Admission of Women to Mosques:
Many Muslims believe that for one reason or the other women should not be
allowed to enter mosques for the purpose of prayer. This is not in accordance
with the Holy Quran and the practice of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).
Some men prevent women because the Holy Prophet (pbuh) said that it is better
for women to pray in their inner chambers. If the hadith refers to all prayers,
then it must be rejected as a fabrication because it contradicts the Holy Quran
and the Sunnah [practice] of the Holy Prophet.
The Holy Quran is the best authority for Muslims. The Holy Quran says in 62:9:
O you who believe (in ALLAH)! When the call is sounded for prayer on Friday,
hasten to the remembrance of ALLAH and leave off traffic. This is better for
you, if you know.
There is indeed a tradition which tells us that on a certain night the Holy
Prophet (pbuh) was very late in coming out to lead the night prayers. The people
had already assembled in the mosque, and he came out after hearing Hazrat 'Umar
(rta) calling out, "The women and the children are going to sleep" (Bu. 9:22).
This shows that women were in the mosque even at such a late hour.
According to another tradition narrated by Hazrat 'Aishah (rta), women used to
be present at the morning prayer, which was said at an hour so early that they
returned to their houses while it was still dark (Bu. 8:13). Yet another
tradition shows that even women who had children to suckle would come to the
mosque, and that when the Holy Prophet (pbuh) heard a baby crying, he would
shorten his prayer lest the mother should feel inconvenienced (Bu. 10:65).
There are other traditions which show that the Holy Prophet (pbuh) had given
orders not to prohibit women from going to the mosque. For instance, there is
one which quotes the Prophet (pbuh) as saying, "Do not prohibit the handmaids of
ALLAH from going to the mosques of ALLAH" (Bu. 11:12). According to another, the
Prophet (pbuh) is reported to have said if a woman wanted to go to the mosque at
night, she should not be prohibited from doing so (Bu. 10:162).
Surely the men who submit and the women who submit, and the believing men and
the believing women, and the obeying men and the obeying women, and the truthful
men and the truthful women, and the patient men and the patient women, and the
humble men and the humble women, and the charitable men and the charitable
women, and the fasting men and the fasting women, and the men who guard their
chastity and the women who guard, and the men who remember ALLAH much and the
women who remember, ALLAH has prepared for them forgiveness and a mighty reward
(33:35).
This verse repeats ten times that women can attain every good quality to which
men can have access and conclusively settles the matter that according to the
Quran women stand on the same spiritual level as men.
On the material side, too, we find no difference, except what nature requires
for its own ends. A woman can earn, inherit and even own property and dispose of
it just as a man can, and the Holy Quran is explicit on these points:
Men shall have the benefit of what they earn and women shall have the benefit of
what they earn (4:32).
Men shall have a portion of what the parents and near relatives leave, and women
shall have a portion of what the parents and the near relatives leave (4:7).
I will not suffer the work of any worker among you to be lost whether male or
female, the one of you being from the other (3:195)
And who is more unjust than he who prevents (one) from the mosques of ALLAH,
from His name being remembered therein, and strives to ruin them. (As for)
these, it was not proper for them to enter them except in fear. For them is
disgrace in this world, and theirs is a grievous chastisement in the Hereafter
(2:114).
And there is certainly a party of them who lie about the Book, that you may
consider it to be (a part) of the Book while it is not to be (a part) of the
Book, and they say, It is from ALLAH, while it is not from ALLAH, and they forge
a lie against ALLAH whilst they know (3:77).
Oppose those who think that our women are impure and their presence in the
mosque would dirty our place of worship or our minds.
May ALLAH help us to do the right things.