Islam does not permit it without valid reason. That's my understanding of the issue.
Viewing genitals for educational purposes, or because of profession (doctor), or within the context of a marriage, or a mother changing diapers.........all of these situations are more reasonable/acceptable and I'm guessing all these scenarios would be sufficient to satisfy any curiosity that one might have about the issue.
However viewing pornographic scenes for the heck of it (whether male or female) whether on tv, Internet, in a book is obviously not allowed in Islam.
And as for your friend who thought you were strange because you refused to watch private body parts on tv......is she Muslim? Culture and religion play a big role as well. Perhaps your friend is from a culture/religion which does not frown upon such viewing.
And if your friend is Muslim, then please understand that Muslims aren't perfect and may not follow every rule in Islam......but that doesn't make what is forbidden permissible.
^You shouldn't do things just to please a friend. Surely, you wouldn't jump of a cliff because a friend has no qualms about doing it and thinks you're weird for not jumping. Listen to your own conscious, your own heart, your own belief system. People will always have opinions about you and everything else in the world. You should do what you know and feel in your heart and mind to be right.
And in one of the posts above you said, "If I want** to see them myself, either of male or of female, I will just take a look**. I'm not in school right now, I don't have any medical reasons either. If I want to have a look at them, it would be for different reasons." **Based on this statement, if you're telling us that you will **go ahead and look at genitals if you want to see them........then **why **are you worrying about whether it is wrong or right to do so? If you've decided to do whatever you **want **anyways.....then why bother about if it is right or wrong, allowed or not allowed.
People (Muslim and Non-Muslim) will always judge you and ask why you're doing this and why you're doing that. So instead of satisfying their wishes and trying to gain their approval.....do what you know and feel is right. And if you place religion to be the guiding force in your belief systems, then follow what religion says. But to give into other people's views is not healthy. One has to be stronger than that.
If people accuse you of things that you have not done.......then you can either 1) get upset and say/prove that you're innocent or you can 2) Ignore them and let them think whatever they want. BOTH of these reactions are fine. IF people have already MADE UP THEIR MINDS that you are 100% guilty.....then all the evidence in the world is not going to convince them because they are that closed-minded.
As far as **Hazrat Aisha **is concerned. Why are you comparing yourself to her? She is called the Mother of Believers. Here you are Notorious, complaining about how poor you were wrongfully accused.............when people had the NERVE to accuse the beloved wife of the Prophet and "Mother of Believers." These people DID NOT CARE AT ALL that she was the WIFE of the Prophet SAWS. These people DID NOT CARE about the HIGH POSITION and STATUS that she had........they ACCUSED her anyways! YOU are complaining about little ordinary YOU being accused........when such a prominent figure herself was accused with little regard to her position and status.
Allah had revealed verses in the **QURAN **that were meant to prove hazrat Aisha's innocence and also teach a lesson to those who wrongfully accuse others of being unchaste. Here is the verse:
[FONT=Book Antiqua] "Surely those who invented this calumny are a band from among you. Do not deem this incident an evil for you; nay it is good for you. Every One of them has accumulated sin proportion to his share in this guilt; and he who has the greater part of it shall suffer a mighty chastisement. When you heard of it, why did the believing men and women not think well of their own folk and say; 'This is a manifest calumny!' Why did they not bring four witnesses in support of their accusation? Now that they have brought no witness, it is they who are the liars in the sight of Allah"** (An-Nur, 24:11-13)**
Listen, Notorious........what is your belief system? I get the feeling you're doubtful about Islam. Whatever your beliefs are, I'm not going to judge you. You're entitled to your beliefs. If one believes in the Quran, then one would believe that Hazrat Aisha is innocent because the Quran is Allah's word. But you're comparing Hazrat Aisha to your own self. Did you exist during the time that Hazrat Aisha was living? Were you able to see her facial expressions when she was accused centuries ago? No, you weren't. You're only making an assumption. And you might even argue that I did not exist during that time period either......so how do I know that she's Innocent? Well.........I'm basing her innocence on the** Quran,** which i believe is Allah's word. And you're basing Hazrat Aisha's innocence not on the Quran........but on your own past experiences of accusations. Just because every detail of her history has not been recorded (such as whether or not she felt guilty) does not mean that she's guilty.
