PART 3

Let us now study the views and the rulings of the great Faqaha (Jurists of Islam) on this question. These were men who followed the Sahaabah They lived in the Khairul Quroon, having obtained their Deeni Knowledge and training at the hands of the Sahaabah. Surely they possessed a better understanding o f Islam and its teachings than all the Sheikhs and Maulanas of this age put together. Surely, they would have known about the existence of this "undeniable right" if it had in fact existed. What was their attitude to women emerging from their homes to attend the Musjid?

In An-Nihaayah it is said;
"Our Fuqaha, base the illegality of women attending the Musjid on the prohibition declared by Hadhrat Umar Ibn Khattaab (radhiallahu anhu). When he detected the mischief (fitnah which women had started to introduce) he forbade their emergence. "
Arabi in his Sharhut Tirmizi says:
"Sufyaan Thauri said: 'It is forbidden for women to emerge from their homes. Ibn Mas'ud (radhiallahuanhu) said that a woman is an object of concealment and when she emerges shaitaan lays in wait (to create fitnah). Imam Abu Hanifah and Ibn Mubarak also stated this ."
"Our Fuqaha have said so (i.e. it is not permissible for women to attend the Musjid) because in their emer gence is the danger of fitnah."
Hadhrat Ibrahim Nakhi (rahmatullah alayh) prevented his womenfolk from attending the Musjid. In Nailul Autaar, the following narration appears:
"It (females going for the Eid Salaat) is forbidden. This has been narrated by Tirmizi on the authority of Thauri, Ibn Mubaarak. And, this is the view of Imaani Maalik Abu Yusuf. Ibn Qudaamah narrated it on the authority of Nakhi and Yahya Ibn Saeed Ansaari. "
Among the early Fuqaha there existed difference of opinion on the question of old women attending the Musjid. While some Fuqaha maintained that old women may come to the Musjid for certain Salaat, others averred that they may attend for all Salaats However, regarding women who are of marriageable age, the ruling of prohibition is emphatic. The following ruling is recorded in Qudoori.

"It is forbidden for women to be present for Jama' (i.e. Salaat in the Musjid) However, old women may come for Fajr, Maghrib and Isha according to Imaani Abu Hanifah According to Imaani Abu Yusuf and Imaani Muhammad it is permissible for them for all Salaats."
According to Imaani Maalik (rahmatullah alayh), the ahadith indicating permissibility apply to only old women. This is the view held generally by the early Fuqaha of Islam. However, the later Fuqaha expanded on the prohibition to include all women, even old wo men. In view of the deterioration in the morals of people and the rise of vice, the Fuqaha upheld the total prohibition of women attending the Musjid Ibn Hajar (rahmatullah alayh) states:

"The summary of the discussion of Nawawi and also of what

Zarkashi has stated in his Ahkaamul Musjid is that when

intermingling with men prevails, whether in the Musjid or in the

roads or there exists the danger of mischief because of women's

adornment and dis plays of beauty, then it is forbidden for them to

emerge . . .i t is incumbent on the Imaam or his representative to

prevent women from emerging."

