Women Going to the Mosque

If the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) saw what was innovated (aḥdatha) by the women, he would have forbidden them from the Mosque like the women of the Children of Isrāʾīl were forbidden.

[1] Chapter: Women Going To The Masjid

From Zaynab ath-Thaqafiyyah (raḍī Allāhu ʿanhu) who said: The Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) said to us: ‘If one of you attends the Mosque, then do not touch perfume.’

[Mukhtasar Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim of Shaykh al-Albānī (no. 245)]

[2] “If one of your women seeks permission to go to the Mosque, then do not forbid her.”

[Reported by Ibn ʿUmar (raḍī Allāhu ʿanhu)] [Related by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Aḥmad, and Nisā‘ee]

Shaykh al-Albānī cites it in Ghāyah al-Marām (no. 201).

He declares it authentic in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ (no. 319).

[3] “If one of you attends ʿIshāʾa, then do not touch perfume.”

[Reported by Zaynab at- Thaqafiyyah] [Related by Muslim, Aḥmad And Nisāʾī]

Shaykh al-Albānī cites it in Silsilah al-Aḥādīth al-Ṣaḥīḥah (no. 1093)]

He declares it authentic in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ (no. 634)

Note that the Prophet (ﷺ) used the word ʿIshāʾa here. This is because the women in that time usually only attended the Mosque at night and in the dark as is reported from ʿUmar(raḍī Allāhu ’andhu) in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī under the chapter of letting the women go to the Mosque at night in the dark. Imām al-Bukhārī purposely used the word dark (ghalas) here, This was because the women were not seen by the men during the dark, and they used to leave before the men. They used to come and go from the Mosque according to ’Aa‘ishah in one narration, “unnoticed”.

[4] Chapter: The Prohibition of Women To Go (to the Mosque)

From ’Amrah ibnt ’Abdur-Raḥmān (raḍī Allāhuʿanhu) that she heard ’Aa‘ishah (raḍī Allāhu ʿanhu) the wife of the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, “If the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) saw what was innovated (ahdatha) by the women, he would have forbidden them (li man’a hunnā) from the Mosque like the women of the Children of Isrāʿīl were forbidden.” He said, “So I said to ’Amrah, ‘Were the women of the Children of Isrāʿīl forbidden from the Mosque?” She said, “Yes.”

[Mukhtasar Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim by Shaykh al-Albānī (no. 264)]

This is also reported in the Muwaṭṭa’ of Imām Mālik under the Chapter title, “Women Going To The Mosque”. The additional statements are reported therein to have come from Yahyá Ibn Saʿīd, and ʿUmar (raḍī Allāhu ʿanhu).

Also, it is interesting to note that Imām Muslim used to use his chapter titles as rulings. The above Ḥadīth is reported by him under the title, ‘‘The Prohibition of Women to Go (To The Mosque)”, so it can be said that he was against women going to the Mosque because of what they invented after the Prophet (ﷺ). Among his proofs for this fatwá is the above-mentioned Ḥadīth. So I hope that this is sufficient as an answer to your inquiry concerning aḥādīth on women going to the Mosques.

Prepared by Maaz Qureshi