«وَاغْضُضِ الطَّرْفَ تَسْتَرِحْ مِنْ غَرَامٍ تَكْتَسِي فِيهِ ثَوْبَ ذُلٍّ وَشَيْنٍ»
Lower your gaze and be spared a passion that dresses a person in humiliation and shame.
The warning comes from the very trickster who exploited the governor’s lack of restraint. He continues «فَبَلَاءُ الْفَتَى اتِّبَاعُ هَوَى النَّفْسِ وَبَذْرُ الْهَوَى طُمُوحُ الْعَيْنِ» — one’s trial is following appetite, and the seed of passion is the roaming gaze. Badhr al-hawā presents desire as a seed that grows. The tension between eloquent moral advice and Abū Zayd’s conduct is central to the irony.