أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Our beloved Prophet ﷺ said, “Evil glance is one of the arrows of shaitan.”. When a sin is not committed widely, people will be more aware of it. For example it is not common to practice fornication and adultery among the muslims and so muslims know the seriousness. Similarly it is not common to consume alcohol and so when we see a drunkard, he falls before our eyes and in fact the one who sits with a drunkard too falls before our eyes but if we take gheebat, it has become so common that people enjoy listening to the gheebat without any feeling of guilt while the sin is so horrible that it is like eating the meat of the dead brother. What a dirty act and who will eat the meat of the dead like an animal and that too of one’s own brother? Our beloved Prophet ﷺ said that evil glance is the zina of the eyes and now as this has become common to throw evil glance, people don’t take it serious and fall into this sin to the extent that even haji is not spared from it. This has become so common everywhere that most of the muslims fall into it because we have Television, magazines and everything around us filled with haram pictures and scenes and thus has become too normal for people to look at these things. But just because a person eats poison thinking that to be sweet; it won’t stop having its poisonous effect on the one consuming it. So is the evil glance.
When one wants to keep the house protected, he should have a strong lock on his house and when one wants to protect his heart, he should protect his eyes. There is one special ability of eyes that Allah Azzawajal has bestowed on them, that is when some thing is brought near the eyes, say the finger, the eyelids immediately close and the eyes does that automatically to protect itself from physical harm. Spiritual harm is worst than the physical harm and so eyes are to be protected more spiritually. We unfortunately have broken the spring of the eyelids when it comes to haram glance. Some might indulge their hearts into lustful thoughts and this is also a worst thing to do. One has to protect both the outer eyes and the inner eyes of the heart. Some of us common muslims do so much of ibadah that only a wali can do, that is we do the acts of wali but do you know what is the difference between wali and us? The wali preserves his aamal while we don’t. We waste our deeds through evil glance and evil tongue. This is the difference. It is impossible for one to have istiqamat (steadfastness) in ibadat when one dirties the eyes. A person can do more good deeds like prayers and so on but his face will be deprived of radiance because of this evil glance and that is because a person who throws evil glance brings the lanat (curse) of Allah Azzawajal on him. The man who looks with evil glance and the woman who comes out with perfume are thrown far away from the mercy of Allah Azzawajal.
Our beloved Prophet ﷺ said to Ali, RadhiAllahu Anhu, “O Ali, do not follow the glance with another for the first glance is forgiven while the second is not.” Here the first glance has fallen accidentally, unintentionally and so it will be forgiven while the second is done deliberately and so one will be held into account. We see here that Prophet ﷺ is advising none another than Ali, RadhiAllahu Anhu, What a great Sahabi he is? Even if all the shuyook and walis of today’s world are gathered together, they can never come close to a single Sahabi for such is their eeman and here our beloved Prophet ﷺ is advising Ali, RadhiAllahu Anhu. Many of people say that they didn’t see with evil intention and by saying this they are trying to claim that they are holier than a Sahabi like Ali ؓ. There is another incident. Once the son of Abbas who is the uncle of our beloved Prophet ﷺ was sitting behind the Prophet ﷺ on a camel and we can imagine what sort of spiritual light will be descending there sitting so close to Prophet ﷺ and that too they were coming from Arafat and what a blessed place is arafat! Adding to this, the month was Dhul-hajj. What a scared month! There were both men and women standing and Fazal ibn Abbas’ ؓ eyes fell on a woman when the blessed Prophet ﷺ turned his face away with his blessed hands saying, “What are you doing fazal?” Now this Sahabi belongs to the noble family of Prophet ﷺ. Being in the company of our beloved Prophet ﷺ, in the blessed place and in the blessed month, we can imagine the blessed environment and this Sahabi is being warned from the glance, we can then imagine about our own selves living in the worst environment today. One glance is enough to knock us out and so we should be more careful and precautious than them. The effect of glance won’t leave us that easily.
Some say they can make their heart calm by looking at the ghair mahram when their nafs urges but this is not the case. Hakeemul ummat Ashraf Ali Tanvi (RA) says this like the disease of itching which urges a man to keep scratching wherein the man finds comfort but the scratching doesn’t end and makes things worst. Even if he enjoys scratching, it is impossible that he enjoys the benefits of a healthy man for he and healthy man are not one and the same. People have seen the enjoyment of looking at the ghair mahram as the dunya is manifest but they never tasted the sweetness and enjoyment of unseen that is felt in the heart by refraining themselves from haram glance. As this is unseen, people might not know. Refrain from this act for at least a day and see how good your ibadat is, be it salah or anything. Haram glance will take the affinity towards ibadah and doing good deeds. One may be praying salah but he will do so under compulsion and he will feel like a burden. It will be difficult for him to come to masjid while the case of the believer is such that once he enters the masjid, he doesn’t want to leave the masjid. Even if he is in market, he will have strong desire to go to masjid for he enjoys the pleasure of acts of worship and the place of worship. Now as far the man casting evil glance, he might eventually loose any sort of affinity towards worship and worst thing is he will get hatred towards aamaal and being with righteous people. Allah Azzawajal will deprive him of finding pleasure in halal means because of his haram act. That is why a person will find other’s wives beautiful but not his own.
Now one might feel difficult to restrain their eyes in today’s world but when he knows the severity of the sin and takes courageous step, then Allah Azzawajal will definitely help him to come out of it for He Azzawajal is ever appreciative and He Azzawajal says that He will definitely make a way out and guide the one who strives in His path. Here are some tips to save from this horrendous act. First have the courage that even if your soul leaves you and howsoever the nafs urges you, you won’t cast the haram glance. Be firm that you will never look at handsome men and non-mahram women. When you go out, never look into others vehicles for it is possible that some non-mahram is sitting inside that vehicle. Always lower your gaze and do not look at the face of women if they wear burkha or not. One disciple asked his sheik to help him give up this sin and his sheikh advised him to give five rupees sadaqah for every single evil glance. The man did so but he couldn’t give up and he gave sadaqah of fifty rupees for just few days and he cried to his sheikh that if he gives that much money, his children will go hunger for that is how much his earning is. But he was advised to take courage and give the sadaqah as advised and by the end he gave up the haram glance altogether and every single day passed without any haram glance. So courage is very important for any mujahidah (striving).
For some spending money is mujahidah, for some praying salah is mujahidah and for some fasting. Some might find doing ibadat is easy but difficult to give up sins and for them giving up sins will be mujahidah. Greater the mujahidah, higher will be the reward. If one wants to give up this act, then make it difficult on the nafs like pray two rakat nafil salah for every single haram glance or give sadaqah or fast a day for every single glance. When parents or husband doesn’t take steps to make their womenfolk wear purdah, they will share the sin equally. So slowly bring the purdah right inside your homes when the family is a joint family. Know that it is impossible to achieve istiqamat in deen when one does not save themselves from haram glance. Knowing the seriousness of the sin will give courage to give up the sin. Before leaving house, pray two rakat nafil salah particularly keeping this sin in the mind asking Allah Azzawajal to help you against this sin. In case you fall into it, pray again two rakats nafil and seek forgiveness from Allah Azzawajal. One hadith says that evil glance is one of the arrows of shaitan and another hadith says that evil glance is the poisonous arrow of the shaitan. Just an arrow is enough to kill the person, then we can imagine how worst and dangerous is a poisonous arrow. Let Allah help us all from committing this sin and save us from this. Amin