Jummah Khutbah - Including Women in the Masjid

Including Women in the Masjid

Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari narrates an incident that happened in the life of Rasulullah ﷺ in a report that is transmitted by Bukhari and Muslim in their Sahih collections. He says that one day a man came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, "O Messenger of Allah, I deliberately go late to Salat al-Fajr in the masjid because of so and so, because he prolongs the prayer so much." So the narrator Abu Mas'ud said, "I never saw the Prophet ﷺ angrier than at that moment."

He got up and he gave a talk in front of the people and he said, "O people, among you are those who chase people away." And then he says, "Whoever of you leads the people, let them be brief, for behind them is the elderly and the weak and those who are pressed by need."

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 702; Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 1832)

In another report that is also related by Bukhari and Muslim, Jabir ibn Abdullah narrates that Mu'adh ibn Jabal used to pray with the Prophet ﷺ in his masjid and then he would go to a different musallah and he would lead the prayer there. And there, when he would lead the prayer, he would recite from Suratul Baqarah. So there was a man in the congregation who would exit from the prayer — in the middle of the prayer he would exit and he would complete his prayer on his own, making it light, and then he would leave.

So when Mu'adh heard about this, he made a remark and said that that person is a hypocrite. When this remark of Mu'adh reached the man, he came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, "We are a people that toil with our hands. We're laboring people and we water our camels. Last night when Mu'adh was reciting Suratul Baqarah as he led us in the prayer, I left and I prayed separately, and for that he called me a hypocrite."

So when the Prophet ﷺ heard of this, he called Mu'adh and he said, "O Mu'adh, are you a hypocrite?" — three times he repeated that — "O Mu'adh, are you of those who put people through fitna, through trials?" And then the Prophet ﷺ instructed him to recite surahs like Suratul Shams or Suratul A'la and so on.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 705; Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 1837)

Chasing People Away From the House of Allah

Brothers and sisters, if we think about these stories of the companions and we try to take a lesson from them and we apply them to ourselves, if we're honest with ourselves, we will have to admit that sometimes we commit very similar kinds of mistakes. Sometimes we also chase people away — from Allah, from the house of Allah, from the religion of Allah.

And today I want to talk about one particular group of people that often feel unwelcomed in the houses of Allah. It's our mothers, our sisters, our daughters — it's our women. A recent ISPU study has shown that there are too many of our masajid that are particularly unwelcoming to women.

In some masajid, women are allocated the smelly basement or a tight boiler room. In other masajid, there's an absence of programs that can serve their needs. And then there are masajid that are plagued with belligerent attendees that receive women with harshness.

Rasulullah ﷺ said:

"Do not prevent your women from the masajid." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 900; Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 1932)

Preventing women from accessing the masajid is not just when the husband keeps her in. It's also when the masjid keeps her out. And keeping a woman out of the masjid doesn't always happen with a sign or a security guard. It also happens by sending clear messages that this is not a place for people like you. And when masajid are the clearest, tangible symbol of Islam — especially in a non-Muslim majority country like ours — when we send the message that this place is not for you, what we're saying is that this religion is not for you.

A Personal Story

I still remember several years ago when I had recently gotten married, and my wife had moved to Texas from New York. I took her to my local masjid for Salat al-Fajr. I was so excited — for the first time I was going to pray Fajr with my wife. We got there early. I went into the men's door and she went through the women's door. After finishing Salat al-Fajr, when I came out to meet her at the car, she was there with tears in her eyes. So I asked her what happened. She said that when she entered the women's area, she was horrified to see men laying down and sleeping. So she had to leave quickly because she was embarrassed. This was supposed to be the women's prayer area, but it was occupied by men who were spending the night at the masjid.

Stories like this are too many to mention, brothers and sisters. When a woman, a sister, feels unwelcome in the masjid, it doesn't just cause her emotional pain. Many times it gets in the way of their most pressing religious needs which cannot be fulfilled anywhere else. Women need inspiration. They need education. They need counsel. They need social support — just as much as men do, if not more.

The Prophet's ﷺ Example of Inclusion

I want you to think about this: when a scholar comes to visit, how often do the men in the community have special and informal access to him? Rasulullah ﷺ recognized this reality. And therefore, on Eid Salah, he would especially walk over to the women with Sayyiduna Bilal. He would address them specifically and allow them to ask him questions, uninterrupted by the men.

