Addendum to the Shaykh's answer regarding the question: If a wife is in the same house as her husband's two brothers, but not in the same room!

The Shaykh : Repeat your question, repeat your question?
The student : Let me give an example: a man and his wife are in the house with two brothers. I am not saying they are in the same sitting room. The in-laws are like death. Rather, one might be alone in the house, meaning in the whole house. This one might be in a room, this one in the kitchen, this one...

The Shaykh : You mean the brothers-in-law, the ones they call the *salf*?
The student : Yes, her *salf*.
Another student: The *salf*, yes.

The Shaykh : Meaning strangers, not *mahram* relatives.
The student: Yes.
Another student: I mean that there are two of them.

The Shaykh : I understand.
The student : Yes, ah, not *mahram* relatives, yes.

The Shaykh : You mean they are not the wife's brothers, right?
The student : No, they are his brothers.

The Shaykh : Okay, is your question whether this is permissible? And is it considered *khalwah* (seclusion) or not?
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : The well-known ruling, may Allah reward you, is that *khalwah*, as he (peace be upon him) said: . And we understand from this hadith and similar ones that the prohibition of this *khalwah* is from the perspective of blocking the means to harm. So when such a question is raised, we cannot stop at the apparent meaning of the hadith, which is that *khalwah* occurs with a woman and one man who is a stranger to her, and the third is Satan. The apparent text indicates that the situation you are asking about is not *khalwah*, because there are two men and a woman, making three, and Satan has left in the apparent text. But I say: we cannot stop at the apparent meaning of this hadith in terms of understanding the rules and principles of the Shari'ah. If we believe that this *khalwah* which the Wise Lawgiver prohibited is from the perspective of blocking the means to harm, then now if we increase the number of non-*mahram* relatives, for example from two brothers to three, four, or five, the more the number increases, the more the suspicion of *khalwah* decreases, and the fewer the number, the stronger the suspicion becomes. So now, regarding this question, the situation differs between the brothers being known for knowledge, righteousness, and piety on one hand, and also age should be considered: whether they are young, middle-aged, or old. All these matters should be considered when we want to say: this is not permissible. It is not *khalwah*, but it is not permissible, because *khalwah* was prohibited from the perspective of blocking the means to harm, and here the means is not blocked by the presence of such people, as long as the characteristics that remove the effect of *khalwah* are not present. So I said, for example, two young men, and there is a difference between them being younger than you and older than you, and a difference between them being older than you and you having married before them, may Allah will it, and they have not yet married. The desire for lust here means the suspicion is present, and so on. All these circumstances must be considered to say: it is prohibited or not prohibited. I hope I have answered you.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh: All right.