The ruling on an elder embracing an elder, whether men embracing men or women embracing women.

The Shaykh : But before entering this new chapter, I promised that we must speak about an elder embracing an elder. Here is a chapter, as you heard, regarding the permissibility of an elder embracing a younger person. So, is it prescribed for an elder to embrace an elder? And of course, the discussion now is about embracing within the same gender, as for a man embracing a woman, that is not applicable if she is a stranger to him and not his wife. So, is it permissible for a man, when he shakes hands with another man, to embrace him? Likewise, is it permissible for a woman, when she meets another woman, shakes her hand, and greets her, to embrace her? The answer is: No, in both cases. It is not among the etiquettes of Islam for a man to embrace a man, nor for a woman to embrace a woman. Embracing was reported from some of the Companions in a specific situation, which is meeting after a journey. If a person was traveling and returned after a long time and met a dear friend, he would embrace him. But other than in the case of travel, there is no etiquette regarding the manners of meeting between a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, other than shaking hands. And it was reported in a hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him): أن رجلًا سأل رسول الله - صلى الله عليه وسلم - قال : يا رسول الله ، أحدنا يلقى أخاه أفيعانقه ؟ قال : لا . قال : أفيلتزمه ؟ قال : لا . قال : أفيقبِّله ؟ قال : لا . قال : أفينحني له ؟ قال : لا . قال : أفيصافحه ؟ قال : نعم A man asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), saying: "O Messenger of Allah, when one of us meets his brother, should he embrace him?" He said: "No." He said: "Should he hold him tightly?" He said: "No." He said: "Should he kiss him?" He said: "No." He said: "Should he bow to him?" He said: "No." He said: "Should he shake his hand?" He said: "Yes.".
This is the etiquette when a man meets a man and a woman meets a woman. So, there is no embracing between the two groups at all. As we said, embracing was established among the Companions during travel, and I do not know if this ruling extends from men to women, because we find the hadith I mentioned earlier, the hadith of Anas: "So we would embrace one another?" He said: This is a general text. So when we found that the Companions embraced one another, we said that the Companions must have taken a dispensation from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in this matter. But I have not found, to my knowledge, that women embraced one another, even after travel. Therefore, I recommend limiting it to shaking hands only for women, whether in travel or not. As for men, that dispensation came from the Companions that they used to embrace one another when meeting after travel. If this is the ruling on embracing, then the ruling on kissing, which is the chapter we are now going to read, and the report that came under it, is understood a fortiori.