Fatwa No. 30

Question:

Is it permissible to eat with one’s suitor at home at the same table, in the presence of a maḥram, while fully adhering to proper Islamic attire?

Answer:

Al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabb al-ʿālamīn. To proceed:

I hope that if a maḥram is present, dignity and modesty are maintained, and conversation is kept within proper bounds (bi-l-maʿrūf) — there is no objection to this.

Those scholars who hold the covering of the face to be obligatory would prohibit this — for eating together necessarily requires uncovering the face. However, uncovering the face is not in fact an absolute requirement, as many women who wear the niqāb eat from behind it.

For greater adherence to what is lawful, the engaged woman (al-makhṭūbah) should not sit directly beside her suitor, but rather beside her maḥram. Nor should there be any relaxation of propriety or lowering of dignity — such as her placing food into his mouth, or his placing food into hers — for this is appropriate only between spouses. The Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم) said in an

authenticated narration: “You will not spend anything seeking thereby the Face of Allah except that you will be rewarded for it — even the morsel of food you place in your wife’s mouth.” (1)

And Allah Most High knows best.

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Footnotes (Takhrīj):

(1) Muttafaq ʿalayh — recorded by al-Bukhārī in Kitāb al-Waṣāyā, chapter “That He Leave His Heirs Well-Off Is Better Than That They Go Begging,” ḥadīth no. 2742; and by Muslim in Kitāb al-Waṣiyyah, chapter “The Bequest of One Third,” ḥadīth no. 1628 — on the authority of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ (may Allah be pleased with him).