Ibn Humaam (rahmatullah alayh) said:
"The Fuqaha-e-Muta-akh-khireen have stated that the prohibition includes young as well as old women. The prohibition applies to all the Salaats because of the prevalence of mischief."
Who can deny the existence of the worst types of mischief in our age? If anyone choses to become blind and deny the existence of the evil so predominant in our limes, let him peruse the following statement of Hadhrat Allaamah Aini (rahmatullah alayh) who lived in the eighth century of Islam:
"If Aishah(radhiallahu anha) could observe the innovations and evils which the women of this age (i.e. the 8th century) have introduced, her rejection (of women's attendance to the Musjid) would be more vehement. The interval between the time of Aisha's rejection of this practice (of females attending the Musjid) and Rasulullah's (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) demise is very little. The wrongs which the women during the time of Aishah(radhiallahu anha) had introduced were infini tesimal compared to the evils which they have intro duced in this time (viz., the 8th century)."
This being the situation in those early days, what can we now sayabout these times of vice and immorality in which we find ourselves? Or shall we choose deliberate blindness and rhetorically argue away the reality of the age? Modernists assume that they are living in an age of purity, in an age akin to the age of piety of former times, hence they remain blind to the immorality surrounding them. They, there fore, clamour for the Musaajid to have a female attendance as well. But, the Sahaabah and the Fuqaha could not tolerate the practice of female attendance even in the best of ages, yet Sheikh/Maulana Makda seeks to overrule the Fatwa of the Ummah-the Fatwa which has existed in the Ummah for the past fourteen hundred years. He has lost his bearings. The prohibition of female attendance is stated as follows in Muheet:
"The ruling (Fatwa) is prohibition in all Salaats be cause of the appearance of mischief (fitnah) in this age."
The author of Al-Jauharah states :
"The verdict today is prohibition of women's presence (in the Musjid) for all Salaat  because of the preva lence of mischief."
All authoritative Books of Islamic Law state the same view of total prohibition.
"Today, the Fatwa is on Prohibition (of women attending the Musjid)." (Allaamah Aini)
"Today women's emergence (to attend the Musjid) is totally prohibited." (Munazzal)
"The Fatwa today is that it is forbidden for women to attend the Musjid for all Salaats because of the appearance of fitnah." (Kaafi)
"The Fatwa today is the prohibition of female attend ance for all Salaats because of the spread of fitnah." (Al-Kifaayah)
The Shaaf'i view is well stated by Sheikh Sulaiman Bujairmi (rahmatullah alayh) in Tuhfatul Habeeb Ala Sharhil Khateeb:
"Women should not attend {the Musjid) whether they are young or old for Jamaa-at because of the appearance of corruption ............. Today the Fatwa is on total prohibition in all the Salaat."
In the statement, Jamaa -at is included Juma', Eid, Istisqa' and gatherings of lectures, especially the lectures of the juhhaal (ignoramuses) who pretend to be Ulama while their motive is lust and the acquisition of the world. The following absolute prohibition is stated in Fataawal Kubra of Ibn Hajar Haitami (rahmatullah alayhi, an authority in the Shaaf'i Math -hab:
"... the statement of Ghazaali in Ihyaaul Uloom: 'It is obligatory to prohibit women from attending the Musjid for Salaat, for sessions of knowledge and for Thikr when there is the danger of fitnah as a result of them. Verily, Aishah (radhiallahu anha) forbade them. It was then said to her: Verily, Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) did not forbid them from Jamaa-at She replied. If Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) knew what the women have introduced after him, then most certainly, he would have prevented them.' Agreeing with it is the statement of Ibn Khuzaimah who is among our senior authorities: 'The Salaat of a woman in her home is superior to herSalaat in the Musjid of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).
. . Now when her Salaat at home is super ior then the object which brings her out of her home (to perform Salaat in a Musjid) is either pride or show and this is haraam.' "There is unanimity regarding the prohibition of wo men going to the Musjid, Eid Salaat and visiting the graves because of the absence of the conditions of permissibility which had existed during the age of Nabi (sallallahu alay hi wasallam)............... This has been stat ed by Shaikh Taqiuddin Al Husni and Shaikh Alaauddin Muhammad Al Bukhaari who were two great Imaams among the Mutaqaddimeen (the early Fuqaha)."
