Mixed-sex conversation: Proofs?

 

Question: The Reliance, r32.6, quotes from Nahlawi's "al-Durar al-Mubaha" the ruling in the Hanafi school about speaking without need to a member of the opposite sex. I was asked about the legal/textual basis for this ruling - do you know the evidence (beyond what the Reliance gives), or where exactly the evidence for this is recorded in depth? As far as you know, what is the range of ikhtilaf among the madhahib on this ruling?

Walaikum assalam,

The textual basis is the Prophetic hadith on the zina of the limbs narrated from Ibn Mas`ud by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad with a strong chain: "The two eyes commit zina, the two hands commit zina, the two feet commit zina, and the genitals commit zina." Another wording with a passable chain in the Musnad includes the tongue and specifies in the end: "Then the genitals actualize it or belly it." There is no difference, as far as I know, in the offensiveness of unnecessary mixed conversation between young people among the Schools.

A bit of lecturing is in order to complete Nasiha insha Allah.

Many, especially in the West, are immersed to their necks in the gravest harams that cause danger to their Religion, ignorant of much of the obligatory knowledge that pertain to the Pillars not to mention their daily transactions, reveling in unislamic behavior at every turn, from which they are in many cases blinded because of their delusion that Islam consists in their ethnic culture and/or their going to the mosque, or in flaying their arms for a couple of hours at some demonstration, or - worse - their own DIY construction of what goes and what not without realizing they have already adopted atheism (wal-`iyadhu billah) or a freethinking barely different; under fire in their beliefs, practices, lifestyles, education (elementary, middle, and higher), and in their very thoughts, most if not all cases categorically necessitating their leaving the abode of unbelief for the abode of belief. Focusing on rulings that pertain to manners or preferability avails nothing until the basics of categorical obligation and prohibition are first learnt and practiced. Even less does it matter to know proofs or fiqh differences. In the midst of a raging fire or a whirlpool about to drown, one should focus on saving his soul, not on snippets of useless learning.

Hajj Gibril