or to anything beneath it that is not part of his ʿawrah. They cite this verse—taking it in an unrestricted sense—and you have already seen that they are wrong because the one they imitate was himself mistaken. Likewise, they appeal to the ḥadith, “Are you two blind?” but it is weak, as has been shown, and even if it were authentic its reply has already been given (pp. 63–72).

They then strained to refute the proofs of those who permit looking when there is no desire, doing with them what they did with the report of ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—who watched the Abyssinians playing with their spears in the mosque. This narration is recorded in Ādāb al-Zafāf (pp. 272–274, al-Maktabah al-Islāmiyyah) from al-Bukhārī and Muslim and others. In it the Prophet ﷺ said to her:

(Sound) “Would you like to watch them?”
She said: “He lowered his shoulders for me so I could watch them.”
She also said: “It was not that I loved to watch them, but I wanted the women to know his esteem for me and my closeness to him.”

Despite these explicit texts showing that she looked at them, they have, as usual, nullified their import by saying at times: “The ḥadith does not state that she looked at their faces or bodies; she only looked at their play.”

I say: it is enough for the discerning reader to picture this answer for its falsity to appear, for it is impossible to separate the action—playing—from the one who performs it—the player. According to their claim, ʿĀʾishah was looking at the play but not at the players! Thus do they render the texts inoperative. Had they instead said that she did not look at an ʿawrah, or that she did not look at them with desire or out of fear of temptation, they would have been correct, for that is the only thing forbidden between the two sexes. ⦗114⦘