What Are the Limits of Gender Interaction in Business Life?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

How should business life look in terms of gender interaction?

Does it mean that one keeps a serious face (and not smiling)? Is it improper if one’s disposition is to use (modest subtle) humor even in business-like interactions?

Where is the balance in this?

Answer

It is helpful in interaction with the opposite sex to distinguish between social courtesy and unnecessary socializing. The former, when there is need and benefit, is fine; it is the latter that is avoided.

And Allah alone gives success.

[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.