 A questioner asked, I'm a female nurse working for the NHS. Sometimes I have to provide care for men and even give them injections. Please explain to me in detail if I'm doing anything wrong. الحمد لله رب العالمين له الحمد الحسن والثناء الجميل واشدوا الله إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له يقول الحق وهو يهدي السبيل واشدوا أن محمد العبد ورسوله صلى الله عليه وعلى آله واصحابه واتابعين لهم بحسان إلى يوم الدين أما بعد In response to your question the asal is free mixing between men and women is prohibitive and it's not allowed in the sharia women are commanded and informed to cover themselves up there are many extensive evidences on that but there are situations where there are exceptions where either necessity or need or even a benefit, a sharia benefit it will be allowed for the women to come into contact with men and maybe even free mix or even touch the opposite gender is permissible and the situations that it could be permissible is the question that was asked for medical reasons that could be a need for it and the evidence for that is Imam al-Bukhari narrated on the authority of Al-Rubay' bint Muawwidin that she said Al-Rubay' bint Muawwidin, female companion she said we would give water to the soldiers and we would also we would also work on the wounded men all the surgery on them to stop the blood so that we would also work on the wounded men all the surgery on them to stop the blood so that means they would come into contact with the opposite gender and that they would also touch the opposite gender Bukhari and Muslim both narrated from the hadith of Anas, may Allah be pleased with him that Anas bin Malik and he said I saw our mother Aisha may Allah be pleased with her the wife of the prophet and Umul Suleim, the mother of Anas bin Malik he said may Allah be pleased with him she said they both will fill up with their water skin they will fill up water and they would go to the men in the battlefield the soldiers then they would pour the water into their mouth then they would go and fill it up again and then they would go and pour it into the men's mouth that's what the narration stated so this is an action which is the battlefield and there's a masalah in there a benefit for the ummah so it's permissible for the women to stand up and do this and even if it involves the free mixing of men and women Imam al-Muslim also narrated Anas bin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him that he said that that the prophet, may Allah be pleased with him whenever he would go to the battlefield he would take with him Umul Suleim and a group of other women from Ansar their job was they would pour the water for the men and they would also help the wounded whatever they needed that also means that they would come into contact with the opposite gender and even sometimes if there is a masalah a benefit for the women to feed the guests the women to feed the guests it's not even a masalah it's not even a hadja it's just a masalah a benefit then it's permissible for the women to feed the men as it was narrated by Imam al-Bukhari al-Muslim al-Hareeth al-Sa'idi that he mentioned Abu Usaid al-Sa'idi when Abu Usaid al-Sa'idi got married the prophet, may Allah be pleased with him he called for the prophet and he invited the prophet and some of the companions for masalah the global companion Abu Usaid didn't come down to make food for them and he didn't even bring the food to them and serve them the person who did that was his wife Umu Usaid she was the one that was serving the men so we have to understand is that it's permissible but what we also have to understand it is not permissible for the women to cover and cover her aura for a doctor for example or a man to uncover his aura to a female doctor if there's a man present for the man or a woman present for the woman if you've got your same gender able to do this for you you're not allowed to uncover your aura this is not permissible for you but if there is no one present for the woman and so the only person she has is a man she can only uncover the parts that are needed she can't uncover her entire body so for example if he needs to look at her thigh she's not allowed to uncover her chest for example or her hair or her neck she can't show that to him she'll only have to show him what he needs to see as as as as as as as as as as as in line with what is needed from it uncovering your aura is haram is not permissible and so you can only do it when there is a there's a need for it there is a need for it and if the woman is sick and there's pain that she has if this pain is not bringing her any destruction or the pain is not severe that she's not allowed to uncover herself but if the pain is severe or even it's causing her it's a life and death situation or even it's causing her excessive pain then it's permissible for her to uncover her aura to a male doctor and the man is also allowed to uncover his aura to a female doctor that is if there is a life and death situation or there is a severe pain okay because uncovering your aura is haram okay and this haram can be removed with a necessity but if it's just a light pain that you have to show it to the opposite gender is not permissible because of the qaida which is the haram will give will give precedence to the evidences that do not allow you to uncover your aura over the evidences that allow you to go to a female doctor or even use a female doctor I also want to say that all of these rulings I mentioned it applies to the men but also the women are like it's not restricted to the men or it's not restricted to the women it's for everybody because of the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that the women are like the men and the hadith is being authenticated by sheikh alal bani r.a. the sheikh Shuaib Arnaud graded it to be but that is with the condition that the women are like the men as long as there is no specific ruling that distinguishes one from the other and it's something that's unique for the women but not for the men, if an evidence comes then we say okay but generally speaking the women are the women are the women are I'm going to stop there inshallah is with Allah wa akhiru da'wananil hamdulillahi rabbil alamin wa sallallahu ala muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa ikhwanihi wa salamah as-salimah subhanakallahu wabihamdi as-shadwa alla ilaha illallah astaghfiruqa wa atubu'la if you have any questions you'd like to see answered as part of this series then you can email us at questions at amau.org