ABOUT THE GREETING OF WOMEN BY MEN AND MEN BY WOMEN: That general ahadeeth are to be understood and acted upon according to the understanding and action of the Salaf. That if we have a general hadeeth covering various cases - then to act on some parts of that not acted on by the Salaf is innovation. This is how innovations begin - and if we wished to produce a general text to support many innovations (we could do that). So the fact that the Salaf did not act on something covered by a general hadeeth shows that that was not intended, and for us to do so would be an innovation. An example is the ahadeeth recommending Prayer in Jamaa'ah - this covers all Prayer, even Nafl Prayer and the 'Sunnah Prayers' - but the Salaf had not used to pray, for example, the rak'ahs before dhuhr in Jamaa'ah - so to do so acting on the ahadeeth recommending Jamaa'ah would be an innovation. And with regard to this question - we find that the Salaf had not used to greet the women whom they came across. And this is also to prevent fitnah.
