The third is that he may look at her entire body, including her ʿawrah (parts that must be covered) and everything else, for he explicitly stated that it is permissible to look at her while she is unclothed!”

I said: The second report is closest to the apparent meaning of the hadith and to the Companions’ application of it. And Allah knows best.

Ibn Qudamah said in al-Mughni (7/454):

“The justification for permitting him to look at what is normally exposed is that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) permitted looking at her without her knowledge, it is understood that he permitted looking at everything that is normally exposed. For it is not possible to look exclusively at the face when other parts share with it in being exposed. Moreover, such parts are normally exposed, so looking at them is permissible just as looking at the face is permissible. And since she is a woman whom the Lawgiver has permitted him to look at, it is permissible to look at these parts of her, as with women who are his maḥrams (permanently unmarriageable female relatives).”

I later came across the book Rudūd ʿalā Abāṭīl (Responses to Falsehoods) by the esteemed Shaykh Muhammad al-Ḥāmid, and found him saying (p. 43):

“The view that it is permissible to look at parts of a woman whose hand has been sought in marriage other than her face and hands is invalid and unacceptable.”

This was an extraordinary boldness on his part, and I would never have expected him to make such a statement. The matter is disputed, as explained previously. One may not categorically declare a position contrary to one’s school invalid without answering its arguments and evidence, such as these hadiths. He did none of that; indeed, he did not even make the slightest reference to the hadiths. Thus, he gave readers the impression that this position had no evidence whatsoever, whereas the reality is otherwise, as you can see. These hadiths, in their unrestricted wording, indicate the opposite of what the esteemed Shaykh said. How could that not be so, when his position directly contradicts the Prophet’s specific words in hadith 99: “what would lead him to marry her”? For anyone with a sound understanding of fiqh