it would fall for a hundred years before reaching its lowest point.”’”

Attributing this hadith to the Prophet is questionable. Ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: “Ishāq ibn Ismā‘īl narrated to us: Mu‘ādh ibn Hishām narrated to us, saying: I found in my father’s book, from al-Qāsim, from Abū Umāmah, concerning the words of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, ‘And raised couches’: ‘If the highest of them fell, it would not reach the lowest even after forty years.’”

[Surah al-Rahmān (55): verse 56]

“In them are women of restrained gaze, whom neither man nor jinn has touched before them.” (56)

He, glorified be He, describes them as restraining their gaze in three places. The first is here.

The second is His saying in al-Sāffāt, 37:48: “With them will be women of restrained gaze, with beautiful, wide eyes.”

The third is His saying in Sād, 38:52: “With them will be women of restrained gaze, equal in age.”

All the Quran commentators agree that this means they restrict their gaze to their husbands and do not look longingly at anyone else.

It has also been said that they confine their husbands’ gaze to themselves: their loveliness and beauty leave their husbands no inclination to look at other women.

This is sound in meaning. As for the wording, however, qāsirāt (restraining) is an adjective annexed to its grammatical subject, as in hisān al-wujūh (fair of face). Its underlying form is “their gaze is restrained,” meaning that it neither looks longingly elsewhere nor strays beyond its bounds.

Ādam said: Warqā’ narrated to us, from Ibn Abī Najīh, from Mujāhid, concerning the words “of restrained gaze.” He said: “It means that they restrict their gaze to their husbands, so they seek