…serious question here so not a troll thread believe me. might seem like a crazy question but i know that muslims believe in modesty and public displays of affection are a big no no
I just want to know the background of it being improper for a nonmuslim to hug or show open affection towards a muslim friend/acquintance. i saw a thread in another forum http://www.paklinks.com/gs/life-and-…n-muslims.html ]about it so i just want to know the amount of truth in it
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
I am just assuming that we are talking about same sex here cause iotherwise it does not matter if the party is muslim or non.
In worldly matters, its perfectly all right to deal with and have friendship with non-Muslims. One thing that can make it even better is to have the intentions of shoing a non Muslim, what a good Muslim should look like. One you meet someone with such intention, you are meeting that person with the intention of Tableegh and then its not only OK, its sawaab.
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
so hugging a nonmuslim should only have the end result of a revert to islam? hugging just to show compassion is not something that a nonmuslim should do to a muslim b/c it's offensive and not taken in a good way so a female nonmuslim hugging a male muslim just in friendship and to show compassion is haraam to the extreme? ok i seriously did not even think in such a way until i read that thread.
in terms the nonmuslim reverting to islam, if the muslim knows that that is definitely not going to happen then, i'm guessing no hug for the nonmuslim?
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
yeh.. muslims arent supposed to hug, but they are also supposed to grow beards and wear hijabs. 90% of muslims arent all that into these rituals. if they are your friends, you already know what the boundaries on personal contact is. why is this even an issue?
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
who knew hugging is not something that was allowed, well ok maybe you knew but it never occurred to me before that hugging out of friendship was wrong in any way. oh come on how many nonmuslims know that that is not allowed in any way. sometimes if a muslim does not want to be hugged or cannot out of religious reasons, they might not say it outright so it's not an issue, i just wanted to make sure that it was something that was unislamic and the reason behind. alright so it's not wanted.
no protest or issue has been raised,i was only seeking info
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
I have hugged my non Muslim friends - same sex !
I dont even hug my muslim female friends - let alone non- muslims
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
Hmmmm...I didn't know that....I always hug my close friends...and all my Muslim friends hug me (male/female), they always give me a huge bear hug...like Queer said, you know where the bounderies are with your friends..
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
huh, where does it say not to hug people??? or it can only be under some pretense of preaching???
the only limiting factor is gender, not religion.
kahan kahan say uth kar aa jatay hain..
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
I have many work contacts who are non Muslims and some of them are elderly ladies (around my mother's age) and whenever they meet me they hug me . They are one of the finest people I have known and I don't find anything wrong with hugging a non Muslim person of same gender.
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
Hugging a na-mehram person of the opposite sex = not allowed. (If one wants to stay within Islamic boundaries.)
Hugging person of same sex = never heard of any restriction on this.
^That's what the texts say.
What a Muslim ultimately does is according to his or her preference or sense of right/wrong.
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
Well spoken Bhai. 
I have never had a problem hugging my comrades even after several hours of battering away at each other…:faris: :faris: we still hug to show that we have no hard feelings. 
As long as it’s between members of the same sex in a non sexual way then thats fine.
In my elders times close physical contact was reserved only for the best of friends… except on Eid day when everyone around is a friend…
Surely if hugging was haraam why did Nabi Kareem Salalho Alyhi Wassalam hug many Kafirs who were his good friends.
There are thousands of historical annecdotes of Muslims high and low that showed mutual respect even for enemies… Though no Historical proof exists that figures like Saladin Ayubi and Richard Cour De Lion ever met the attitudes of the period show that there was a deep understanding between the two.
Even recently if you go to the Indo Pak border and meet with some of the people there you will see many Pakistani’s hugging Indians and vice versa.
This is not so much as a religous thing as it is a human aspect of friendship, respect and general gestures of goodwill.
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
whats next, muslims cannot shake hand with non-muslim???
I know it is practice of Brahmans that if they talk, shake-hand or even touch anything muslims used, their Faith can be ruined....
