From Maintaining Family Ties: Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil, and Among That, Enjoining the Hijab
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The first question of Fatwa number ( 5781 )
Q1: I am a young man in my twenties, a student in one of the university colleges, and I am, praise be to Allah, committed to the teachings of Islam. However, I have an older brother who does not maintain the prayer. He is married, and the problem is that when he visits us at home—because his house is close to ours—he refuses for the men, i.e., his brothers, to eat alone and the rest of the women to eat alone, as well as my mother and my other brothers. So we were forced to sit with them for lunch, and I am compelled to do so because I have no other place to go, and I do not like to be alone. Knowing that my brother’s wife does not adhere to the Islamic hijab, I ask your eminence to guide me to the correct stance. If my brother’s wife adheres to covering her entire body and reveals her face and hands, is there no harm in sitting with her in the presence of her husband and my family, or is that not permissible? Knowing that I have read a lot about this issue in books of knowledge and heard different answers from scholars, I ask your eminence to point me to the truth, and may Allah guide you. Knowing that I am eager to marry and am looking for a wife so that I can distance myself from this atmosphere, what should I do to find a suitable wife? Should I be patient with this situation or not?
A1: Maintaining family ties is obligatory. You should maintain your family ties, and you should enjoin them to do what is right and forbid them from doing what is wrong in general, and you should strive to urge them
to the prayer, for it is the pillar of Islam and its main support. You should make it clear to them that abandoning it intentionally is disbelief, and you should disapprove of them exposing the 'awrah, which includes the face of a woman. It is forbidden for her to expose it in the presence of those who are not her mahrams. Her husband’s brother, her paternal cousin, her maternal cousin, her maternal uncle’s son, and her maternal aunt’s son are not her mahrams, so it is not permissible for her to expose her face in their presence. If they accept your advice, praise be to Allah; otherwise, distance yourself from them regarding the evil they commit, and cooperate with them in the good they do. And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Q1: I am a young man in my twenties, a student in one of the university colleges, and I am, praise be to Allah, committed to the teachings of Islam. However, I have an older brother who does not maintain the prayer. He is married, and the problem is that when he visits us at home—because his house is close to ours—he refuses for the men, i.e., his brothers, to eat alone and the rest of the women to eat alone, as well as my mother and my other brothers. So we were forced to sit with them for lunch, and I am compelled to do so because I have no other place to go, and I do not like to be alone. Knowing that my brother’s wife does not adhere to the Islamic hijab, I ask your eminence to guide me to the correct stance. If my brother’s wife adheres to covering her entire body and reveals her face and hands, is there no harm in sitting with her in the presence of her husband and my family, or is that not permissible? Knowing that I have read a lot about this issue in books of knowledge and heard different answers from scholars, I ask your eminence to point me to the truth, and may Allah guide you. Knowing that I am eager to marry and am looking for a wife so that I can distance myself from this atmosphere, what should I do to find a suitable wife? Should I be patient with this situation or not?
A1: Maintaining family ties is obligatory. You should maintain your family ties, and you should enjoin them to do what is right and forbid them from doing what is wrong in general, and you should strive to urge them
to the prayer, for it is the pillar of Islam and its main support. You should make it clear to them that abandoning it intentionally is disbelief, and you should disapprove of them exposing the 'awrah, which includes the face of a woman. It is forbidden for her to expose it in the presence of those who are not her mahrams. Her husband’s brother, her paternal cousin, her maternal cousin, her maternal uncle’s son, and her maternal aunt’s son are not her mahrams, so it is not permissible for her to expose her face in their presence. If they accept your advice, praise be to Allah; otherwise, distance yourself from them regarding the evil they commit, and cooperate with them in the good they do. And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.