London . Paris . New York . Milan
What is the similarity between this big 4 cities? Let me give you some clues, Jimmy Choo, Zara, GAP, River Island, Gucci, Luis Vuitton and Chanel. Yeah fashion! Being in heart of fashion industry in UK had affected me in a way or another. I had been exposed to different types of clothes and fashion available in the market and starts to learn to appreciate them. Some of them are very nice in terms of design and material used. Many of my friends including me enjoy being able to have such easy access to the shops and buy them at a very reasonable price especially during the sale season.
Every time I pass through Oxford Street, I could see many posters used to promote the clothes in each shop. These poster most of them used the women models. Well, fashion is mainly for women. It would be frustrating for me sometimes to find clothes because there are very little shops that sells clothes for men compared to women in London. Anyway, most of the posters use attractive women posing to promote the new range of clothes available in the shop. Some would describe it as the hot girl. Sometimes they appear half naked or even naked while just covering the sensitive parts.
This is indeed a great fitnah! As a youth, it is very difficult for me. It is not limited to the advertisement posters, but also the people in the city, media and the environment I'm living in. As I walk along the road in central London, every now an then I will be tested, especially during the summer. While the media always show people wearing indecent clothes. I do get sometimes people including some muslim brothers talk about the nasty stuff.
This made me really feel bad as I know that staring at aurat is a sin. It harms your heart and iman. Remember the story about Imam Shafiee complaining to his teacher, Imam Malik about his difficulty in memorizing? Then his teacher said, stay away from sin, for the nur of Allah i.e knowledge will not be given to the sinner. The 'sin' Imam Shafee committed was that he accidentally saw the ankle of a women in the street which effected his memorization.
My teacher taught me that it is a form of it zina, a zina of the eye. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, considered hungry and lustful looks at a person of the opposite sex as "the Zina of the eye," according to his saying, "The eyes also commit Zina, and their Zina is the lustful look." (Reported by Al-Bukhari).
As mentioned above, zina is not limited to the big zina as what we normally understood. There is other form of zina like zina of the heart, ear, eye and tongue. Allah has ordered us to stay away from zina in surah Al-Isra: “…and do not come near Zina; indeed, it is an abomination and an evil way” (Al-Isra’: 32)
As we know, when Islam prohibits something, it closes all the avenues of approach to it. This is achieved by prohibiting every step and every means leading to the Haram (unlawful). Accordingly, whatever excites passions, opens ways for illicit sexual relations between a man and a woman, and promotes indecency and obscenity, is Haram. Therefore stop seeking or talking about the hot women and other topics related to it. Some would resort to say "We just say it, but we dont really want to do it. " This is not acceptable as it is clearly mentioned above that Allah has commanded us not to approach zina.
So let just leave this hottie alone and seek to meet the houri instead. Don't let yourself be tricked by this temporary pleasure the world. I know this is hard, but by strong will and peserverence inshallah we will be successful. Be prepared and guard yourself. Allah says,
“Tell the believing men to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and to protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts, etc.). That is purer for them. Verily, Allaah is All-Aware of what they do.” [al-Noor 24:30]
Let us pray to Allah forgive us for our sins and give us strength and protect us from the evil.
