshallah!