Women and the Mosque
Allah The Exalted mentions mosques in Surat al-Noor (Light), beginning at verse 36; (translation follows):
“In houses which Allah has permitted to be raised up and that His name may be remembered in them. There glorify Him therein, in the mornings and the evenings, men whom neither trade nor selling diverts from the remembrance of Allah and the establishment of salah and the giving of zakah; they fear a day in which the hearts and eyes shall turn about; (It is) in order that Allah may reward them for the best of what they have done, and give them more out of His bounty. Allah provides for whomever He wills without measure.”
Regarding women attending congregational prayers in the mosque, it has been reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him) that if women ask for permission to go to the mosque, they should be given permission. He is also reported to have said , meaning ‘Do not prevent the female servants of Allah (i.e. women) from (going to) the mosques of Allah’. However, the Prophet himself laid down certain conditions which are clear from authentic traditions; among these is that a woman attending prayers in the mosque should not use perfume.
The reason for this is clear - people go to mosques to pray, and in prayer concentration and humility are sought after; distractions such as a perfumed woman are certainly not conducive to a good prayer. If women go to mosques with decorated clothes and perfumes, this is against the spirit of prayer in the mosque. It is probably in this regard that Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said during the time of the Companions of the Prophet, that had the Messenger of Allah known what women have introduced after his death, he would have prevented them from going to mosques just as the women of the Israelites were forbidden to do so. [Reported in SaHeeH Muslim].
Jurists have specified that if a woman wants to attend prayers in the mosque, the following conditions should be satisfied:
- She should not be perfumed (as has already been mentioned)
- She should not have make-up or any other form of beautification, such as decorated or fancy clothes, such as would be distracting to men. Also, their clothes should not be such as to attract the attention even of other women, because they are coming to to the mosque to pray, not for a fashion show. Of course, it goes without saying that women should wear hijaab when they come to the mosque. People may argue that we see improperly dressed women all the time outside the mosque, so there is no harm if women come into the mosques without a head covering for example. But, we should remember that a mosque is a place of prayer, and aside from the distraction such a woman would cause, we know anyway that a Muslim woman should wear hijaab even outside the mosque. Besides, the fact that we see semi-naked women outside the mosque does not change the fact that such behavior is still wrong, and we should hate it with our hearts at least (this being the weakest form of faith), and certainly we should enforce the correct codes of dress and behavior in places which we do have control over.
- She should not mix with the men. The Prophet has told us that the best rows (in prayer) for men are the first (front) ones, and the worst for them are the last ones, while for women it is the opposite. [Reported by Muslim] (This applies to the case where men and women are praying together - if no men are present, and only women are praying in a room, then the best rows for women are the foremost (front) ones). The reason for this is that a woman in the backmost rows is furthest from the men, and so is least likely to be distracted by their movements, voices, etc. This is corroborated by the Hadith (reported by Muslim): Oh assembly of women! Do not raise your heads (from ruku/sujud) until after the men have done so.
In fact, according to Hanafi jurists, if a row of women is in front of a row of men, the prayer of the men behind the women is void (broken), since the men are disregarding the hadith . Similarly, If a woman is praying together with a man , standing next to him without any barrier between them, the prayer of the man is broken. Some scholars are of the view that if a woman passes in front of a man while he is praying, his prayer will be broken. Other jurists have also disapproved of women praying in front of men, although they did not think the men’s prayers would become void. So, if the mosque also serves other purposes, such as providing various facilities for use by Muslim men and women, so that women may need to move around the mosque, they should bear these things in mind. Similarly, men should avoid praying in places where women cannot avoid passing in front of them. - There should not be any danger for the women on the road to the mosque, nor should there be any danger of the women causing distraction or mischief on the road.
- If a woman is praying while men are present, she should not recite aloud. This is based on the Qur’anic advice to women in Surat al-aHzaab, verses 33-34, (the translation of which is): “then be not soft in (your) speech, lest he in whose heart is a disease yearn; and speak a good word. And stay in your houses and do not display your finery like the displaying of the ignorance of yore;”
From this it is obvious that women coming to the mosque should not remain behind and talk unnecessarily. The sunnah is that they leave immediately after the prayer while the men remained engaged in , so that intermingling is minimized - this was the practice of the early generations of Muslims. Of course, this does not give men a license to remain behind to engage in useless talk. In order to further reduce mixing of the sexes, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) introduced a separate door to the mosque for women, and Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) used to prevent men from entering by his door. -One other point regarding women in the mosque is regarding the Hadeeth (clapping is for women, tasbeeH * is for men) [Reported by Muslim]. If, during the prayer, the Imam makes a mistake, men should say to alert him, but women should clap with their hands. This clapping is not the clapping together of the two palms as is done when playing or applauding; it refers rather to a woman tapping on the outer part of her left hand using the palm of her right hand - if she instead clapped by striking her two palms together withthe intention of imitating the behavior of somebody playing or applauding, her prayer is broken.
so wht r u going to say now imean i am just trying to correct things in the mosque, if we can work together many people can be save from the gunaah. pls consider, no one is perfect in this dunia but still we seek the right path to allah swt. may allah swt guide us to right paths. ameen.*