—for how many a single glance has hurled its beholder into calamity.

Al-Marwadhi also said: I asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh: A man claims to have repented and says, “Even if my back were flogged with whips, I would never again commit a sin,” yet he still will not desist from looking. He replied, “What sort of repentance is that?”

Jarīr said: I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the sudden, unpremeditated glance, and he said,

“Turn your gaze away.” 1

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā reported: My father and Suwayd narrated to me, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Harāsah related to us from ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ from al-Ḥasan ibn Dhakwān, who said: “Do not keep company with the sons of the wealthy; their faces are like the faces of women, and they are a greater temptation than virgin girls.” 2

This line of reasoning, analogy, and drawing the lesson from the lesser case to the greater 3 … until he said:

Likewise applies the case of a woman with another woman, and of a woman with those of her male relatives who are maḥrams—such as her step-son, his son, her brother’s son, her sister’s son, and her slave (according to those who deem him a maḥram): whenever there is fear of temptation for him or for her, veiling becomes required—indeed, obligatory.

These very situations in which Allah, exalted is He, commanded veiling are loci of potential temptation; for that reason He said,

“That is purer for them.” 4

In this way, purity and cleansing are attained.