Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Islam is the religion of chastity and modesty. It blocks all means leading to sin and evil. It commands a Muslim to keep himself away from what makes him subject to Allah’s wrath and gets him closer to Satan’s traps.
2- In one of his hadiths, the Prophet (peace be upon him) states: “Let not a man and a woman be together with no mahram (unmarriageable relative) lest Satan accompanies them i.e. leading them to sin.”
Coming to the question in point, the late Sheikh Muhammad Al-Bahyy, ex-dean of the Faculty of Theology at Al-Azhar University (may Allah have mercy on his soul) states:
Mixed trips that involve males and females grouped together are not totally rejected. However, we need to make it clear that if such trips and camps involve young ones who have not yet reached the age of puberty, they are permissible and fruitful especially when they aim at increasing mutual respect between the two sexes.
However, when such camps are attended by teenagers and of vigorous youth, the so-called “mutual understanding between both sexes” may lead to a form of sexual deviation and unlawful relations, a thing which will affect not only those young people but their families and the whole society as well.
The Quranic guidance directed to the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and to all Muslim women, clearly calls for keeping away from illegal mixing between men and women in order to avoid the harmful consequences.
Allah Almighty says:
{O you wives of the Prophet! You are not like any other women. If you keep your duty (to Allah), then be not soft of speech, lest he in whose heart is a disease aspire (to you), but utter customary speech.} (Al-Ahzab 33:32)
Stressing the fact that preventing such unwanted mixing is better than curing its bad consequences for prevention is better than cure, Allah Almighty says:
{And stay in your houses. Bedizen not yourselves with the bedizenment of the Time of ignorance.} (Al-Ahzab 33:33)
The verse clearly shows that Muslim women are not to show their attractions that make them subject to persons in whose bosoms there is disease (who are morally corrupt).
It is also clear that a woman is permitted to go out of her house if there is a valid reason to do so, that is, to fulfill a need while adhering to her modesty and abiding by chastity.
Moreover, Dr. Abdul Azeem Ad-Deeb, the late Professor of Shari`ah at the University of Qatar, states:
A true and committed Muslim who fears Allah should never participate in any activity, i.e. camps, trips, or journeys involving nudity and unlawful mixing between men and women.
He must always remember the Day in which he will stand before his Lord Who will question him about such gathering. On that Day, those naked bodies will be exposed to burning in the Hellfire.
Amusement and entertainment can be achieved through many other lawful means. So, why do people tend to mimic the western way of life by going to such places of nudity and lewdness?
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.