vendredi 29 août 2008

Imam Nawawi on shaking hand with beautiful people, with the commentary of shaykh Ibn 'Allan

“I [Imam Nawawi] say: it is necessary to be wary of shaking hand with a handsome beardless person. Looking at this person is forbidden (we have already mentioned this in the chapter before this one), and our companions have said that everything that is forbidden to look at, touching it is [also] forbidden; more to the point, touching [it] is worse. Looking at a woman, if one wants to marry her, is however allowed. As for buying and selling and taking and giving, to touch a person is not allowed in any of those instances, and God knows best.”

Shaykh Ibn ‘Allan, commenting on the above:
“The Shaykh [Nawawi] branched off the forbiddance of touching what is forbidden to look at, as he states, and uses as a basis [for his judgement]. As for the opinion that [looking at a beautiful person’s face] is allowed, the Shaykh kept silent. In At-Tuhfah [“The Gift”] of Ibn Hajr, [he says that] some [scholars] have asserted that it is forbidden to touch a handsome person even so looking at her is allowed. Thus, an unmarriageable [male relative] of a woman cannot touch that woman whatsoever […]. However, if we profess the relied upon opinion [in the Shafi’i school] about the permissibility of touching the head, or something else outside the private parts, of an unmarriageable relative – as the author has transmitted the consensus upon in his commentary of Muslim [Hadith collection] – as long as there is no desire and no temptation, whether out of necessity or affection, it is necessary to mention those particularisations for handsome people.

(Ibn ‘Allan, Muhammad ‘Ali bin Muhammad, “Al-Futuhat Al-Rabbaniya ‘ala Al-Adhkar Al-Nawawiya”, Dar Al-Kutub AL-Ilmiyah, Beirut, 2004, Vol V, pp. 261-262)

1 commentaire:

Anonyme a dit…

Salaam Sidi! Hope u're well! Thank you for the entry, it's really interesting. Shaking hands between men & women is a pretty debatable issue that hasn't reached any final consensus. When we talk about a certain Hukm, we immediately refer to the Quran and Sunnah as the primary sources of Tashri'. So, the 1st question to be raised, does the Quran and Sunnah explicitly refer to this issue? The Quran and Sunnah talk only about "Lams"(touching)and we know that touching in the Quran and Sunnah is an unmbrella term for the different actions that precede a sexual intercourse. Also, the fact that the Prophet PBUH didn't shake hands with women is not an evidence as there came from him no explicit order for the Sahaba to do as he does. Hence,there's no textual proof to support this prohibition. There're just interpretations of those texts that are after all (with all my due respect to all the scholars) human experiences that have their strength and weakness and that can be subject to cultural and societal influences. Hence, the cultural context that a scholar belongs to can influence interpretation.
This is known even among the four Imams. It is known that a lot of Imam Malik's opinions are based on the Madani context. It is also known that when Imam Shafi'i went to Egypt, he changed a lot of the opinions he made when he was in Bagdad because of the cultural changes.
So, when we talk about shaking hands in a country like Morocco where it is more or less a common practice, there is a lot to take into consideration as it would be ticky to analyze it with the mindset of the Salaf. We first need to see if we're talking about sth that is totally Haraam with the Ijma' of the scholars, then it is 'Urf Fasid that doesn't conform with the Shari'ah. However, if we are talking about sth that is not agreed upon, then there's room for other perspectives and cultural changes to be taken into consideration.
These are just few thoughts i had in mind, i first need to read this book you mentioned. However, as long as there's no clear-cut textual proof, i can give myself the right to retain a degree of disagreement with such opinions! Thank you again and sorry for the long comment!