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What is the ruling on a woman shaking hands with a non-mahram man, and is the sin of shaking hands considered equivalent to the sin of adultery?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Al-Bukhari narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Indeed, Allah has decreed for the son of Adam his share of zina (unlawful sexual intercourse), and he will inevitably attain it. The zina of the eyes is looking, the zina of the tongue is speaking, and the soul wishes and desires, and the private parts either confirm or deny all of that." These things mentioned were made by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as preludes to zina, and the Sharia has forbidden them because means take the ruling of their ends, and they lead to zina. The Holy Quran has confirmed this by saying: (And do not approach zina. Indeed, it is ever an indecency and is evil as a way.) [Quran 17:32]. Sins do not transform into acts of obedience by intention, because intention has no place in forbidden acts. Intention does not affect changing an act from being injustice and aggression, and whoever intends good through evil, contrary to the Sharia, that is another evil. Permissible actions in Sharia are three: obligatory, recommended, and permissible. The forbidden and the disliked cannot be used to draw closer to Allah Almighty. Al-Harith al-Muhasibi said: "There is no sincerity in what is forbidden or disliked."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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