Is it permissible to greet female relatives without shaking hands?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Regarding handshaking, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). I mean, he did not shake hands with a woman in any place. Some of the young men...
The Shaykh : I am a stranger.
The questioner : We did not hold hands. Some of the young men do not distinguish between handshaking and the salam, O Shaykh. And so you find that they do not speak to or greet their relatives who are not mahram (relatives one may not marry), saying they cite this hadith as evidence. I mean, they do not distinguish between this and that.
The Shaykh : No, that is not correct.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : One may greet acquaintances; there is nothing wrong with that. But as for handshaking, one does not shake hands without a handshake.
The Shaykh : I am a stranger.
The questioner : We did not hold hands. Some of the young men do not distinguish between handshaking and the salam, O Shaykh. And so you find that they do not speak to or greet their relatives who are not mahram (relatives one may not marry), saying they cite this hadith as evidence. I mean, they do not distinguish between this and that.
The Shaykh : No, that is not correct.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : One may greet acquaintances; there is nothing wrong with that. But as for handshaking, one does not shake hands without a handshake.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 3935 - 4600 هل يجوز السلام على النساء القريبات بدون مصافحة؟ ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.