Prayer is a very personal and spiritual experience. Now, some people conveniently say that they would like women to stay home and not join in the prayer at a mosque.
Others will say, we don’t want to go to mosque, and it is their choice; they can offer prayer at home, in peace, and perhaps, better. They even deprive themselves of a socializing opportunity at the mosque.
But, most women like to meet other women for social support and to know that a community exists in which other women can have similar concerns and together they might be able to solve them, utilizing opportunity to be at the mosque, together.
Believing in the reason of ‘distraction’ by the opposite gender, while intending to offer a prayer for Allah, needs some SERIOUS thought.
Issue is the prayer. And by that parameter, the prayer’s criteria must be held in view and nothing else. You can place all men around a woman, and if she is concentrating on Allah and her prayer to Allah, she won’t get distracted. Or it could be a group of women and a group of men. I feel that we should have an internal sense of piety and regard for the mosque, so that neither a woman nor a man, feels like being insecure with their other human aspect – finding a partner. Mosques are a wonderful way to bring the community together.
It can be said safely that a woman’s prayer is invalid if & when men come across the praying women, in the mosque.
I offer prayer at home and once in a while, in my mosque we pray together in the same prayer room, and there is no perdah. Women stand behind men’s’ rows. And separate entrances are available to enter the prayer room. Never ever has there been any case of people caught flirting or seen in a questionable interaction.
So, why do we like to complicate things? Why should women and men not be in the same prayer room? How practical is it, or why it should even be done under the false pretext of men getting affected by women.
That means that sexual nature of young able people, women and men, are so over powering that we cannot contain this aspect of ourselves, even when we come to Allah’s house – a mosque. It is the same Allah who gave us that function too - of being social. And above all, he gave us ‘Aqal’.
Chime, if you would like.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
It can be said safely that a woman’s prayer is invalid if & when men come across the praying women, in the mosque.
Do you have anything to back that up?
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
What about Khana Kaaba? Women and men offer prayer together in the same mosque…
When we offer prayer at our workplace, the women offer behind us and there is no pardah in that sense.
Yaar, who is the stupid person making these kind of issues?
Honestly Dushwari, I never heard anyone making it an issue. I don’t know who thinks it can be a problem? 
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
where are all the people who think co-ed prayers shud be taking place. m2k to the rescue? lol
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
Sara,
that was an hypothetical assertion made to reflect what men and those who believe them, say that having women around the prayer makes a nimaz 'muckrooh'. i don’t believe in that as u can see, i wrote earlier, in this same post that you can stand a lot of men around a woman and her prayer wont get distracted.
it's a few ignorant men who feel the insecurity of their feelings of getting distracted by women and therefore blame women and shut them out of the mosque.
what i am trying to say here is that we need to detach the idea of male-female interactions and of mosque's proper respect and then evaluate such opinions which proclaim that keeping women out of mosque will somehow make men more pious while they pray.
that is so absurd and illogical.
Lahore,
what drives me nuts are those religious leaders, who say that women are fitna and the nimaz is invalid, muckrooh, when they are around. not all men do so, but those who think like this, are bad.
i look forward to a day when i pray to Allah with my husband.
that congregation is going to be a blessed one.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
I understand it Dush. However, these are molvis and Mullahs and they are nototious for their narrow mindedness. Don't worry about them.
;)
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
**Question **
Why is it better to pray at home for women?
I have been always told that it is better for women to pray at home. I never thought about the reasons for it, until today. I’ve read on your site that the reason for it was because it was more concealing and it would prevent women to beautify themselves when going to the mosque.
Even though these are good reasons, I’m really wondering if there is more to it. I also heard that a woman gets more blessings from praying at home? If you could tell me more reasons for it, I would love to know…
Answer:
The reasons you mentioned are correct.
However, the first and foremost reason is because there are rigorously authenticated traditions that specify that women should pray at home.
For example, the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace said, “A woman’s prayer in the depths of her house is better than her prayer in this masjid of mine.”
Aisha, may Allah be well pleased with her, said, “Had the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) seen what women do now, he would have forbidden them the mosque as the women of Bani Isra’il were forbidden.”
**Women receive the same blessing for praying at home that men receive for going to the mosque.
Traditionally, Muslim women were encouraged to stay at home in order to create a peaceful, loving environment for their families. There is also the need to protect women from being exposed to negative influences and harassment outside the home.
Islam, being a practical religion, also understands that it would be difficult for women if they were required to go to the mosque. When a woman is busy running a home and taking care of her children, going to the mosque five times a day would become an undue hardship.**
This is not to say that women may not visit the mosque. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, said, " Do not prevent the female slaves of Allah from coming to the mosques of Allah. When a wife of one of you asks for permission to go to the mosque, she should not be refused this permission." [Bukhari and Muslim]
In a previous answer on SunniPath, Shaykh Faraz Rabbani mentioned that **it is permitted for a woman to go to the mosque particularly when she goes to seek knowledge or enjoy the fellowship of her Muslim sisters. This is especially relevant for Muslim women in the West whose only contact with other Muslims may be through the mosque. **
(source>> Click here)
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
If you have little bacchay who yell and scream and run around, or u just go there to bakbakbak and not pray, then please be considerate of others, and stay home. There's nothing wrong with staying home, esp if all ure gonna do when u go to the mosque is take up whatever little space the women already have. Noone wants to hear your baby crying "ammaaaaaaaaaaa" every five seconds while ure busy chitchatting with other aunties.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
I definitely don't think its invalidated. However, I don't know how good your namaz really was if you got distracted during prayer by the opposite sex. I know this sounds counterintuitive and not pcg-ish, but I prefer to pray alone or with just females and with a partition so that I can't see any guys, and no guys can see me. If I have to pray in a small group setting right behind guys, I get uncomfortable. Not so much anymore I guess, but before it used to scare the crap out of me.