I want you to consider this as well. With our local community imams, how much easier is it for brothers to approach an imam who knows their name and has an informal relationship with them? Rasulullah ﷺ, again recognizing this reality, did something about that. Women at the time of Rasulullah ﷺ would be able to approach him at home and come and ask him questions that required some privacy — in the presence of his wives, so that there wouldn't be any khalwah, so that they wouldn't be alone with Rasulullah ﷺ. But they would come and ask questions about private matters like menstrual bleeding. Once somebody came and asked about domestic violence. Once a lady came and asked about the stinginess of her husband, and so on and so forth.

But in order to be able to approach Rasulullah ﷺ, there was a level of trust that was built before that. And that's what we also need to develop and allow to develop. Now of course, this should never undermine the prohibition against khalwah between a man and a woman who are non-mahram. A man and a woman who are non-mahram to each other cannot be alone in a room. But we can still make this happen without there being khalwah — so that they are visible to other people but still have some privacy — so that a sister can have her needs fulfilled by asking questions and by getting advice.

A Designated Day for Women's Inquiries

The Prophet ﷺ had allocated a day to address the inquiries of women and to listen to their particular needs. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri narrates in a hadith related by Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 101)

The women said to the Prophet ﷺ, "The men have surpassed us in having access to you. So please designate for us a day with you." So the Prophet ﷺ promised them a day. And on that day he would meet them, he would exhort them, and he would instruct them. Among what he said to them on such a day was this: "There is no woman that outsurvives three of her children except that they will become a barrier between her and the fire of hell." So a woman in the audience said, "What about two children, ya Rasulullah?" So he said, "Even two children."

Now think about this. The Prophet ﷺ made arrangements to tend to the needs of the women in his community. And not only that, but when he had that opportunity, he knew to share a word about patience over loss — which is something very relevant to what a woman may go through in her life. But again, this starts with them feeling welcome to make a request and to extend feedback.

But when there is a lack of women or a lack of women's input in masjid leadership, or when programming doesn't always reflect the needs of women congregants, or when some physical prayer spaces in mosques are not planned adequately for women attendees — it should not surprise us that the ISPU polls report women feeling particularly unwelcome at the masjid. And again, this eventually translates for many of them into gravitating away from Islam.

Our sisters often complain that they feel disconnected at the masjid and from the masjid. They can't see properly. They can't hear properly. They can't be heard. They're not informed about what's going on. They're not represented. They're not encouraged to get involved. And they complain that they are treated as second-class citizens — that's the way they feel.

The Reasons Behind This Problem

So what are the reasons behind this? I'm not going to oversimplify and say that this problem can be reduced to 99% of the imams and masjid administrations hating women, nor am I going to say that all aunties are intolerant of children in the masjid. So what are some real and major reasons behind this? I'm going to mention two of them, inshallah.

Reason #1: Limited Resources

For a long time in this country, we Muslims have built our masajid with a focus on Salat al-Jum'ah — that this is a place where we need to have Salat al-Jum'ah. We cannot continue to build masajid with only that goal and purpose. There is a need to transition to multi-purpose Islamic centers. And this has to happen before a generation gap develops that we will not be able to recover from.

In churches, they are already facing this problem. There is a rapid decline in churches because 50% of the attendees are elderly people. The youth are missing from churches. We cannot allow this to happen to our masajid. And for that, we need to emphasize the need to develop places of worship that are multi-purpose Islamic centers and not just places to have Salat al-Jum'ah — where women are not even required to attend.

Reason #2: A Certain Type of Masjid Culture

Some of us have this image in our minds that a masjid is supposed to be a place that is only filled with men — with no children in the prayer hall — a place where nobody ever talks, nobody ever smiles, and people pray and then disperse right after the prayer. The question is: is this how the masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ was?

The masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ should be our model, just as he is our model. The masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ had many roles. No doubt it was a place for prayer — a sacred place where people came to be in intimate conversation with their Lord, to be in solace with their Lord. But it was also a place for socialization. It was also a place for da'wah. It was also a place for celebration. It was also a place for meetings, for medical care, for education. And time doesn't allow me to give examples, but many of you are familiar with incidents from the seerah and from the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ where we see all of these activities happening right inside the masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ — in his presence. And we need to emulate in our masajid the model of the masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ.

Understanding the Hadith: "Their Homes Are Better for Them"

The other part of this masjid culture that I'm talking about is the famous words of Rasulullah ﷺ where he said:

"Do not prevent your women from the masajid, and their homes are better for them." (Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 567)

Brothers and sisters, this is part of a longer hadith and it comes after something else. First he said, "Do not prevent your women from going to the masajid." And then he said, "Their homes are better for them." Addressing the men, he said your job is not to prevent your women from coming to the masjid. And then he gave a piece of advice for the women — indicating the need to observe modesty at all times in our lives. Praying at home provides more of a cover for women, and this indicates to women and men the need for modesty in our worship and in our dealings with each other. So he gave advice to the men and he gave advice to the women. And we need to understand this hadith in context.

