Like*Note: this is a repost of an older blog entry which, for some reason, got deleted:
The Question:
“Is it allowable for me and women [who are eligible to marry] to shake hands sometimes?”
The Answer:
“The origin [of this ruling] is that a man is not allowed to shake hands with a woman [who he is eligible to marry and vice versa]. However, if she is an elderly woman then the school of Abi Hanifa [may Allah have mercy upon him] considered shaking hands with her permissible. Perhaps, the questioner will state that, “By not shaking a woman’s hand it could lead to hardship or shared ill feelings and so forth?” If not shaking hands will lead to the actuality of those fears, then it is allowable to shake hands as long as there is no evil feelings or affection for the woman [and vice versa]. And if the opposite holds true, then it is not allowed to do so.
Dr. Abdullah bin Bayyah
* Note, there was some abridgment done to this answer to make it clearer to the English audience. However, the meaning and answer of Dr. Bin Bayyah was not changed.
I disagree strongly with this answer. From what I know, the ulema had agreed (ijma’) that shaking the hand of a woman was never a necessity. There is an exception mentioned above (old women). The rest (i.e. this fatwa) is just bad fiqh. I can’t believe how you could do this, Suhaib, when there are brothers out there who have a really hard time sticking to their Deen without you making things much harder on them. This is exactly what ‘minority fiqh’ is about- changing the Deen of Allah. You’re a good brother, why are you making things harder for us? Now every time we don’t shake hands, non-Muslim colleagues will tell us ‘oh, but this guy says it isn’t from Islam’.
AS
WM
This outburst is uncalled for. We demand of you “dalil” for this “ijma” you invoke particularly because Shaikh Bin Bayyah (h) is a senior scholar, meaning he sits on the Ummah’s fiqh councils, and this implies he violated an ijma. Be careful in your approach and what you say bro, with love I say this. Follow other opinions, no problem, but relax, are you qualified in fatwa? You can express a discomfort but to claim you are qualified to judge good and bad fiqh demands a show of merit on your part.
Let us end this right here until credentials come to the table, humble the egoistical .
Look you mention yourself more than you do evidence or proof and you do it with such authority:
1.) I disagree
2.) I know
3.) I can’t believe
Fear Allah (swt) with knowledge and scholarship. If you do not agree, fine, but honestly we can say so what it is your opinion, until it is justified with evidence and a scholarship, it remains that it is without backing therefore it has little consequence. Enough with arguing about what the scholars say.
My advice to the Western brothers is to relax a bit, intellect is not a source of law, it is a tool in law.
Sincerely I say to you As-salamu alaikum WM,
Hold up! If you knew what this man has put into this deen you wouldn’t attack him like that. Minorty Fiqh is established. This is a fatwa bro take it or leave it. Many people attacked Shaikhul-Islam in his time and many still do for many of his fiqh/aqeedah rulings. That doesn’t take away from him being Shaikhul-Islam!
Assalamo’alaikom wa rahmatoALLAHi ta’ala wa barakatoh.
I start in the name of ALLAH. All praise is due to ALLAH, the most high, the most merciful. I ask Allah to bless us, to guide us, to cleanse our harts from any evil, and to put Iman in it, to put ta9wa in it, to put fear in it, to put patience in it, I ask Allah to remove any love that we have for this Dunia, and replace it with love for Akhira, to replace it with love for Allah Sobhanaho wa ta’ala the Most High and for our Beloved Prophet, may peace and blessings be upon him. I ask Allah to forgive our sins, big ones and small ones, and to grant us Jannato’lFirdaws. Allah’omma AMIN.
ALLAH the most high says in the Holy Quran ‘Wala ta9olona ma lam ta3lamon’ ‘Do not say what you do not know’
It is therefore very important for the sake of ALLAH azzawajall that before we (we as in none-scholars) make any statements such as ‘I know’ or ‘I don’t agree’ etc we need to some sort of dalil (evidence) to back up the statements that we make.
We all know who Sheikh Bin Bayyah is, may ALLAH grant him success in this life and in akhirah – before we make statements against senior scholars as such or people of knowledge and scholarship in general, before we utter anything – let’s think twise and thereby first and foremost fear the ONE that created us – ALLAH azzawajall the most HIGH, the most MERCIFUL.
If i’ve said anything to offend anyone, please forgive me. May ALLAH show us and lead us to the right path, to HIS path. May HE grant us jannah, may we see the beautiful face of our beloved Prophet (may ALLAH’s peace and blessings be upon him). May we forgive eachother for the sake of ALLAH, and may we love eachother for the sake of ALLAH. For as our Imam and our brother Suhaib (may ALLAH grant him success in this life and the next) said – on the day of judgement ALLAH azzawajall will say ‘Where are those who loved eachother for my sake’ So let everything that we do be for the sake of our Creator ALLAH.
And always remember, ALLAH ALONE grants tawfi9 (success)
Wa ALLAHu lmosta’an.
Wassalamo’alaikom wa rahmatoALLAHi taala wa barakatoh.
Salam alaikum
This issue has been discussed in more detail by Dr. Qaradawi with full references to adilla used, so I suggest someone refers to that first before making bold statements about the illegitimacy of this opinion.
Dr. Qaradawi goes much further than bin Bayyah, whose opinion is restricted above to the issue of duroori, which to be honest can anyone really ever see happening except for in truly exceptional circumstances?
Also refer to the discussion in fath-al-bari specifically around the hadith of women giving bay’a.
In the end this is an issue of ikhtilaf, even though the ikhtilaf on the issue is perhaps not well known.
I think it is also not good to mix this issue up with completely invalid opinions that are beginning to be aired that truly do make things more difficult for Muslims in the West, we need to be careful and identify those critical issues (eg. hijab for the sisters etc.) and not paint these true ikhtilafi issues with the same brush
Wasalam
sorry to be clear there is not a reference to duroori but rather haaja , as in the statement
“By not shaking a woman’s hand it could lead to hardship or shared ill feelings and so forth?”
which would still be an unlikely circumstance in all honesty, though perhaps not exceptional
As,
WM,
What is your scholalrly backround? You may disagree with an opinion but do not mock a scholar like that. Proviode your evidence of ijma akhi!
To be fair, I do wish that the fatwa had clarified the following -
“Perhaps, the questioner will state that, “By not shaking a woman’s hand it could lead to hardship or shared ill feelings and so forth?” If not shaking hands will lead to the actuality of those fears, then it is allowable to shake hands as long as there is no evil feelings or affection for the woman”
But that does not take away from the fact that this is an issue of ikhtilaf as explained well by Dr. Qaradawi, even if someone may wish for clarification of the thinking behind the reasoning mentioned above
Wasalam
Just to clarify, if Sh Bin Bayyah ever visited my house I would kiss his hands. I just don’t agree with his fatwa.
WM no issue, shukran, this is the environment we want to cultivate respect for the scholars and respectfully differing.
salaam
I personally accept the discussion being put for by sh QArdarwi on this subject . But the contention I have to sh bin bayyah’s explanation seems to justify commuting an impermissible act for the sake of not causing offense. We could justify a lot of impermissble acts by this justification .
Also is there any shara justification to permit abandoning a hukm for
The sake of not causig offense ? Similarly the haaja isn’t a justification of commuting a haram sh bin bayyah wrote a detailed discussion on the diference between haaja and dharoora and some use principles of dharoora on matters which are haaja.
Finally I also believe it’s an inacurate understanding of he reality particularly living in the west.