Lowering the Gaze & the Sweetness of Iman - Shaykh Abdussalam al Shuwayir حفظه الله

1,833 views·Aug 22, 2025

https://abdurrahman.org/2025/08/22/lowering-the-gaze-the-sweetness-of-iman/ The Prophet (ﷺ) said: “O youth, whoever amongst you is able to get married, then get married”. And this shows us the emphasis of performing this action and it is from the affairs that are pleasing to Allah. Indeed, it helps lower the gaze and protects the private parts. Lowering the gaze, O noble brothers, is from the affairs that Allah commanded us with in His Book. Allah says addressing the men: “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts.” (Al-Nur: 30) Then He addresses the women and says: “Tell the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts.” (Al-Nur:31) This lowering of the gaze is from the affairs that has a place in the heart. Due to this Allah (ﷻ) coupled the lowering of the gaze with the action of the heart. Allah said: “Allah knows the fraud of the eyes, and all that the breasts conceal.” (Al-Ghafir:19) Therefore, you might be walking with your friend and you might look at something while he doesn’t know what you are looking at. And perhaps you might sneak a glance at something that is prohibited and he doesn’t know what it is you are looking at. Therefore, it is stated in the Hadith that is with Ahmad and al-Hakim, the Hadith of Ibn Mas’ud, that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “Whoever lowers his gaze from what Allah prohibits, while he is able to look at it, wanting what is with Allah (ﷻ), He will place in his heart the sweetness of Iman”. And the people of knowledge say that the reason for the sweetness of Iman, after the Tawhid of Allah (ﷻ) and making one’s worship sincerely for Him, by freeing the heart from being attached to other than Him, is giving concern to those acts of worship done in secret. Therefore, an individual will not find an act of worship whereby he tastes the sweetness of Iman like the night prayer and spending in secret because only Allah (ﷻ) knows when one spends his wealth in secret. And wealth possesses sweetness and love in the heart. And from them is lowering the gaze and restraint. During these times, lowering the gaze has become from the difficult affairs. An individual can be in his home with the doors closed and curtains drawn. And no one knows anything about him except Allah (ﷻ). Then he looks at his phone or at the screen in front of him. So he is looking at matters that are prohibited that no one else can see. However, if he remembers what is with Allah (ﷻ), and then he lowers his gaze hoping for what is with Allah (ﷻ), then let him rejoice because he will taste the sweetness of Iman. This is what the Prophet (ﷺ) said. Many people say: I heard that Sufyan said that ‘there is a tremendous sweetness in seeking knowledge’, but I don’t experience it. And I heard that Ibrahim Ibn Adh’ham said that ‘there is a pleasure in the night prayer, if the children of the kings knew, they would fight us for it with their swords’, but I don’t experience it. And I heard that Abdullah Ibn Zubayr said that when he would stand for his prayer, he would be so preoccupied with his worship that he wouldn’t know who was beside him, to the extent that a hornet would come to him and sting him several times and he still wouldn’t move. Then he would say: I was preoccupied from it. And in the Sunan of Abi Dawud, one of the companions would be shot by an arrow and he didn’t break his prayer saying: I was reading a Surah that is more beloved to me than the worldly life and all that is in it. These affairs benefitted these people, but we don’t experience in our hearts what they experienced, due to two reasons that I mentioned to you earlier which is the issue of the actions of the heart, being attached to Allah (ﷻ), from negating partners and making one’s worship sincere. And from the types of making one’s worship sincerely for Allah is the sincerity of the actions of the heart. So you don’t rely upon, nor seek aid