['Aalim Network QR] Public Showers

[Mustafa Rawji <mrawji@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca>]

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|       In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the All-Merciful       |\
|  Greeting of Allah be upon Muhammad and the pure members of his House |\
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Salaamun alaykum,

	The reply to the following question was kindly provided by Shaykh Ali 
Rasheed.

Wasalaam,

Mustafa Rawji
Moderator, 'Aalim Network

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 QUESTION: 

 Kindly provide answers to the following question. The reply to my
 questions should be based on the rulings of Ayatollah Syed Ali Seestani. 
 
 Question: I have noticed in Europe and also during my trip to Iraq a few
 years ago that in the common showers, people are bathing completely nude.

 Although these are people of the same sex, ie. either only males or only
 females, but they are adults (baliq).  My question is whether taking a bath
 in such a common shower is permissible or not.  Also can oneself also be
 completely nude under such circumstances for the sake of bathing. 


 ANSWER:

 It is not permissible in such instances where people are able to see one
 another's private parts. 

 Agha Seestani states: "Looking at the private parts of another, even a
 non-Muslim or a Mumayyiz youth, according to precaution (meaning, a youth
 at the age of being able to distinguish right from wrong) is forbidden. It
 being the same whether the act of viewing is direct or behind a glass or
 in a mirror or in clear water and similar ways. It is permitted for each
 of the two spouses to look at all of the parts of the body of the other,
 even the private parts." (Issue 1022, Masaa`il Al-Muntakhabah). 

 Wa-salaam,

 Ali Rasheed