974 – Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace be upon him) said: “No man may spend the night with a woman unless he is her husband or a maḥram.” Reported by Muslim (1).

975 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) related that the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) said: “A man must not be alone with a woman unless she is accompanied by a maḥram.” Recorded by al-Bukhārī (2).

Lexical notes for ḥadīth 974:
• “la yabītan” – from bāta / yabītu (to spend the night); here it means any form of staying or lodging.
• “nākihan” – the active participle of nakaha / yankihu; in this context it denotes “the husband.” Linguistically, nikāḥ signifies actual intercourse, while by extension it refers to the marriage contract—the effect being named after its cause. Everywhere the Quran uses the word nikāḥ it means the contract, except in the verse, “She is not lawful for him thereafter until she marries another husband” (al-Baqarah 2:230), where it refers to intercourse.
• “dhā” – meaning “possessor of.” It is one of the five declinable nouns and appears here in the accusative because it is conjoined to the predicate of yakūna. It is declined with letters since all its grammatical conditions are fulfilled: it carries the sense of “possessor” and is annexed to an explicit generic noun.
• “maḥram” – on the pattern mafʿal, with a fatḥah on the mīm and sukoon on the ḥāʾ; literally “one entitled to sanctity,” i.e., a relative with whom marriage is permanently unlawful. Its plural is maḥārim. The prohibition may be due to lineage or a lawful cause such as breastfeeding. Details will follow in the commentary, God willing.