Seclusion with Women: (No man is to be alone with a woman except that Satan is the third among them)

The Shaykh : And I say this regardless of what was raised in the question regarding the possibility of exposure, and this actually happens. That employee or that tenant may be exposed to the secretary, and he may be alone with her. In that case, he has fallen into another of the means that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) closed the door to by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith narrated by Abu 'Abdullah al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak and others from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: And this is known to you: what is the intended meaning of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): That is, except that Satan is present with his power and his whispering, so that he casts into the heart of each of those who are alone, the man and the woman, to reconcile them so that he gathers them upon disobedience. For this reason, it is not permissible for one who believes in Allah and the Last Day to take a secretary or to be content with having a woman with him in his job. I distinguished between the first and the second; I distinguished between the doctor, for example, who is free and hires this secretary, and the employee to whom the female employee is imposed. There is no doubt and no ambiguity that there is a difference between the two matters. The first brought the evil upon himself with his own hand. The second had it imposed upon him. Does he still have an excuse? The answer is no. Because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) forbade us from seeking our provision through forbidden paths. He said (peace and blessings be upon him) in the authentic hadith: So it is forbidden for you, O employee, let alone O doctor or O merchant, it is forbidden for you to have a woman next to you who is not a mahram to you. And He said (Blessed and Exalted is He), a verse in many halls with which the walls are adorned: Unfortunately, most Muslims today have made the Qur'an in two parts; they have made the Qur'an for adornment, that is, for blessing or similar unlegislated matters. They adorn their walls with the noble verses, and then their hearts are empty of them; they will not be affected by those verses with which they adorned their walls. So this verse to its end. Unfortunately, most Muslims who seek provision through unlegislated paths, this is not established or settled in their hearts, but rather it is either on their tongues or on their walls. For this reason, we say: if there is no seclusion, it is forbidden, and if there is seclusion, it is more strictly forbidden. I wanted to say, in conclusion of this speech, after I have presented to you the noble verse and these two explicit authentic hadiths, that it is not permissible for a Muslim to take a secretary or to be content with having a female employee in his job. I wanted to say: Shawqi, the poet of Egypt, summarized this topic with very beautiful poetry, and he said:
“A glance, then a smile, then a greeting, then conversation, then an appointment, then a meeting.”
This poetry was taken from that hadith, and no one can deny this at all. As I said earlier, no one can say, "I protect myself." Whoever claims that is a deluded person, and that is part of Satan's deception. A Muslim cannot submit to Satan's deception in thought. He may submit to Satan's deception in action, in which case he says, "Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we return," and he repents to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). But as for claiming that he is protected from being affected by a foreign woman through her look, or her smile, or her voice, or her tone, we say: We seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant. This is all I have as an answer to that question.