. . . .That what these two Shaikhs have stated i.e. the Muftaa Bihi (the view on which the verdict is) in this age is on the prohibition of women's emergence. Only a dense man following his lowly desires will not accept this, for verily, the rules change with the changing of the times. This is correct in terms of the Math-habs of the Ulama of the Salf and the Khalf." "Hajjatul Islam (Imaam Ghazaali)says in Al-lhya in the chapter dealing on Amr Bil Ma'roof: 'It is obligatory to prohibit women from attending the Musaajid for Salaat and Thikr when fitnah in regard to them is feared ' In Anwaar it is said: It is waa|ib to prohibit women from attending the Musaajid for Salaat and Thikr when there exists the danger of fitnah.' The evils of their emergence today are established facts. . . . The correct view is that prohibition is absolut e and the Fatwa is this (prohibition). This is the summary of our (Shaaf'i) Math-hab" (Fataawa Kubra of Ibn hajar Haitami)
From the discussion in the aforegoing pages, the reader will understand that all authorities of Islam from the time of the Sahaabahnever accepted women to have any undeniable right of attending the Musaajid. Far from possessing any such right, the authorities have clarified that it is not permissible for women to even emerge from their homes since the Qur'aan Majeed forbids this. Allah Ta'ala says:
"And, remain inside your homes and do not make a display like the exhibition of the times of jaahiliyyah."
Such displays of jaahiliyyah and the resultant fitnah of immorality are today integral parts of society, Muslim society included. The slight departure from Piety and Hijaab which had commenced even in the very age of the Sahaabah constrained them to prohibit women from coming to the Musjid inspite of them being fully aware that women used to visit the Musjid during the time of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). However, since they detected the beginning of the process of corruption and they discerned the gradual abandonment of the very strict conditions which accompanied the original permissibility, the Sahaabah initiated this prohibition. Since Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) has commanded obedience to his Sahaabah and has described the Sunnah of his Sahaabah as his Sunnah, the prohibition enacted by the Sahaabah is in actual fact the Sunnah of Nabi-e -Kareem (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) --it is the Law of Allah Ta'ala. This prohibition is a divine law which only men rabid with lust or dense in the mind will attempt to violate.
We have come a long long way since the era of the Sahaabah. The type of Hijaab (Purdah) or seclusion and separation between men and women practised by them will be described as madness by modernists of today. The most rigid Hijaab which we can conjecture in our minds in this age cannot compare with that degree of Hijaab which the Sahaabah had considered inadequate. This will emerge from the conditions of the initial permissibility which shall, Insha' Allah, be presented in the ensuing pages. Indeed, modernists and even the modernist Maulana or Sheikh will shake their heads in disbelief and we dare say, ridicule the exceptionally strict conditions which accompanied the initial permissibility of women attending the Musjid during the time of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).
Maulana/Sheikh Makda having misinterpreted the ahadith concerning initial permissibility and having entirely ignored the Muftaa Bihi (the official verdict) of the Ummah for the past fourteen centuries regarding this practice, audaciously proclaims that separate facilities for women be established in the Musaajid. Indeed this teaching of the Maulana/Shaikh is obnoxious and baatil. It is a view which cannot be substantiated on any Islamic basis. It is purely the desire and un-lslamic opinion of the propounder of women's so -called liberation and emancipation from the so-called shackles of Hijaab which Allah Ta'ala has ordained for this Ummah.
Does the Maulana/Sheikh understand this question better than the Sahaabah, the Taabieen and the Tab -e -Taabieen who constitute the first and foremost authorities of the Shariah? Did these illustrio us Sons of Islam introduce separate facilities in the Musaajid to accommodate the initial permissibility which was in vogue during the blessed age of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam)? Did the men whom Rasulullah {sallallahu alayhi wasallam) commanded the Ummah to obey and follow, bring about separate facilities inside the Musaajid to accommodate the imagined undeniable right conjectured by the Maulana/Sheikh? Did the Sahaabah and the Fuqaha then not understand the value of Ibaadat and ilm for women? What, then was the action adopted by the Sahaabah and the entire Ummah thereafter?
Far from accepting the existence of the imagined "undeniable right" and far from instituting measures to accommodate this supposed right by the creation of separate facilities in Musjids for women, the Sahaabah and the authorities thereafter outrightly prohibited women from the Musaajid. This was their answer to curb and eliminate the rise of corruption and evil which was bound to ensue in the wake of entertaining the  imagined "undeniable right" of women to visit the Musaajid. It is, therefore, ludicrous for the Ummah to even entertain the un -lslamic advice tendered by the Maulana/Sheikh