FIRST: Lowering the gaze is obeying the command of Allah, and this is the ultimate happiness for the slave in this life and the next. The slave does not have anything more beneficial in his worldly life or his afterlife than obeying the command of his Lord.
SECOND: Lowering the gaze prevents the effects of this poison arrow, this arrow that is the cause of the heart’s destruction.
THIRD: Lowering the gaze fashions a heart that is devoted to and focused on Allah. Letting the gaze wander distracts the heart and keeps it far from Allah. There is nothing more harmful to a person than letting his gaze wander, as it creates alienation between a person and his Lord.
FOURTH: Lowering the gaze strengthens and delights the heart, just as letting the gaze wander weakens and saddens the heart.
FIFTH: Lowering the gaze produces light for the heart, just as letting the gaze wander produces darkness for the heart. For this reason, Allah mentioned “the verse of the light” after commanding the believers to lower their gaze.
SlXTH: Lowering the gaze produces true discernment and insight, by which the person of truth is made distinct from the person of falsehood, and the sincere [person is made distinct] from the liar.
SEVENTH: Lowering the gaze produces a firm, courageous, strong heart. Allah will gather for him insight, acumen, and strength.
EIGHTH: Lowering the gaze will prevent the Shaytan from entering his heart. Surely, the Shaytan enters him by way of the look, and he penetrates the heart faster than the wind blowing through an empty space. He presents the image that he looked at and beautifies it, and he makes it like an idol that his heart is devoted to. Then he tempts him and ignites the fire of desire in his heart, adding the fuel of sin which could not have reached his heart without him looking at this image.
NINTH: Lowering the gaze allows the person to free his heart to focus on what benefits him and busy himself with that, while allowing the gaze to wander comes between him and [what benefits him], and thus he neglects his affairs, follows his desires, and becomes heedless of remembering his Lord.
TENTH: There is a connection between the eyes and the heart — whatever one of them engages in, the other will engage in. When one is good, the other will be good; when one is corrupt, the other will be corrupt. If the heart is corrupt, the eyes will be corrupt, and if the eyes are corrupt, the heart will be corrupt. His heart becomes like a dunghill, which is the place of filth and impurities.
[One Hundred Pieces of Advice — Ibn Al Qayyim رحمه الله
Translated by Rasheed ibn Estes Barbee
Authentic Statements Publishing, USA, p. 26-31]
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