Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Women leading other women in salat |
|---|
| assing |
| 09/23/00 at 14:56:13 |
| Alhamdulilllah wa salat wa salam a'la rusulillah ammma bad, a sister asked me what is the islamic ruling regarding women leading other women in salat (she asked me this because she teaches at an all girls muslim school and when it comes time for salat they all pray individually rather than in a jamaah and i just wanted to share this perhaps it may be of benefit to some, so by the help of Allah, after looking through quite a few fiqh books, especially those dealing specificly with fiqh for women and consulting with sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Fawzan, one of the best and most detailed answers i found for this topic was from the book Ahkaam ibadat'il mara' fee shareeyyatu' l islamiyyah (The rulings on womens' worship in the islamic shariah) written by Dr. Sua'd Ibraheeem wherein it says; The ruling on women leading salat The scholars of fiqh are unanimous that a woman cannot lead men in salat, however they differ as to whether or not it is permissable for her to lead other women. Imam Abu Hanifah, imam As-Shaafiee and imam Ahmad said it is permissible and imam said it is immpermissable. Abu Thawr and At Tabari took very strange opinion by say that a woman can lead salat unconditionally - for both men and women. The details from madhaahib for this issue are as follows: The Hanafi madhab: It is permissable for a woman to lead other women in salat, but she should be in the middle of them when leading, and this is from the narration of A'ishah that she used to lead the women in asr salat and she used to stand in the middle of them. (Bidayil' mujtahid vol. 1 pg.145) The Shaafi'ee madhab: The Shaafiyyah are of the opinion that it is mustahab (highly recommended) for a woman to lead other women in salat. As Shaikh Al Ghazali said "every congregational salat that is mustahab for men then it it is also mustahab for women, optional prayers (nafilah) or obligatory" and he used as a proof the hadeeth of umm Waraqah that the rasulallah (saw) used to say "lets go visit the shaheedah(martry)" and he permitted her to call the adhan and to lead the people of her house for the five salawat and she had memorised the quran.(Asad Al Gaabah vol.7 pg.2408) The maaliki madhab: The malikiyyah have two conditions for leading salat; islam and being a male, and since a women does not fulfill thses two conditions then salat behind her (for man or woman) is immpermisable.( As sharh As sagheer vol.1 pg.433) The Hanbali madhab: They are also of the opinion that it is mustahab for a woman to lead other women in salat, using as a proof the hadeeth of umm Waraqah.(Al Mughni vol. 7 pg.35) Summary The majority of the scholars see it as mustahab for a woman to lead other women in salat and this is what we (the scholars) see as the stronger opinion from the general evidences reported on this issue. Also Sheikh Al Fawzan said that it is also better for them to pray together (than individually) because this is a way of increasing khushoo and it brings the hearts closer. Where the woman stands when leading other women in jammah Whenever a woman leads other women in salah she stands with them in the middle of the row, and the proofs for this are many, from amongst them the hadeeth that has been narrated in the Mussanaf of ibn Abi Shaybah and Bayhaqi with authenic chain (isnad saheeh) from umm Al Hasan that she saw umm Salamah wife of the prophet (saw) lead the women in salat and she stood in the middle of them, and it has also been narrated by Al Bayhaqi from the hadeeth of A'ishah that "she used to call the adhan, iqamah and lead the women and she used to be in the middle of them" ( Al Bayhaqi, Ad Darqutuni and Abdul Razzaq, imam Nawawi in Al majmu'a said that its' isnad is saheeh) The ruling on women calling the adhan and iqamah The adhan and the iqamah is not obligatory upon women and this is the opinion of Anas ibn Malik, Saeed ibn Musayyab, Abu Thawr and imam Maalik, Ibn Qudaamah said in the Mughni "and i know of no differences about this". However is it the sunnah for them to make the adhan and iqamah? It has been narrated from imam Ahmad that "if they do it no broblem and if they don't them it is permissable", and imam As Shaafi said "if they make adhan and iqamah no problem". The hadeeth of Aishah mentioned before that "she used to make the adhan and the iqamah" (Al Bahaqi) also supports this opinion. One thing i would like to draw your attention to here is that one may find in some books of hadeeth or fiqh like Fiqh As Sunnah by Saeed Sabiq rahimuallah, a narration from ibn Umar that "there is no adhan or iqamah for women" but as Shaikh Al Albani had pointed out that in Tamam Am Minnah (the authentification of the hadeeth in Fiqh As Sunnah) pg.153, that this is not Abdullah ibn umar Al Khattab but rather Abdullah ibn umar ibn Naafi' al umari al mukkabir and he is weak therefor the hadeeth is weak, and it also goes against an authenthic narration from Al musannaf (vol.1 pg.223) that ibn Umar himself when he was asked "should women make the adhan"? so he got angry and said "am i going to prevent them rom the rememberance of Allah?" and imam Ahmad used this as a proof for the permissablity of women making the adhan. Finally as Shaikh Al Albani has "in general all these narrations are okay to work by, espcially there are strenghted by the generality of the hadeeth "innmaa an nisa' shaqaa'iq ar rijal - indeed women are the sisters of men" the meaning of which applies to the one of general rules of fiqh and that is "whatever rulings applies to men applies to women except if there is a dalel to prove otherwise". wallahu' a'lam |
Individual posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Jannah.org, Islam, or all Muslims. All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster and may not be used without consent of the author.The rest © Jannah.Org |