Ighlaq al-Abwab li-Man al-Hubb wal-Ijab
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- Ighlaq al-Abwab li-Man al-Hubb wal-Ijab
Ighlaq al-Abwab li-Man al-Hubb wal-Ijab (Closing the Doors to Prevent Passion and Infatuation) is a short Islamic moral and advisory treatise written by Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Amari, an Islamic preacher and member of the Da'wah and Guidance Center in Mecca. The work addresses the spiritual and emotional dangers of illicit romantic attachment and passionate infatuation (al-i'jab), framing them as sources of inner anguish that can be prevented by closing three primary sensory and behavioral avenues through which such feelings enter the heart.
Structure and Content
The treatise is organized around three main "doors" (abwab) that lead to romantic infatuation:
The Door of Looking (Bab al-Nazar)
Al-Amari opens with the command to lower the gaze, quoting Quran 24:31: وَقُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِنَّ ("And tell the believing women to lower their gaze"). He illustrates the hazards of the gaze using the Quranic account of the wife of al-Aziz and the women of the city regarding the Prophet Joseph in Surah Yusuf (12:30–31). The author incorporates numerous quotations and poetic verses from Ibn al-Qayyim's Rawdat al-Muhibbin describing how repeated looks imprint images on an empty heart, likening an unrestrained gaze to a poisoned arrow shot at one's own soul. He also adduces the prophetic tradition that العَيْنَانِ زِنَاهُمَا النَّظَر ("The zina of the two eyes is looking") and cites juristic positions from al-Shafi'i, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Nawawi, Ibn Rajab, and al-Azim Abadi affirming that the prohibition of looking to avoid trial (fitnah) applies to women gazing at non-mahram men just as it applies to men.
The Door of Hearing (Bab al-Sam')
The second section examines hearing as an entryway for infatuation, noting that love can take root through verbal description even before physical sight occurs. To support this, al-Amari cites the poetic observation by Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri that the ear may fall in love before the eye, alongside passages from Ibn al-Qayyim. He references the prophetic hadith recorded by al-Bukhari in which the Prophet ﷺ forbade a woman from describing another woman's physical features to her husband as though he were looking directly at her, and he extends this warning to caution women against describing specific men—such as husbands, fathers, sons, or brothers—to their female peers.
The Door of Singing (Bab al-Ghina')
The final section addresses listening to music and singing, describing it as an instigator of lust, vanity, and moral laxity. Al-Amari cites statements attributed to early figures, including the poet al-Hutay'ah's warning that singing invites fornication, a chain of psychological effects attributed to al-Kindi, and remarks reported from the Umayyad caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik regarding the emotional vulnerability singing produces, concluding with poetic verses warning against its influence.
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