Windowshopper, Guard Your Gaze

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As you all know from my posts before that I live in Padang, West Sumatra-Indonesia, and in this city we don’t have too much branded shopping places. So, I used to go out of town to get better quality of stuff, and I admit, shopping is fun. 😀

I went to Malaysia and Singapore last week, to their capital cities. On my last days, I went to some malls with my father. On one mall, I saw my favorite brand in front of the building… HUGE! I was hysterical. I then dragged my father to the shop. I was looking at the hand-bags, until my father say something slowly, “You are using this brand now, you will buy another one?” And I replied, “They have different design”. My father just stayed silent.

After that, I went to visit another shop, to compare the hand-bags. And then my father said something again. “Guard your gaze for worldly things like this. Your gaze will lead you to extravagance, not good.”
I then just go straight to the elevator and get out from that mall. SubhanAllah.. My father is right 😳

I then gave some serious thinking about it. It’s true, right?
Going to the mall looking at stuff when actually we don’t really need to buy anything, will affect us. And I have to admit, lots of women love to shop, and malls are markets. I read a hadith once about market, but I didn’t really think about it before..

Reported by Abu Huraira rahimahullah, The Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam said, “To God the dearest places are the mosques, and the most unpleasant places are markets.” [Muslim]

From Salman al-Farisi, “If it is at all possible for you, do not be the first to enter the markets nor the last to leave them. It is the arena of Shaytan and his banner is set up there.” [Muslim]

Markets are social institution that support the livinghood of the ummah, so it is necessary for markets to be around. The problem is, people, including muslims, would live and die for the markets. For worldly materials. Lifestyle. How many times do we visit or enjoy visiting mosques or dhikr majlis compared to markets and shopping centers. Whenever in markets we feel like staying all day long but always want to out sooner when doing taraweeh or halaqah in masjids. Nauzubillahi min zalik. 😳

Looking at bags, dresses, and shoes in malls.. cute notebooks and cute pens on bookstores 😀 the desire inside us will whisper to persuade us for buying them. Our eyes can be the doors to our desire. Right?
So, how do we press down the desire? Simple, like my father said, guard your gaze 😀 I already stopped looking at catalogs for accessories, now it’s time to stop windowshop. Window-shopping have the potential to make us lost the battle against our desire. It’s just pure logic..

Another jihad… Please make dua, people. Much love! ♥