A woman pointing at a non-Mahram man

19-3-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

Is a woman allowed to point her finger towards a ghair mehram (steward) just to calm her small kid down or sooth him who is crying. Please note that this act happens when the steward is approaching towards them, meaning he can also notice this act when it happens. Her husband is also sitting besides her and they are travelling in an aircraft. Or you can put it this way, if the woman claims that her intention was not bad and it just happened that she pointed her finger towards the steward just to clam her kid down, does her act become permissible under Islam. If not, how big is this sin and how can she be free of it !! Please suggest,jzk

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

Islamically, there is nothing wrong with this act because the presumption is that all things are permissible unless proven otherwise. However, a woman should be careful in such cases, so she should avoid such an act if she fears that it would be misunderstood, for example if some people would think bad of her, or if it would cause her husband to be jealous over her or it would cause problems between her and him.

In any case, it should be noted that some jealousy is praiseworthy and some is dispraised as we have explained in Fatwa 237010.

Allaah Knows best.