(zeenatahunna) except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husbands' fathers, or their sons, or their husbands' sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants who have no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you may succeed} (An-Nur: 30-31).

This verse is among the decisive and firm sayings indicating the prohibition of the believers—those who have reached maturity in Monotheism (Tawhid)—from looking at what is not permissible for them to look at, namely the Outward Sciences (Al-'Ulum al-Zahira), which are symbolized by the forbidden things. For "looking" is a symbol for "inclination" [toward them].

It also indicates guarding their private parts, which symbolizes the [instruments] they use to perform outward deeds, such as the tongue and its speech, the heart and its infatuation, the eyes and their sight, and the ears and their hearing—restraining them, in matters of religious practice and belief, from performing what is not permissible to perform: those outward deeds and creeds symbolized by the