What Is the Ruling, with Respect to Looking, When Men and Women Are Present in the — Jurisprudential Answers — Miscellaneous Issues, Vol. 1

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

Al-Shara'i al-Islam, volume 3, states: 'As for an incidental, unintended look resulting from men and women being present in one place, there is no problem with it. A man must not intentionally look at a non-mahram woman at all except for necessity. He may look at her face and hands once, although it is disliked, and he may not repeat the look. The same ruling applies to a woman. Looking is permissible when necessary, such as when a person needs to testify concerning her, in which case he limits his looking to what he needs to know, or like a doctor when a woman needs him for treatment. As for an incidental, unintended look resulting from men and women being present in one place, there is no problem with it.' The expression 'incidental' here means an unintended look. There is no difference whether the men and women are together for work in a factory or office, are together in a house, or encounter one another in the street, and no difference whether they are complete strangers or related in some way, such as a man encountering his brother's wife.