How should a suitor look at the girl he wishes to propose to? And what is permissible for him to see of her?

The Shaykh: Here are questions, he saysThe questioner : And he directed two questions:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
First: How should a suitor look at the girl he wishes to marry, before he is certain that she will be his wife? And what is permissible for him to see of her?

The Shaykh: The answer to this question is: He sees—briefly—he sees of her what a mahram sees... As for the suitor's look at his prospective wife: It is permissible for him to look at her as a mahram looks at her; that is, he looks at her as she is usually in her home with her family. And by this, we mean something that is not only the answer to this question:
Indeed, domestic life today among the members of one household is not in accordance with Islam at all; that is because the exposure that has spread in the streets among the sinful women who do not care about what Allah has forbidden; such tabarruj (display of adornment) hardly spares a Muslim home among its family and relatives. The girl sits next to her brother without the slightest embarrassment, and something of her thigh may be exposed, and something of her chest, and perhaps her back, and perhaps she wears something resembling a shirt that exposes her entire arm. All of this is haram (forbidden) and not permissible, as we have explained in a previous answer. So the woman must remain in her home covered, and she should not expose anything except a part of her arm, a part of her leg, her head, and a part of her neck, and nothing else. If the suitor looks at her while she is in this state, it is permissible. But naturally, if he sees her, one of her mahrams should be present with her, so that he does not remain alone with her. The purpose is only to look at her; due to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in many hadiths: , so this extent is what is permissible for the suitor to see of his prospective wife.
As for people, they are at two extremes. The majority of scholars today say: He does not look at her except at her face and her two hands, so they made the suitor like any strange man. The woman, as he said (peace and blessings be upon him): , while the previous hadith: allows looking at something more than the usual glance, and this is the stronger position (rajih). Added to this is the practice of the Companions, where one of them—and it was perhaps Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari—was seen watching a woman hanging her laundry on the roof of her house on a roof of her house, and some of his companions were with him. He said: Do you do this while you are a Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? So he mentioned this hadith to him. And naturally, when a woman hangs laundry, something of her must be exposed that is not usually exposed if she goes out to the street. More than that, a man came to a family in their tents and said: I have come to you as a suitor, and I want to look at your daughter. This was too much for her father, so the girl said to her father from behind the veil: If the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered him to do so, let him look. And without doubt, as we said, he will look at her while she is not in the street wearing a jilbab, but rather she is in her father's house. These are at the end of those who restrict and narrow, saying: It is not permissible to look except at her face and her two hands. And people went to the extreme and permitted the suitor to look at her even as her mother bore her!! So these are at one end, and those are at the other end, and the truth is in the middle between them, which is what we have mentioned, if Allah wills (Glorified and Exalted is He).