Yes, Rasulullah ﷺ said this. But at the same time, his own wives — the mothers of the believers, رضي الله تعالى عنهن — would come to the masjid and pray in the masjid of Rasulullah ﷺ, behind the men. So if that is the case, then what does that tell us about what Rasulullah ﷺ was trying to impart? Rasulullah ﷺ was also telling the women that in case they're not able to go to the masjid and they have to pray at home, they shouldn't feel bad that they're doing something inferior and the men are doing something superior. No — they should pray at home in that case and feel satisfied that they're still getting plenty of reward by doing that.

The Views of Past Scholars on Fitna

Something else that people often bring up is the fact that some of the past scholars have cited Aisha رضي الله تعالى عنها and Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه on preventing women from the masjid when corruption increases and fitna is feared. Yes, it is true — we do have some scholars of the past who have taken the views of Sayyidatuna Aisha and Sayyiduna Umar and made a general fiqh ruling regarding that. But not all the ulama agreed with them.

But even if we consider that for a second — the reason why they did that was for a greater cause. The point of the fatwa was to shelter society from its increasing prevailing ills. There was prevailing corruption in society and they wanted to shelter the society from that. Now if you think about it, brothers and sisters, what's a greater fitna in our times for our sisters? Is the greater fitna the coexistence of men and women in the masjid? Or is it a greater fitna that 50% of our population remains uninformed about Islam? Or that they get their information about Islam via the internet? What has more fitna — the internet or the house of Allah? Or that the only way they can become informed about their deen is through an anti-Islamic worldview in their schools?

Brothers and sisters, we need to think about the greater harms and benefits here. And once again realize that the reason behind this fatwa that was given centuries ago was for the purpose of sheltering society from its prevailing ills. It was not to shelter people from the cure. And when we insist on preventing our women from coming to the house of Allah in these times and situations where we live, then we are not preventing them from fitna. We are sheltering them from the cure to the fitna that they are facing outside.

Second Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And the best of prayers and the most perfect submission is to our master Muhammad ﷺ, and to his family and companions.

And the Quraysh did that — so that they could let in whomever they wanted to and keep out whoever they wanted to. And then the Prophet ﷺ said:

"If it were not for the fact that your people are still new to Islam and too recently departed from Jahiliyyah, I would have reconstructed the Ka'ba and incorporated the far wall into the house, and I would have brought the door down to the ground level." (Sahih Muslim, Book 15, Hadith 399)

If you think about this hadith, brothers and sisters, subhanAllah — is there a more powerful message than this? That the Prophet ﷺ was willing to tear down the Ka'ba and rebuild it in a way that was more welcoming and inclusive. To him, such drastic measures were warranted to undo the Quraysh's selective permitting of who enters the house of God.

The Man Whose Son Had Died

In another report, it is related that the Prophet ﷺ once asked a man whose son had always accompanied him to the masjid, "Do you love him?" So the man said, "May Allah love you as much as I love him." And then, sometime later, the Prophet ﷺ noticed that the man was no longer around. So he asked about him and he was told that his son had died. So the Prophet ﷺ went to him and he said, "Does it not please you that you don't approach any door of paradise except that your son beats you to it and opens it for you?"

(Related by Imam Ahmed and al-Nasa'i in their collections)

What do we observe in this hadith, brothers and sisters? Notice that the man had left the masjid and it was noticed. Number two, the man was invited back — not just invited back, he was sought out and he was located. And number three, the man could have been on the brink of his fate, like so many Muslims are today — and he was recovered on time.

Our Responsibility Today

Brothers and sisters, we cannot afford to underestimate the importance of dignified accommodations, relevant programming, and even a warm welcoming committee for newcomers — especially our sisters. And we all need to rehearse the sunnah of being inclusive, approachable, and sensitive.

Women are a vital part of our community — of any community, of our community. They are half of society and they give birth to the other half. And in the Prophet's ﷺ time, they were nurtured into fulfilling their roles. They were trusted with some of the most sensitive sectors of the community — like conveying the sacred hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ, like rearing the future generations of the ummah. We can bring that back by reinstating the guidance of Rasulullah ﷺ on the matter.

Otherwise, they will either walk away — or if they survive our negligence as an unmasked Muslim, their children may not. The masjid is the Ark of Noah. Only those who ride it are going to be saved.