Hayaa’ is a part of faith ||| Hayaa’ in what we watch

Abu Hurairah (Raji.) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: 

“Faith or belief consists of more than sixty branches or parts, and Hayaa’ is a part of faith”.

There is no true English definition of the word ‘Hayaa’’ but the closest one can get to it is shame, modesty, and bashfulness. Hayaa’ is an essential characteristic of a Muslim; it must be obtained in order to attain faith as they come together as a pair:

Abdullah ibn Umar (Raji.) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: 

“Indeed Hayaa’ and Iman are companions. When one of them is lifted, the other leaves as well.”

Ibn Al-Qayyim is reported to have said that the moral character of a person is determined by how much Hayaa’ his heart possesses. Clearly, we find that the greater the humility and shame is of a person, the further they will stay away from sins and the better-mannered the individual will be.

In the world around us we can see the rapid deterioration of Hayaa’ amongst Muslims and non-Muslims which is having an adverse effect on the next generation as many previous indecent practices have now become the norm. This snowball effect of losing more and more Hayaa’ as the generations go past is a terrifying prospect, especially because personally, I already feel sickened at the state of people. Who knows what kind of world my children and their children will abide in?

There is much information available on Hayaa’ and so what I want to explore are the aspects of Hayaa’ that we sometimes forget about. When you ask people what Hayaa’ means, they normally link it to the female gender and what a person wears, but there are many more aspects of Hayaa’ that we either fail to realize or fail to implement. I’m going to cover 6 different aspects of Hayaa’ which I feel encompass the overall gist of what Hayaa’ should be. Insha’Allah, the following advice is as much for me as it is for everyone else:

Hayaa’ in what we watch

Television has become a part of the majority of our lives and through this medium we are exposed to anything and everything. There is so much filth on television ranging from nudity and obscenity to subtle indecency through sitcoms and films. Watching such material slowly erodes our sense of morality and shame, so we need to be very careful about what we watch. One of the most shameless aspects of television is the half-naked men and women – be it in films, programmes or even in adverts. We need to lower our gaze; even better, we should avoid anything in which we know obscenity would be present, for that would be the highest Hayaa’. Even watching a kiss is wrong despite it seeming so trivial these days. We should not expose our eyes to such things because of the effects they can have.

“Tell the believing men to lower their gaze, and protect their private parts. That is purer for them. Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what they do. And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and protect their private parts…and not to reveal their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, their sons, their husband’s sons, their brothers or their brother’s sons, or their sister’s sons, or their women…” [Qur’an 24:30-31]

Another aspect is the freeness in portraying immoral practices such as multiple physical partners or even joking about or discussing intimacy and sexual organs – this is rampant in nearly everything that is currently shown on TV, but because we have become so used to it, we don’t realize it is there and thus do not feel it wrong to be watching something we regard as harmless. But if we open our minds, we will see the indecent content. One with Hayaa’ would abstain from watching such programmes as they would be troubled and their hearts would be filled with disgust even hearing such things.

Similarly, we should be careful about what we listen to, so when others around us are discussing indecent matters, we should stay away and feel uncomfortable listening to any crude material.

Author / Aamir Shamsi
Emergency Medicine Doctor in London