Her finance wants to look at her neck and legs
16-6-2004 | IslamWeb
Question:
I am a 23 year old girl. I have a finance who wants to look at my neck and legs as Omar (radiy Allahu Anhu) did. Is it correct or not?
Answer:
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
If a man has made his mind to marry a certain woman then it is desirable for him to look at her before completing his marriage contract. The Prophet Muhammad (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) says:"If one of you proposes to marry a woman and is able to look at what from her could drive him to marry her, he can do so". [Ahmad & Abu Dawood].
Jabir (
) narrated: "… Then I made a proposal to a girl from Bani Salama and I used to hide (in a place from where I could see her) until I saw from her what pushed me to get married to her".
People of knowledge are of the opinion that the looking at the intended girl should be carried out before proposing to marry her to avoid any discomfort that may be caused to her if he does not marry her for not being attractive or any other reason. If one cannot look at her by himself then he can send a reliable woman to look at her and pass the information to him. Anas(Radiya Allahu Anhu) reported that "The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) sent Umm Sulaim to look at a woman and ordered, “look at her hamstrings and smell her front teeth”.[Ahmad,Al-Tabrani and Al-Hakim who graded it as sound]
The people of knowledge have different opinions concerning the limits of looking at a proposed girl. The majority is of the opinion that one is allowed to look at her face and palms only. The Hanbali
Therefore, it is better to permit him to look at your face and palms and only the extent of necessity. If the purpose has been achieved then repeating the act of looking is not permitted.
Allah knows best.