Men Chatting with Women on the Internet

28-12-2002 | IslamWeb

Question:

Is it allowed in Islamic Sharee’ah that women or men can chat on net with the masculine gender for female or feminine gender for males. Kindly give reply in detail with Hadeeth reference.
Thanks.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is reported in Saheeh Al-Bukhari that the Prophet said: “There are two blessings in which many people incur loss: health and free time.” [Al-Bukhari]

So, time is a grace from Allah. Believers who invest it in good deeds will be proud of that on the Day of Judgment. Conversely, those who spent it in bad deeds or in useless acts will get great remorse for neglecting it.

On the other hand, the Internet is full of sites that can instruct the person and educate him, helping him to learn about religious matters as well as worldly affairs.

As for exchanging information between males, it is lawful if the information they exchange is lawful itself. But it is dislikable that they spend much time in this act as this can cause negligence of some obligations, like the prayer; if this happens, then it becomes unlawful.

However, it is unlawful that men participate in these chats making belief that they were women or the contrary. In fact, this is a major sin.

Ibn ‘Abbaas narrated that “the Prophet cursed men who assimilate themselves to women and women who assimilate themselves to men.”

This curse is on people who act like the opposite sex, in this case through sound exchange. But if it is through writing, it is a lie and lying is a major sin.

Allah knows best.