I dunno why? I guess I would get distracted by a crush or something? Either way, I couldn't focus, so I would end up not reading with the group and reading alone later on.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
I have to add that those hadith's are totally contradictory. If you can't prevent a female from going to the mosque, why is it better for her to stay at home? Wouldn't then the advice be that if a woman asks to go to a mosque (I don't understand why she would need to ask permission for such a thing - as if women can't make decisions on their own!), then one shoul discourage her from going?
Furthermore, how is a woman going to educate her family about religion when she is not attending the mosque regularly in the first place to learn!?!
In the prophet's day, women would come to hear his sermons all the time, and never did he discourage women from attending. Now if the meaning of the hadith is that if something holds her back from attending (i.e. menstruation, fatigue, etc), then she should be afforded the ability to do her prayers, education, etc from her home. But this doesn't imply that her presence in the mosque is discouraged. Female involvement in Islam and community's religious affairs is HIGHLY encouraged, as evidenced by the role that the Prophet's wives and his daughters took in the religious movement of the time. I think those examples far supercede any hadith claiming that a woman should sit at home.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
in the early days of Islam, men and women used to pray in the same portion of the mosque....
just that the women stood in the back rows....
i dont know from where people have now come up with "ladies section" in the mosques....
u ask any mufti and he will tell u that if there is a discontinutiy in the rows (i.e. when someone stands in a place where he cannot see either the imam or others who r praying directly behind the imam) then he is not part of the jamaat....
according to this rule, women praying behind the imam in a separate room or enclosure (with no visual connection to the men's section) are not even a part of the jamaat.....
only a few mosques i have seen actually have a netted window for connecting women's section to the men's....
but others, which are not even sharing the same walls, and women praying behind the imam just following his voice on loudspeaker, that is completely wrong i think....
if its the just the voice from the speaker u need to follow, then ppl leaving adjacent to the mosque might as well pray in their own rooms at the comfort of their own home....
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
It's common sense if women are allowed to work with men within the rules set by religion I don't see what's wrong with praying together if they want to.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
^ yep, although u will find some misguided ppl also talking of men and women praying side by side....
this is also wrong....
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
u ask any mufti and he will tell u that if there is a discontinutiy in the rows (i.e. when someone stands in a place where he cannot see either the imam or others who r praying directly behind the imam) then he is not part of the jamaat.... according to this rule, women praying behind the imam in a separate room or enclosure (with no visual connection to the men's section) are not even a part of the jamaat.....
I do not think there is any such restrition
In our jamia masjid and many masajids elsewhere , Several stories are filled with namazis, and then road and then lawn... because so many people are there to attend the prayer it is impossible to accomodate within the premisis of masjid.
Similar is the case of Tableghi ijtima, where people are some times few kilometers away from imam and thus only connection is audio, no visual at all.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
^ not to mention khana kaaba where you only have audio no visuals and there are levels too.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
The opposite gender in the same vicinity does not invalidate prayer. Men and women have always been praying side by side in Masjid Al Haram, and still are. Allah is all Forgiving and doubt He will invalidate your prayer just because you pray next to someone of the opposite gender, as with the sheer volume of people there is no other alternative.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
i dont know from where people have now come up with "ladies section" in the mosques....
u ask any mufti and he will tell u that if there is a discontinutiy in the rows (i.e. when someone stands in a place where he cannot see either the imam or others who r praying directly behind the imam) then he is not part of the jamaat.... according to this rule, women praying behind the imam in a separate room or enclosure (with no visual connection to the men's section) are not even a part of the jamaat.....
only a few mosques i have seen actually have a netted window for connecting women's section to the men's.... but others, which are not even sharing the same walls, and women praying behind the imam just following his voice on loudspeaker, that is completely wrong i think....
if its the just the voice from the speaker u need to follow, then ppl leaving adjacent to the mosque might as well pray in their own rooms at the comfort of their own home....
Interesting. I knew women can pray behind men, but I had no idea praying in a different section would likely exclude them from being part of the jamaah. Thanks for sharing.
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
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Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
^ Yeah, but it's tricky because sometimes the available space, and the ad-hoc structures that serve as Mosques just don't give us the flexibility we need. I agree, though...but isn't this just a problem with immigrant communities?
Re: Invalid prayers , if & when you see the opposite gender in the prayer room
u ask any mufti and he will tell u that if there is a discontinutiy in the rows (i.e. when someone stands in a place where he cannot see either the imam or others who r praying directly behind the imam) then he is not part of the jamaat.... according to this rule, women praying behind the imam in a separate room or enclosure (with no visual connection to the men's section) are not even a part of the jamaat.....
only a few mosques i have seen actually have a netted window for connecting women's section to the men's.... but others, which are not even sharing the same walls, and women praying behind the imam just following his voice on loudspeaker, that is completely wrong i think....
if its the just the voice from the speaker u need to follow, then ppl leaving adjacent to the mosque might as well pray in their own rooms at the comfort of their own home....
Isn't that what happens in all of the big Masjids, including Khaana Kaaba? The Imam leading the prayers at Khaana Kaaba, speaks through the microphone, and his voice is relayed through loudspeakers for people standing two stories above him who can't see the Imam. According to this rule, these people are not part of the Jumaat either... right?