Islam has nothing of this sort
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
Peace Nisha25
What you have observed is the behaviour of Muslims towards the non-mahram it has nothing to do with them being non-muslim. Degrees of shyness start at virtually nothing from dancing with namahram, to kissing namahram, hugging namahram, holding hands with namahram, stary-eyed gazing of namahram and then lowering the gaze with namahram.
Now in this culture shaking hands is considered protocol and to avoid shaking hands is considered rude ... so the connotation of shaking hands in a formal environment with a non-mahram is quite different from holding hands in a friendly way with a non-mahram. The hugging thing comes from the extension of habits that we normally have with close family members to the circle of friends. This is strictly a unIslamic practice, but it is very much a cultural one now. The most touchy feely people I have seen are the Western desis - probably a result of the Bollywood films.
Having said that it is unIslamic it does not mean that it carries with it a sinister punishment. These things that we are talking about really come down to brilliance of character. That those who are shy yet decent and still nice to their friends are considered Islamically speaking - "pious". Pious people will avoid getting so close to non-mahram that they can be called friends. For those who say that there is nothing wrong with this ... need to ask themselves how they can lower their gazes yet still hug non-mahrams, of course lowering of the gaze is the mark of shyness and feeling free to do more is not. This is not to say that we cannot talk to non-mahram. Pateints with their doctors/nurses, teachers, colleagues, seeking marriage partners, giving dawah are acceptable situations to engage with non-mahrams.
Some people interpret lowering of the gaze to mean looking away from them completely - this can be misread as rudeness. The better interpretation of "lowering the gaze" is "lowering the intensity of the gaze" such that one looks without emotionally engaging with the other.
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
don't think hugging was promoted by bollywood really
nondesis don't watch bollywood but they hug men and women, i grew up in that culture not the bollywood culture.
i just don't want to offend anybody if i hug a muslim male acquintance. i can see why hugging might be too invasive though if we arent' very close and he might be too shy to say anything about it.
thanks psyah for explaining it in an unbiased way though.
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
The root of the Islamic aversion from hugging non-mahrams is the fact that we tend to be very cautious with giving the wrong message, to those we interact with, the onlookers and even to ourselves. Often physical contact can breed emotions that can lead towards mistakes, embarrasing moments and even sinful behaviour. It is a generic principle in Islam that it is better to avoid those things that lead to sin as well as the sin itself.
If you understand that even cousins are non-mahrams for us!
This is all done to protect the image and the reputation of people, which is given higher importance than people showing their brotherly or sisterly love to one another. Ask some people who study psychology and they will tell you that there can never be a completely plutonic relationship between two heterosexual friends of different genders. It may be that the reason why they are friends is because there might be that element of attraction present.
Hope this helps further ...
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
Interesting :)
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
Where the heck did I say that only hug if you want to preach?
Do you guys even read the reply or jump on people after the very first sentence.
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
How the heck did u come to that conclusion??? 
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
I am just assuming that we are talking about same sex here cause iotherwise it does not matter if the party is muslim or non.
In worldly matters, its perfectly all right to deal with and have friendship with non-Muslims. One thing that can make it even better is to have the intentions of shoing a non Muslim, what a good Muslim should look like. One you meet someone with such intention, you are meeting that person with the intention of Tableegh and then its not only OK, its sawaab.
ok tlk bhai maybe i misunderstood here but i thought you were talking about the topic of a hug, b/c in terms of friendship, i already have muslim friends/acquintances in the nonvirtual world. i was only inquiring about whether it would be offensive when i had hugged a male muslim acquintance/friend. but i got confused when you said the bold part. i think that's why i assumed what i assumed. so hugging a nonmuslim of the opposite sex is not something that a muslim is averse to?
anyways, my whole intention was to understand so i don't unintentionally offend anybody but i think psyah bhai explained it pretty well. i got my answer. thanks
re: Nonmuslims hugging Muslims [Eating with Muslim]
You missed this part Nisha. What I meant that although for worldly matters it does not matter if you are friends with non Muslims or not but if you want some religious gratification, have the intention of showing that person what a 'good muslim' should be. Just that intention would come under the concept of Tableegh (at least a passive one) and you may get some extra points.
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One thing that can make it even better is to have the intentions of shoing a non Muslim, what a good Muslim should look like.
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