The first time I heard this sentence from a friend, my immediate reaction was that of a clueless person. As a reflex action, when I unintentionally looked in the direction my friend was looking, an intense amount of dirt entered my heart through my eyes, hence polluting my soul. As a reaction, the conscience inside me immediately pulled the nerves connecting my eyelids, like a rein. The immediate thought that came to my mind was that he meant to say “She would be punished in a hell that is very hot, for spreading such spiritual dirt”, as she was wearing a dress outdoors, which the wives and daughters of the Prophet (saw) wouldn’t have imagined wearing even indoors in front of their relatives, because of shame.
But then the excitement and joy on his face indicated that he wasn’t worried about her being burnt in hell. Somehow the sweat drops on his forehead made me feel that he might be referring to the weather as “she”, which was in fact too hot. The fact that he kept staring in the same direction made me realize that the heat of this world is nothing compared to the one of hell, that burns the eyes that has the GUTS to cast a lustful gaze at the Ummah’s daughter whose dignity is very high in front of Allah (swt) & the Prophet (saw).
Our ideals (the mothers of the Ummah) never gave such a chance of sinning to a stranger man. They always took complete precautionary measures to prevent a man from polluting his own eyes through them, no matter how much he try to do so. Also Hazrat Fatima (r.a), before she left this world, conveyed this message to Hazrat Ali (r.a), that she had already taken bath, hence the cloth should not be removed from even a bit of her body. And her Janaza (funeral) should take place at night so that it is even more protected from the eyes of na-mehram. The word “Aurat” in urdu used for woman, means “something that is hidden”. Allah (swt) doesn’t even like that a woman’s name be disclosed in front of na-mehrams, that is why you would not find the names of any woman in the Quran except Maryam (a.s), that too was mentioned to clarify to Christians that Isa is not a son of God but he is actually the son of Maryam Marry (as Jesus didn’t have a father). Other than that you would always find in Quran a woman mentioned in reference of a man related to her. Like, “Adam’s wife”, “the wife of Pharaoh”, “the wife of Imran”, “Musa’s wife”, “Musa’s sister”, “Musa’s mother”, “Ibrahim’s wife”, “Nuh’s wife”, “Lut’s wife”, “Abu Lahab’s wife”, the wife of an Egyptian chief who tried to seduce Yusuf, the queen of sheba who refuses her advisors to try their military prowess against Hazrat Sulaiman, “the wives of the Prophet (saw)..”…etc.