One thing I've noticed about you, Notorious, is that you relate every topic to your past experiences. You've even managed to connect the topic of VIEWING GENITALS to your past that was full of wrongful accusations. It's like EVERYTHING.......comes back to YOUR PAST. It seems to me Notorious, that you're DWELLING on the past too much. You have not moved on from your past. You keep coming back to it. I've noticed that a lot in your threads. And even in this one......you brought up your past of being the victim of wrongful accusations. Nobody in this thread is accusing you of anything.........but then you start bringing up how if you were accused of doing something immoral nobody would believe you.......and then you go on to connect it to a prominent religious figure whose innocence is confirmed in Quran.
^ I feel that you need to work towards getting over your past and not letting it taint everything.......including religion.
^ You said in an above post.......I always do get in trouble for nothing. So, if it's not too haram, I might as well have a look sometimes. Refusing to see those things, causes too much trouble. But if it really is too much haram, I'm not going to. That's why I wanted to know how negative it actually is. Because I do realize it's better not to. Well to answer, your question, it's not allowed. So unless you have valid reason situation, then don't do it........as you said it's "better not to do it."
It's not only in the past, this thing now is also in today. And it's the same kind of trouble as before. People still wonder about why I didn't do something years ago, they treat me negatively because I did or didn't do or say something years ago, or even one year ago, they just won't leave me alone. And this thing, about me having refused to look them, this thing happened now again, recently, I said I'm not allowed and don't want to and then now, again there were immoral lies about why I don't want to look at them.
So, if it's not too much haram, I'm really thinking about accepting it and having a look so at least even the Muslims will start behaving normal towards me...
And I've never ever said or thought to be equal to Hazrat Ayesha (ra)! You've misunderstood, misinterpreted my words. Whenever we have problems, or we have to make some sort of decision, we always look at the Quran and people also look at the Hadith, at the lives of the Prophet (pbuh) and his family and the Sahaba (ra). We try to find something that they said or maybe something that happened to them that could apply to our own situation in todays world, then we try to understand our situation or make our decisions about life in our world here, today. That's the only reason I took that example...
Nobody is equal to the Prophet Muhammad (saww), yet everyone tries to read or find anything he said about whatever topic, or whatever is written in the Quran, to find out what exactly there is about the topic we want to know something about. That doesn't mean that any Muslim who does that thinks he or she is equal to the Prophet Muhammad (saww) or even Allah! We all know our own place in the world...
Once again, I do something normal that any other Muslim does, who wants to know what Sahaba, Prophet (saww) and his family said about or did in certain situations, to know what to do in our today situation, or to understand something about our situation today, all Muslims do that, but nobody accuses other Muslims of thinking they are like the Prophet (saww) or his family members. Yet, when I now just thought about the immoral accusations against Hazrat Ayesha (ra), you are now accusing me of strange things.
I've always honoured her and always believed her to be innocent. I know how it feels when you are falsely accused. Why can't I like all other Muslims who do that, read about what the Prophet (pbuh) and his family members did when they were in some similar kind of situation in their own time? Why do I get strange accusations when I do that?
Everybody always says, the PRophet (saww)/Prophets (saww) familymembers (ra)/Sahaba (ra) did that or said that, he handled that particular problem like that, so we should in our situation today like him do this or do that or think this or whatever. But when I do the same thing that any other Muslim does, that even our Prophet (saww) encouraged us to do, I get in trouble!
And never once did I say or write that I doubted the moral behaviours or thoughts of Hazrat Ayesha (ra)!
I'm not living in the past, I live in today. Yet other people don't like that. They don't even like it when I'm happy, I've noticed all that. Other people around me, still ask and wonder about things that happened years ago, they still tell lies about me based on those things happened years ago. They won't leave me alone. Even when I said or didn't say or did or didn't do something a year ago, they keep wondering about that and saying strange things about that and won't leave me alone. I move on, they don't. I'm happy today, they don't like it.
And yes, if I want to see anything I want, I will without having to find any excuse like most people do. First, I have to know how negative it really is.
I've lived completely in Islamic way for some time, I didn't even talk or look at males, I was living in my own Islamic little world of my own, I was so happy, just me and Islam, and people were all telling immoral lies about why I was covering myself, reason was Islam, they made up immoral lies about it which aren't true, I was not shaking hands with males because of Islam and people and among them Muslims too, were telling immoral lies against me about why I didn't shake hands with males, etc. Yes, it's easy for anyone to say, don't care at all, but you know, it was difficult for me to get finally to the point that I don't care anymore what they say. Now I can finally say, I don't care about them. It wasn't easy though. It's not easy to do or not to do something because of Islam, and then both non-Muslims and Muslims treating you negatively because they start telling immoral lies about why you do or don't do something.