Q490: Looking at ones private parts – Eyesight/Memory weakness?

Question

I have read that looking at ones private parts when in the toilet gives you bad eyesight and memory. Is this true? So how are you meant to clean yourself/ shave if you cannot look at your private parts?

Answer

It has been narrated in a hadith, which is cited in Hidayah that it is inadvisable, though permissible, to be completely naked and look at the private parts of one’s wife.

Ibn Abidin al-Shami writes in Radd al-Muhtar , after stating this hadith, that this practice of looking at private parts adversely affects one’s vision and sight. (vol. 9: 527, Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah edn.)
He also writes in another chapter that six things induce forgetfulness, of these one is looking at one’s own private parts. (vol. 1, p. 225 Dar al-Fikr edn.)

However, there is no harm in looking at ones private parts in order to clean them or to shave the pubic region.