About a fourth to a third of the open area around the kabbah is partitioned off for women’s prayers during jama’at. Inside the mosque portable partitioning pieces are used to seperate the women’s area and men don’t go there.
Same thing in the mosque of medinah … infact during prayers women enter and leave the compound using different gates.
Even in other mosques, women usually go to a seperate section of the building with its own entrance and exit. Or during eid prayers when large congregations are held the section for women is completely seperate and behind/above the men.
No where do men and women stand in the same line during jama’at. And if you have seen them doing so during your ‘many’ claimed visits there, then perhaps u need to have ur head examined
In Masjid al Haram, during Nawafil, Tawaaf and Sa'ee, yes, muslim men & women perform these manasik without regard to gender.
But for prayers (namaz), there are separate areas designated for women. The shurtas (police) are there to guide women to their specified areas. In very crowded conditions as in Hajj and Ramadhan, outside the mosque (in street etc) women do offer prayers whereever they get space) but inside the mosque, there are definitely designated areas.
If you look at an aerial shot of Masjid during namaz time, the women areas are quite distinct as these women usually wear black abaiya, whereas men wear white. This usually represents theareas specified for women.
Similarly in Prophet's Mosque (Madina) there are separate areas for women.
However, this is just a side note and it is besides the original topic. The main purpose of this post is to find out the ruling for women offering prayers in congregation when there are no men present.
as far as women reciting the Quran is concerned.. from what i’ve seen.. the same rules apply to women.. during fajr, maghrib and isha, the Quranic verses and Surah Fatiha are recited outloud while in Zuhr and Asr, they are not. of coures the women are in a secluded area while praying in their own Ja’maat.. so the issue of men hearing their voice is not a concern.
secondly.. about women praying next to men… from what i know.. women cannot pray next to men.. only behind them. this is evident during congregation prayers where women are either in a secluded area or behind the men. and yes pristine, i have seen that as well that there is a women area in Masjid al-Haram during congregational prayers. just visit www.islam.org and click on taraweeh prayers to see it for urself
as far as women reciting the Quran is concerned.. from what i've seen.. the same rules apply to women.. during fajr, maghrib and isha, the Quranic verses and Surah Fatiha are recited outloud while in Zuhr and Asr, they are not. of coures the women are in a secluded area while praying in their own Ja'maat.. so the issue of men hearing thir voice is not a concern<<
Mehndi..the reason for not reciting out loud during Dhuhr and Asr salat are different. The Kuffaar used to roam around masajids during the day, and would talk out loud and try to distract the namazis during salat...and it would work most of the time. Because of this, Qira'at during Dhuhr and Asr salats was prohobited, so the kuffaar wouldnt know when the muslims were praying, and hence wont be able to distract them with their loud noises. However, the kuffaar used to retreat to their homes before sunset and at night, and never woke up till late in the morning, hence Qira'at was allowed during Fajr, maghrib and Isha.
And yes, there is adequate segregation of men and women in Haram sharif and masjid-e-nabvi. Even when the namazis are overpouring out in the streets, they still create seperate blocks of namazis for men and women. Never are they aligned in the same lines.
oh yes analog.. i know of that… i was just saying that women are not imposed to recite all of the prayers (fajr, zuhr, asr, maghrib, isha) to themselves ( like similarly to zuhr and asr) just b/c its a women’s ja’maat. i think soemone was asking something to that effect