Status Report of Deoband Tehreek

I [Maulana Yusuf Shabbir] asked Mufti [Taqi Utmani] Ṣāḥib regarding Masjids in the UK and whether they should have facilities for women, highlighting the reality that women are routinely leaving the homes for jobs, mastūrāt jamāʿat, local taʿlīm, Masjid programmes, ʿĀlimah classes, boarding madrasahs, shopping, events and for a variety of other reasons. Many a times they will be present in the Masjid hall due to a programme but will not join in the Ṣalāh. Mufti Ṣāḥib explained that Masjids should definitely have facilities for women. It is a separate matter that they should be encouraged to perform Ṣalāh at home, however, there may be times when they are not at home. Women spending time out of the homes is a reality, and changes in the circumstances of people can impact upon the ruling. I mentioned to Mufti Ṣāḥib that in winter months many women make their Ṣalāh qaḍāʾ and that many female travellers do not have anywhere suitable to perform Ṣalāh. Moreover, if we do not provide segregated facilities for women on our terms, this will be imposed upon us in the future via equality and planning regulations and then we will have limited control on the safeguards. (It should also be noted that Imam Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150/767) and our earlier hanafi jurists did not advocate that Masjids should not have facilities for women, rather to the contrary, their positions clearly indicate that Masjids should have facilities for women, refer to al-Aṣl, 1:10, 164, 382, 446; and this answer: ).

Mufti Taqi Uthmani Ṣāḥib said, “If women happen to be in the Masjid for a religious programme for example, it is permissible for them to perform Ṣalāh behind the Imam.”

Question

A family on a journey stop for Ṣalāh at a local Masjid which has segregated arrangements for women on the balcony of the prayer hall. Can the women perform Ṣalāh behind the local Imam of the Masjid?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

Answer

It is permissible, and Masjids should make appropriate arrangements.

[Translation of Arabic reference]:
Imam Muhammad said in al Asl (١/٢٨٧): I said: What is your opinion on a traveller leading women in a journey? He said: I dislike for a man that he leads them in a house in which there is no mahram among them to him. I said: What if he leads them in a congregational masjid or in a house and with him is a woman who is mahram to him. He said: There is no problem with that. I said: What is your opinion on a travelling women leading the women? He said: I dislike that. I said: And if they do this? He said it is accepted from them and she stands in the middle of the row. (End of abridged quote)

And he (Imam Muhammad) said (١/١٦٤): I said: What is your opinion on a man leading women and there are no other men with them? He said: If it is a congregational masjid and salah is established in it and he is an Imam and he begins to pray and there are no men with him, and women enter the salah, then there is nothing wrong with this. But if he is in seclusion with them in a house or in a place other than a masjid then certainly I dislike that for him except if there is among them a mahram to them. (End quote) Allah knows best

Yusuf Shabbir 4 Jumādā al-Ūlā 1440 / 10 January 2019