How do we reconcile the verses and hadiths that prohibit lowering the gaze and free mixing of men and women with the reports that Aisha watched the Abyssinians playing and the story of the woman with the sunken cheeks in the story of al-Fadl?

The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah reward you with good. How do we reconcile the verses and hadiths that command lowering the gaze with Aisha’s (may Allah be pleased with her) watching the Abyssinians...?

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

The questioner : It commands lowering the gaze...

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : Between the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) permission for Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) to watch the Abyssinians dance and the hadith about when he was collecting alms and saw a woman with sunken cheeks? And how do we reconcile the verses that command lowering the gaze with...?

The Shaykh : ...The intended meaning of lowering the gaze, which is commanded, is the gaze that has no need and... In allowing him to look again, we are commanded to avert the gaze when it is feared that fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) will result from it. That is, the second look leading to the third look results in fitnah. If we note this condition, the difficulty is resolved and reconciliation is achieved... When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)... allowed the Lady Aisha to look at the Abyssinians... the possibility of the Lady Aisha being tempted by her second and third look, and so on, at the Abyssinians is not present. Therefore, the permission came from here. Likewise, when a person is in a situation of a phone call with a foreign woman, and she is lenient in revealing her face, he undoubtedly lowers his gaze. But sometimes he raises his gaze for a second or third time, or perhaps more. The important thing is that the hadith which says and the verse and the hadith confirms this by saying meaning your gaze for which you have no need and from which fitnah is feared. As for the gaze that has a need, it is not included in the Quranic command nor the Prophetic command. And what confirms this meaning for us is the hadith of al-Bukhari that a woman came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was with his Companions and said to him that she wanted to offer herself to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). So the Prophet looked at her, lowered his gaze, and raised it to look at this woman, then averted his gaze from her, which made her feel that he had no need for her, until that man stood up and said, “O Messenger of Allah, marry me to her.” He said to him after asking him for a mahr (bridal gift) for her, even if it were a ring of iron, due to his (peace be upon him) saying . He said, “By Allah, O Messenger of Allah...” Then he (peace be upon him) said . And of this kind is also the well-known authentic hadith . And based on this hadith and its meaning, one of the Companions was seen following a woman with his gaze on her roof. Do you know what a roof is, or is it not known? The stone-paved surface on top. A woman, for example, goes up, enters, and hangs out her laundry. This stone-paving is the roof. So that Companion was seen following that woman with his gaze. So one of those who saw him, and it may have been one of 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 had in his heart to marry her, and the Prophet commanded him to look at her. So the prohibited look is one thing, and the permitted look is another. And by that, the difficulty is resolved, if Allah wills.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And you as well.