The Ruling on Looking at a Prospective Bride and the Conditions Thereof

Question:
If the husband requests to meet the woman without seclusion, what is the evidence for that? And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Every woman is an awrah (part of the body that must be covered)." I do not know if...?

Answer:
There is no harm in this. It is an awrah, but the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) made an exception for the suitor. If he proposes and wishes to look, there is no harm. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: If he can, let him do so. If he is able to look, and he does not look without her knowledge, there is no harm. Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) was proposed to a woman from the Ansar whom he had not seen. He said, "So I kept following the palm tree, hoping to see her, until he saw of her what pleased him, and he married her."
The point is that if it is possible for him to see her, he may do so. He may do so by being present in her family's house, and they are pleased with that, or the like of that. And if it is possible for her father or her brother to host him at their place, and they bring her to him so he sees her without seclusion, in the presence of her father or her brother or her mother or the like of that, there is no harm. This is a matter in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) granted a dispensation and mercy.