Taking Bay‘ah from Women by Holding Hands

Question

Question: If before a certain spiritual guide non-mahram women come unveiled and take bay‘ah by placing their hand in his hand — does such a guide, according to the Sacred Law, deserve to be called a spiritual guide, or is he a devil? Is it permissible to honour such a guide, or not?

Answer

A spiritual guide is taken so that, through the blessing of acting upon his guidance, one may be granted the good fortune of following the Sunna of the noble Prophet ﷺ. But if a man himself does things contrary to the Sunna — to the point that he even takes bay‘ah in a manner contrary to the Sunna — then taking bay‘ah with him will make all [of the disciple’s] affairs contrary…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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