How to lower your gaze online: practical iPhone steps for Muslims

Written by the developer of The Blocker. Facts checked 22 October 2026. We are not a fatwa body: we quote the Qur’an and a named scholarly site with links, and we don’t issue rulings. For a question about your own situation, ask a scholar or imam you trust.

What lowering the gaze asks of you

The verse most people mean is Surah An-Nur 24:30. In Dr. Mustafa Khattab’s translation, The Clear Quran: “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and guard their chastity. That is purer for them. Surely Allah is All-Aware of what they do.” The next verse gives the same command to believing women (Quran.com).

IslamQA’s answer “How to Lower Your Gaze in Islam” (question 20229) adds two points that fit a phone well. It quotes Ibn Kathir: “If it so happens that a person’s gaze accidentally falls upon something forbidden, he should quickly avert his gaze.” And it cites the hadith of Jarir (Muslim 2159): “I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about a sudden glance, and he commanded me to avert my gaze.” Among the means that help, it lists “Bearing in mind the fact that Allah is watching you”, “Avoiding places where a person feels he will be exposed to the temptation of looking, if he can manage to avoid them”, “Keeping company with good people”, and checking on yourself from time to time “whilst realizing that everyone makes mistakes.”

The same site is honest about tools: “blocking one means will not prevent a person from committing sin” (question 130645). The real work is in the heart. A blocker can’t do that work, but it can make your phone a place you have stepped away from, not one that keeps putting temptation in front of you.

The writer is an app developer, not a scholar; what follows is how to put that advice into practice on an iPhone.

Where the gaze slips on a phone

• Search and images. One search can bring up pictures you never asked for.
• Links inside apps. Social apps open many links in their own built-in browsers, outside Safari.
• Feeds. Scrolling puts the next thing in front of you before you choose it.
• Late at night, alone. Tired, in bed, the phone in your hand.

The advice above maps onto two goals: fewer sudden glances (filters and blocked apps), and a slower second look (a lock someone else holds, and a pause when the pull is strong).

A layered setup on iPhone

1. Screen Time, with a trusted person holding the passcode

Turn on Apple’s free Limit Adult Websites filter (Apple’s steps for iOS 26). Then ask someone you trust, such as your spouse, a parent or a good friend, to set the Screen Time passcode without you watching. Agree whose Apple Account is used to recover the passcode, since that person can reset it. Apple says the filter limits “many adult websites”, not all of them (Apple). Step by step: how to make a blocker hard to turn off.

2. The Blocker, free in Safari

The Blocker blocks adult sites in Safari for free. The Adult category is on by default on a new install, and you can add 10 sites of your own. Free blocking works in Safari and in pages apps open in a Safari view, not in Chrome or the built-in browsers of apps like Instagram; for those, use Strong protection or delete other browsers.

3. Strong protection (Pro): every browser and links inside apps

Strong protection uses Apple’s Screen Time to keep adult sites blocked in Chrome, Firefox and other browsers, and in links you open inside apps like Instagram or X. Outside Safari it applies Apple’s adult filter plus up to 50 of your own sites. It doesn’t filter posts and videos inside apps, but Blocked apps keeps the apps you choose closed: useful for the app where your gaze keeps slipping. Can’t delete The Blocker is on by default. Pro is $4.99 a month, $29.99 a year or $49.99 once in the US; the App Store shows your local price. See Strong protection.

To be clear: Strong protection can be switched off inside the app, and the optional delay is 60 seconds at most. The Screen Time passcode in someone else’s hands is still the main lock.

4. Hard moment: one hour, one tap

When you feel the pull, tap Lock everything for 1 hour. The app says: “Every website and your blocked apps stay blocked for one hour. It can’t be ended early.” It appears while Strong protection is on. Use the hour to step away: leave the room, call someone, or turn to the voluntary (nafl) worship IslamQA lists among the means that help.

5. The 30-day challenge, with “For my faith” as your reason

Join the free 30-day challenge and tap the reason chip For my faith, or write your own reason in up to 80 characters; the app says “It will be shown to you at the hard moment.” With the optional The Blocker Stats extension on, a blocked site in Safari becomes a calm rescue page showing your reason. Check-ins on days 3, 7, 14, 21 and 30 never mention the topic. The app may suggest a fresh-start day in the coming week, such as the start of Ramadan when it is near. And a slip never sends you back to day 1: that one day just isn’t counted as clean.

Habits that keep the setup working

• Keep the phone out of bed. Charge it in another room at night; see porn urges at night.
• Clean your feeds. Unfollow accounts that pull your eyes; use each app’s strictest sensitive-content setting.
• Good company. Tell one person you trust what you are working on.

What this can’t do

• Nothing makes it impossible. Whoever holds the Screen Time passcode can undo everything, and no list catches every page.
• No reports. The Blocker sends nothing to any person. If you want someone to see your activity, that is a different kind of app; see apps to quit porn.
• Privacy. Your challenge reason and slip answers stay on your device. Anonymous usage sharing is on by default and sends general events without site names; you can turn it off in the app’s Settings.

If you slip

Turn back and start again; the advice quoted above already expects that “everyone makes mistakes.” Read what to do after a relapse for practical next steps. If this is hurting your sleep, work, studies or family, or the distress feels heavy, talk to a doctor or a licensed therapist. For questions of religion, ask a scholar you trust.

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