What should one who is afflicted with looking at women do? Please advise us. May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. He says: What should one who is afflicted with looking at women do? Please advise us. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : The answer to this should be derived from some of the authentic, established hadiths of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Both of them align with his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , and in another narration: . As for the two hadiths that encompass the struggle against the self: the first is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . The other hadith is, in reality, a Prophetic educational method that few pay attention to for treating the desire of the self that manifests through fixing the gaze, touching, and the like, which are considered among the preliminaries of unlawful sexual intercourse. He said (peace and blessings be upon him), and I believe this hadith is known to you all, but I hope you will pay attention to the explanation that will be presented to you. That hadith is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): "If you were to follow our brothers here and adopt their Sunnah, for sitting together in the assembly is among the etiquettes of the lawful gatherings."

The questioner : Is there any remaining speech regarding the previous question, may Allah preserve you? Our previous discussion reached the answer to the questioner's question about treating one who is afflicted with looking at what is not permissible for him of women. My discussion reached his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . The point of this authentic hadith is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . It is undeniably true that the unmarried bachelor is not equal to the married man in that the former does not find a prescribed way to release his desire from his chest, unlike the husband or the married man. The indication in the authentic hadith and its meaning is: . This is the treatment of desire for the married man. As for the bachelor who has no wife, our previous hadith is: , which is from the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), describing the treatment for the youth who does not find the financial ability to marry. Until that becomes easy for him, he commands him (peace and blessings be upon him) to fast. This means that whoever is afflicted with directing his gaze at women, he must increase in fasting, by the truthful testimony of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) that fasting is a restraint. "Restraint" in the language, regarding the animal whose testicles are crushed, which drives its owner to do so, is to fatten it, so that the strength of its desire goes to the strength of its body, and its body stores up flesh and fat. Therefore, they crush its testicles so that it does not return to mounting its female, because its testicles have been crushed. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) compared the fasting of the one who fasts in that this fasting eliminates his desire, just as the crushing of the animal's testicles does. This is the treatment for restraining the runaway self for the burning youth who is overcome by lust and sexual desire. His treatment is fasting.