How do we reconcile the verses and hadiths that prohibit lowering the gaze and mixing with the opposite sex with the reports that Aisha watched the Abyssinians playing?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. How do we reconcile the verses and hadiths that prohibit lowering the gaze with Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) watching the Abyssinians play?

The Shaykh : Prohibit lowering the gaze? Correct your wording. It commands, it does not prohibit!

The questioner : It commands lowering the gaze.

The Shaykh : Yes.

Another questioner: Peace be upon you.

Those present : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : And allowing the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to let Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) watch the Abyssinians dance, and the hadith about the one who, when collecting alms, saw a woman with sunken cheeks; so how do we reconcile the verses that command lowering the gaze with...

Another questioner: Peace be upon you.

Those present : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The Shaykh: The matter is clear, if Allah wills. The intended meaning of lowering the gaze, which we are commanded to do, is the gaze that has no legitimate need for being allowed to look. In other words: we are only commanded to avert the gaze from which fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) is feared; meaning that the second glance leads to the third, and fitnah follows from that. If we note this condition, the difficulty disappears and reconciliation is achieved. There is no doubt that when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) allowed the Lady Aisha to look at the Abyssinians, there is no possibility of the Lady Aisha being tempted by a second or third glance, or whatever, at the Abyssinians; that is not a possibility. So the permission came from here.
The Shaykh: Likewise, when a person is in a situation of a phone call with a foreign woman, and she is loose in revealing her face, he certainly lowers his gaze. But sometimes he raises his gaze for a second or third time, or perhaps more. The important thing is the hadith that says: which explains the verse: , and the hadith confirms that by saying: ; meaning: your gaze for which you have no need and from which fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) is feared. As for the gaze that has a need, it is not included in the Quranic command or the Prophetic command.
The Shaykh: And what confirms this meaning for us is the hadith in al-Bukhari that a woman came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was with his Companions, and she said to him: that she wanted to offer herself to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: So the Messenger looked at her and lowered his gaze and raised it to look at this woman, then he averted his gaze from her, which made her feel that he had no need of her, until that man stood up and said: O Messenger of Allah, marry me to her? He said to him: , after he asked him for a mahr (bridal gift) for her, even if it were a ring of iron; because of his saying (peace be upon him): . He said: By Allah, O Messenger of Allah... He said (peace be upon him): .
The Shaykh: And of this kind is also the well-known authentic hadith: . Based on this hadith and its meaning, one of the Companions was seen following a woman with his gaze on her ajjar (roof terrace). Do you know the ajjar in your place, or is it not known? The paved roof on top; the woman, for example, goes up to hang her laundry; this paving is the ajjar. So that Companion was seen following that woman with his gaze, so some of those who saw him—perhaps from the Tabi'un (the generation after the Companions)—said to him: How do you do this when you are a Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? So he narrated to him the hadith that he intended to marry her, and the Messenger ordered him to look at her. So the prohibited glance is one thing, and the permitted glance is another, and by that the difficulty is removed, if Allah wills.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And beware of that.