Mālik deemed it reprehensible for a woman to enter a bathhouse at all—whether she wore a waist-wrapper or not, whether she was ill or healthy. Other jurists allowed it for women who are sick or in post-natal bleeding, on condition that they cover themselves with ample wrappers, and they must not look at one another’s private parts.

When boys reach the age of seven they are to be instructed to perform the prayer; at ten they may be disciplined for neglecting it, for all virtue is acquired through habituation. Two brothers or two sisters who have reached ten must not sleep naked beneath a single garment. The disapproval of a ten-year-old boy spending the night with his brother or sister is even stronger than that of a girl with another girl. Once a child has reached this age, a father should not share a bed with his son, nor a mother with her daughter, unless a layer of clothing separates them. The prohibition is even more emphatic when the two persons are unrelated, for that is an outright wrong.

When your children come of age, let them ask permission just as those who preceded them were instructed. Before puberty they are excused from seeking permission except during the three times of nakedness—whether they are your own sons or those whom your right hands possess. These three times are: before the dawn prayer, before the noon prayer, and after the night (ʿIshāʾ) prayer. Any other time in which one fears impropriety receives the same ruling.

There is no harm in looking at the face, hair, and hands of one’s mother-in-law; the same applies to one’s father’s wife.