What is meant by lowering the gaze?
Firstly:
Lowering the gaze (ghadd al-basr) means restraining the gaze and not allowing it to wander or dwell upon anything.
Ibn Faaris said in Mu’jam Maqaayees al-Lughah (4/307):
Ghayn and daad indicate restraining, as in the phrase ghadd al-basr (lowering the gaze)… End quote.
Ibn al-Manzoor said in Lisaan al-‘Arab (7/196):
Lowering the gaze (ghadd al-basr) means restraining it. End quote.
Secondly:
In Islamic terminology it refers to a number of things:
Refraining from looking at people’s ‘awrahs, which includes the beauty of a non-mahram woman.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said in Majmoo’ al-Fataawa (15/414):
Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, has enjoined us in His Book to lower the gaze, which is of two types: refraining from looking at ‘awrahs and refraining from looking at the site of desire.
The former refers to a man refraining from looking at the ‘awrah of another person.
The second refers to looking at uncovered parts of a non-mahram woman. This is more serious than the former, just as alcohol is more serious than dead meat and blood and pork, and the hadd punishment should be carried out on the one who drinks it, because these haraam things are not as desirable as alcohol may be. End quote.
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