Irba (desire: men without sexual need and the rules on their gaze at women)

In the lexicon irba is need, and its plural is arab; one who is 'in need' (arib) of a thing is one who requires it. In law it is need for women. ¹ Al-Razi, commenting on the verse about 'men without need', says it was said they are those who follow a household to get food and have no need of women, or devout old men. ¹ The intended ones are those without desire, or without knowledge of women's affairs, or through poverty; some say they are the poor, others the imbecile, the simpleton and the child, others the old man; it is better not to include the child, since he has a ruling of his own. ¹

The sounder Hanafi view is that the eunuch, the castrated, the old man, the slave, the poor man, the effeminate, the imbecile and the simpleton look at a non-kin woman as a full man does: a eunuch may still have intercourse and his child is his, a castrated man can enjoy and ejaculate, the effeminate man is a fornicating male, and the imbecile and simpleton have desire. ¹ The Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis and one Hanafi view hold that men without need are like kin in looking at women, so they may see the places of adornment such as hair and forearms. ¹