they behold of his beauty; perpetrating the gravest indecency with him is worse than with those others, and he has a still stronger claim to be banished from the midst of the Muslims and driven far away from them.
For the effeminate man causes corruption among both men and women. Because he imitates women, women may socialize with him and learn his ways—yet he is a man, and thus he corrupts them. Men, moreover, may incline toward him and then lose interest in women. And when a woman sees a man acting effeminately, she herself may grow mannish, imitate men, mingle with both sexes, and come to prefer intercourse with women just as he prefers intercourse with men. Allah, exalted is He, has commanded in His Book that the gaze be lowered, and this takes two forms:
- Lowering one’s eyes from another’s ʿawra (private parts), and
- Lowering them from anything that stirs desire.
As for the first: it is like a man averting his gaze from another man’s ʿawra, as the Prophet ﷺ said,
“A man must not look at the nakedness of another man, nor a woman at the nakedness of another woman.” 1
A person is likewise obliged to cover his own ʿawra, for the Prophet said to Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥayda,
“Guard your nakedness, except from your wife or those whom your right hand possesses.”
I (Muʿāwiyah) asked, “What if one of us is among his people?”
He replied, “If you can manage that no one ever sees it, then let no one see it.”
I asked, “And if one of us is alone?”
He answered, “Allah is worthier than all people that you should feel shy before Him.” 2