A Woman Looking at a Man and Lowering the Gaze

The questioner:
And Honorable Shaykh, may Allah reward you, in yesterday's lesson you mentioned, may Allah preserve you, that the statement of Allah the Exalted among our points is that there is no evidence in it restricting a woman’s looking at a man except with desire. He said “they lower” and did not say “they lower.” Yes. That he should read to him the statement of Allah the Exalted: “Say to the believing men that they lower their gazes,” because it does not indicate the wisdom of a man looking at a woman without desire.

The Shaykh:
No, the man is forbidden from looking at the woman because it does not come without desire. It does not come without it; if he looks at her face, even if he says, “I have no desire,” it is not permissible for him to look, because her face is an awrah (part of the body that must be covered); her face is an awrah, whereas the man is not an awrah. So the difference between the woman and the man is that the woman’s face is an awrah, so it is not permissible for a non-mahram (relative one may not marry) man to look at it, neither with desire nor without desire. As for the man himself, he is not an awrah, so if the woman looks at him without desire, there is no blame on her, because he is not an awrah.