umm Abdillah, Radio Islam Programming – 2014.01.13

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The editors of a "Hot Muslim Men of 2014" calendar faced due back-lash on various levels last week, none so dismissive as the “lowering the gaze issue” and the reductionism of what it means to be a male and Muslim, writes Radio Islam’s Umm Abdillah.

The online calendar, a mere marketing tactic to promote the upcoming book Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy, which is described as “a provocative new exploration of the most intimate parts of Muslim men’s lives”, was mostly slammed for allegedly objectifying Muslim men. Others applauded it as a creative way of drawing attention to accomplished and talented American Muslims, and criticised the tendency of some members of the Muslim community to hold up modesty as a defining characteristic of Islam, using shame to stifle innovation.

Journalist Amal Awad believes even if the calendar is meant to be a humourous and satirical take on the typical “tacky” and “brainless” pin-up variety of hot-people calenders (because the calendar features fully-dressed educators, performers and entrepreneurs too), this attempted tongue-in-cheek promotional campaign to get people’s attention throws up the double standard so many Muslims have about “lowering the gaze”.

She focuses, (for the purpose of this post) on two important points:

1. “We joke about the hotness of these men, and have no trouble seeing their images on display. They’re men, and proud, and there’s no shame in it. Yet just try to place women in a similar, humourous context, and cover your ears to drown out the wails of injustice.

2. “Do I want to see the pin-up equivalent of Muslim women achievers? Not even a little bit. We still don’t understand that Muslims are active participants throughout the world. Unfortunately, we’re a long way from understanding and accepting that Muslims are already daily achievers.”

Expounding on the above elements let us consider the following.

From the Quranic ayah (95:4) “Verily, We created the human in the best form” to the hadith “Allah is beautiful and loves beauty” we already come to understand the masterpiece that is the human being and adjunctively the human form.  It would be wholly reductionist to then claim “hot men” or ‘hot women” especially if they are Muslim, to be something of a novelty. It’s even more myopic to believe progressiveness or daresay ‘innovation’ comes in a newfangled recognition of “hotness”, be it in brain or brawn.

Further, do these (if used) as marketing tactics change any stereotype for the greater good? Is pimping Muslim men out as achievers (Look! We have them too!) and ‘heartthrobs’ [hopefully think Abbas Ibn Firnas and Tariq bin Ziyad as opposed to Omar Borkan Al Gala] save any lives, make any difference to current Islamophobia, eliminate poverty or war? Does it help Muslim men in TSA queues when Homeland Security does invasive cavity searches for explosives? Will it help Muslim women undergoing strip-searches?

Being a self-proclaimed ‘intelligent’ Muslim begs analytical and objective grading of ‘niyyah and amal’ (intention and the follow-up action) opposed to ‘niyyah and kalaam’ (intention and then just talk).

Allah talks about the raiment (garb) of righteousness, that is indeed better in [Al-Qur'an 7:26]. Allah’s Prophet [pbuh] in a report by Imam Bukhari (r) asks us to fulfill the rights of the road by “lowering the gaze, responding to greetings and talking in a pure manner” – all indicative that a Muslim aims for more than the acknowledgment of beauty or “hotness”, which leads at the very least to various forms of consumerisms.  He or she is (should be) in a constant form of gratefulness and shukr.  To promote a conscious form of worship in using the faculties (eyes) Allah has given us for a greater good (without sounding like a pompous preacher) unfortunately tends to be uncool, or, alarmingly overplayed to the extent where social interaction among genders is deemed heresy.

And if along the way, temptation, not just to look, but create a fantasy from that vision beckons, we always have this:  

The Prophet (saw) has narrated in a Hadith Qudsi that Allah (swt) said: “The gaze is a poisonous arrow from among the arrows of Iblis (Satan).  Whoever protects his heart and gaze from this arrow due to My fear, I will grant him the sweetness of Imaan that he will perceive in his heart.”

Ibn Qayyim (ra) says that a person gives his basarat [gaze] and obtains basirat [insight].

Mulla Ali Qari (ra) wrote in the explanation of this hadith, that whoever is granted the sweetness of Imaan will most certainly die with Imaan because Allah will not grant the sweetness of Imaan to one and then snatch it away.  This is a second reward for protecting the gaze.

As for the double and contrasting standards of ‘modesty’ ‘hayaa’ ‘hijaab’ ‘lowering the gaze’ etc. between men and women in our communities, and the burden on proof lying with the women rather than the men, that’s a topic all on its own, an indeed one where the ‘lowered gaze’ man could do far more than just lowering his gaze, but also accept and promote the burden of proof, hopefully in more constructive ways than a ‘hot’ pin-up calendar.