The Chapter on Seeking Permission and Its Etiquette: Allah the Exalted said: “O you who believe! Do not enter houses other than your own until you seek permission and greet their inhabitants”

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
He (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “The Chapter on Seeking Permission and Its Etiquette. Allah the Exalted said:

O you who have believed, do not enter houses other than your own houses until you ascertain welcome and greet their inhabitants

يا أيها الذين آمنوا لا تدخلوا بيوتًا غير بيوتكم حتى تستأنسوا وتسلموا على أهلها

[An-Nur 24:27]

And He the Exalted said:

And when the children among you reach puberty, let them ask permission [at all times] as those before them have done

وإذا بلغ الأطفال منكم الحلم فليستأذنوا كما استأذن الذين من قبلهم

[An-Nur 24:59]

Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Narrated Abu Sa'eed: "Abu Musa sought permission to enter upon 'Umar. He said: 'As-Salamu 'Alaykum (Peace be upon you). May I enter?' 'Umar said: 'Once.' Then he was silent for some time. Then he said: 'As-Salamu 'Alaykum (Peace be upon you). May I enter?' 'Umar said: Twice.' Then he was silent for some time. Then he said: 'As-salamu 'Alaykum (Peace be upon you). May I enter?' 'Umar said: 'Three times.' Then he (Abu Musa) left. 'Umar said to the gate-keeper: 'What did he do?' He replied: 'He left." He said: 'Bring him to me.' So when he came, 'Umar said to him: 'What is this that you have done?' He said: 'The Sunnah.' He said: 'The Sunnah? By Allah! You had better bring me proof or a witness to clarify this, or I will do this or that to you.'" He said "So he came to us while we were sitting with Ansar. He said: 'O People of the Ansar! Are you not the most knowledgeable people about the Ahadith of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)? Did the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) not say: "Seeking permission is to be done three time. Either you are permitted, or other wise leave?" The people began joking. Abu Sa'eed said: "Then I raised my head toward him and said: "Whatever punishment you are afflicted with because of this, then I shall be your partner in it." So he went to 'Umar to inform him him about it, and 'Umar said: "I did not know about about this."

الاستئذان ثلاث فإن أذن لك وإلا فارجع

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2690Sahih (Darussalam)

Agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim. And Sahl ibn Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Verily! The order of taking permission to enter has been enjoined because of that sight

إنما جعل الاستئذان من أجل البصر

Sahih al-Bukhari 6241

Agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim. And Rabi' ibn Huraysh (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: A man from Banu Amir sought permission to enter upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was in a house, and he said: “May I enter?” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to his servant:

Go out to this (man) and teach him how to ask permission to enter the house, and say to him: "Say : Peace be upon you. May I enter?"

اخرج إلى هذا فعلمه الاستئذان فقل له قل السلام عليكم أأدخل

Sunan Abi Dawud 5177Sahih (Al-Albani)

Abu Dawud narrated it with a sound chain. And Kulaydah ibn al-Hanbal (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and entered upon him without greeting him. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Go back and say: As-Salamu Alaykum, may I enter?

ارجع فقل السلام عليكم أأدخل

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2710Hasan (Darussalam)

Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi narrated it, and al-Tirmidhi said: It is a good hadith”.

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his book *Riyad al-Saliheen*: “The Chapter on Seeking Permission and Its Etiquette”. Seeking permission means asking for leave; you ask the owner of the house to allow you to enter. If he gives you permission, enter; if he does not give you permission, do not enter, even if he explicitly tells you to return, then return. As Allah the Exalted said: And you, as the owner of the house, should not be shy to say “return.” And you, as the one seeking permission, should not be distressed if he tells you to return, because a person may be in need or may not be ready to receive people, so you cannot force him or put him in an awkward position. And if you return after he has told you to return, then Allah says: meaning: what is purer for your hearts and more pure. The author (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned two verses from the Book of Allah. The first verse has already been discussed, and it is His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He: And we said that the meaning of *istansan* (seeking permission) is that you seek permission, or that you know with certainty that the owner is ready for entry, meaning ready for your entry. Among the ways this happens is if a person makes an appointment with you and says to you, for example, “Come to me after the midday prayer.” If you find the door open, that is permission. So when you come, there is no need to seek permission because the owner of the house told you that if he finds you at that time, and if you find the door open, that is permission. So there is no difference between permission being given in advance or later, as long as you know that the man did not open his door except for you to enter, and there is an appointment between you and him, then enter. However, there is no harm, and indeed it is better without a doubt, to greet upon entry, even if the only benefit is that you obtain the reward of the greeting and the reward of the supplication from your brother when he says “upon you be peace.” As for the second verse, it is His saying, the Exalted: When they reach puberty, meaning when they reach the age of emission, but it is referred to as puberty, because it is the norm that a person does not emit semen initially except through wet dreams, even though some people reach puberty without wet dreams, but the norm is that they have wet dreams. So when a child reaches puberty, he does not enter the house except by seeking permission, whereas before that, his matter is easy. But there are three times when seeking permission is necessary: The first is: The second is: And the third is: Seeking permission is necessary in these times, even for young children, because a person may be preparing for sleep in these three times and wearing clothes that he does not like anyone to see him in. Therefore, seeking permission is necessary in these three hours. As for looking at women, the looking of a child is not restricted by puberty, but it is restricted by whether it is known that the child looks at women with desire. If it is known, even if he is only ten years old, it is obligatory for the woman to veil herself from him, because Allah said: meaning: their wives, until He said: The scholars said: those who have not shown themselves to the private parts of women, meaning they have no interest in women and women do not cross their minds. Some children, from the time they reach ten years old, look at women in a way that makes you feel they are looking with desire. And this varies, as I told you; this child may sit with a group whose conversation is mostly about women, so his sexual desire develops from the beginning. Or he may be with a group whose only concern is lessons and memorizing the Qur'an and the like, and this thing does not cross their minds, so this instinct does not develop in him. In any case, if we know that the child sees the private parts of women and talks about women, and we observe his looks as the look of a desiring person, then it is obligatory for the woman to veil herself from him, even if he is only ten years old. Although the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) say that a person who has reached ten years old can have children; meaning a father of eleven years old—do not be surprised if he has a child. If he marries and has intercourse with his wife, do not be surprised. It is mentioned that there was only eleven years between 'Amr ibn al-'As and his son 'Abdullah, meaning his father was ten years older than him, and this is possible. And al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “I saw a grandmother who was twenty-one years old”, and she was a grandmother. We have a mother who is twenty-one and has not married until now, but this grandmother had a daughter, and her daughter had a child, and she was twenty-one years old. Because a woman can reach puberty at nine years old, meaning she can menstruate at nine years old. If we assume she married at nine years old, meaning in her tenth year, and became pregnant in the first year and gave birth to a daughter, and then when the daughter reached nine years old, she married in her tenth year, how much does that mean? Twenty years, and she has a child at twenty-one. And al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) is truthful and says: “I saw a grandmother who was twenty-one years old”. And the conclusion is that when a child reaches puberty, he does not enter the house except by seeking permission, and if he sees the private parts of women and starts talking about them and looking at them with desire, then it is obligatory for the woman to veil herself from him, even if he has only reached ten years old. And Allah grants success.