Dealing with the Temptation of Women

Praise be to Allah

Allah has created man in a world of trials and tests, and He has made Paradise the abode of His friends and beloved ones, who preferred His pleasure over their own and preferred obedience to Him over their physical comfort. And He has made Hell the abode of those among His slaves who disobey Him and preferred their own whims and desires to the pleasure of their Lord. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

And He says concerning the people of Hell (interpretation of the meaning):

And He says (interpretation of the meaning):

So the Muslim must strive to worship Allah and keep away from that which angers Allah, for Allah will not cause the reward the one who does good to be lost:

One of the fitnahs (temptations) with which we are tested is the fitnah of women, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “I have not left behind me any fitnah (temptation) more harmful to men than women.” There follow some of the methods by which we can avoid this temptation. We ask Allah to set the affairs of the Muslims straight.

1 – Faith in Allah.

Faith in Allah and fear of Allah provide a safety valve and protect a person against committing haraam actions and following his own whims and desires.

If the believer becomes aware that Allah is always watching and if he ponders the meanings of His names and attributes, such as the All-Knowing, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the Watchful, the Reckoner, the Preserver, the All-Encompassing, that will generate fear of Him in secret and in public, and will put a stop to disobedience towards Allah, and will reduce the strength of desire that leads many people to commit haraam actions.

2 – Lowering the gaze and avoiding looking at haraam things

The gaze can generate bad thoughts in the heart, which then lead to ideas and then to desires, then to will and resolve, and then inevitably to doing haraam things. Think about the meaning of this verse which makes a connection between the first steps towards haraam and the end result. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

Ibn Katheer said:

3 – Warding off evil thoughts

Bad thoughts pose a danger to the heart… If a person dwells on them and does not push them away, they will develop into an idea, then into will and resolve, then this will inevitably lead to haraam actions. Beware of dwelling on passing thoughts; rather what you must do is to ward them off and crowd them out with good thoughts.

The treatment, then, is to ward off these passing thoughts and keep yourself busy with beneficial thoughts.

4 – Marriage

It was narrated that ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mas’ood said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

5 – Fasting for those who cannot afford to get married

– because of the hadeeth quoted above, in which it says,

Al-Qurtubi said:

6 – Keeping away from bad companions.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

7 – Keeping away from places of temptation.

It is obvious that we are living in a society that is filled with temptation – media of all types, magazines, flirting in the marketplaces, satellite TV, the internet, etc… So you have to flee from all of these in order to keep your religious commitment sound.

8 – Do not make your houses graves.

Make your house a reminder of obedience, not of sin. If a room is connected to sin for example, that will make a person commit sin repeatedly, because every time he enters that room he will remember the sin and may be provoked to commit the sin again. So he should make his room and his house a reminder of obedience to Allah, so when he enters he sees the Mus-haf which he reads, and he remembers praying qiyaam al-layl for Allah, and the regular Sunnah prayers that he offers in this room. Doing a lot of acts of worship in your house will make a connection in your mind between the house and doing good deeds, so you will do more and will think less of sin, and the calls of desire will grow less.

Trying to make the most of your time in worshipping and obeying Allah- 9

Time is one of the great blessings that Allah has bestowed upon His slaves, but there are many who are not making the most of it. It was narrated that Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

Remembering the blessings of the Hereafter. 10

Particularly appropriate in this context is remembering al-hoor al-‘iyn and their attributes, whom Allah has prepared for those who are patient and steadfast in avoiding sin. This can help the Muslim to look at these transient haraam pleasures which only lead to regret and loss.

We ask Allah to help us to avoid temptation, both obvious and hidden. Praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds

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Reference

Taken from Islam QA

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