زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَوَاتِ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ وَالْبَنِينَ وَالْقَنَاطِيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَالْفِضَّةِ وَالْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَاللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حُسْنُ الْمَآب
“Beautified for people is the love of that which they desire – of women and sons, heaped-up sums of gold and silver, fine branded horses, and cattle and tilled land. That is the enjoyment of worldly life, but Allah has with Him the best return.”
How come desire is only directed towards women, why does it not say “of women & men”. Don’t women lust after men too?
I’ve seen some interpreted it as that it actually includes the word men but the verse leaves it out because the word nas is used and women also desire sons and gold rather it includes it in مجهول passive voice out of respect of women / modesty. Then again this interpretation still falls under the umbrella of perpetuating the same idea; that is, women do not have desires towards men the same way men feel towards women. this is a good article on why i think it’s important to be addressed especially section 5 for those who don’t have time to read
Another question is towards the end of the verse “mataa’” describing women as enjoyment/possession of this world, doesn’t this strip women of their own personhood? On top of defining women just as an obstacle/trial for men to be tested? Akin to a prop for men’s spiritual journey?
By stripping away their personhood I mean that I’ve seen red pill Arabs use this verse to say that women are merely a small part of زينة & متاع حياة الدنيا for men for example see from 15:00 onwards