What is the Sharia ruling on a husband who watches films and clips containing unveiled women under the pretext of knowledge, courtesy, or entertainment, and looks at lewd pictures of women on news websites under the pretext of curiosity, and if he sees a beautiful woman, claims to lower his gaze from her or that it is a glance without lust, and is the wife mistaken in her assumption that he does not lower his gaze?

A man is not permitted to look at images of women in films or on the internet. He must lower his gaze, even if the woman is not beautiful or if there is no lust involved. News can be obtained from websites free of such images. The wife should gently advise her husband if he engages in this, and warn him against excessive insistence. The husband should not justify his actions by comparing himself to the wicked; rather, he should compete with the righteous in goodness and never feel secure from Allah's plan.