I ask for advice to be given to one who casts his gaze at uncovered women in the markets?

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Question:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence the Shaykh. The questioner says: I ask for advice to be given to one who casts his gaze at uncovered women in the markets and elsewhere, and what is the way to lower the gaze? And what is the meaning of the first glance for a person? And may Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
Allah the Exalted said:

⁽³⁰⁾ Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what they do. ⁽³¹⁾ And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts

قُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّوا مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُوا فُرُوجَهُمْ ذَٰلِكَ أَزْكَىٰ لَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ وَقُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِنَّ وَيَحْفَظْنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ

[An-Nur 24:30-31]

Lowering the gaze means restraining it from looking at what Allah has forbidden. This is within your ability; you are able to lower your gaze. Allah does not burden you except with what you are able to do; you are able to lower your gaze. As for the first glance that is not intentional, the unintentional glance: if your gaze falls upon a woman without intent, this first glance is excused because it is not by your choice. But if you repeat the look and return to it after that, you will be held accountable because you intended the look. So there is a difference between the intentional look and the unintentional look, and it is called the sudden look or the look of surprise.

Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [59 /84] أرجو تقديم نصيحة لمن يطلق بصره في النساء السافرات في الأسواق ؟ | الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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