Setting the record straight!

I watched a documentary once which showed a group of angry Muslim women trying to get into Mosques. I really couldn't understand what there problem was. Why couldn't they get in these mosques? I was confused about their bahaviour and the behaviour of the men. I thought, 'what has gone on'?

I've been Muslim for 10 years and thats how long I've been attending mosque. You see I've never had a problem with attending a mosque....until now.

The mosque I've attended since becoming Muslim is about 20 miles from where I live. It's run mainly by Arabs from all over and is attended by almost every nationality going. Theres always something happening such as halaqahs, guest speakers, lessons, BBQs and trips, and this is for women as well as men (of course Islamic ettiqettes are always practised, such as no mixing etc).

I travel this far because the town I live in has never had much going on for women until recently. There is now a good size group of women here wanting to become active in the community and more knowledgable in their deen. So we started doing a halaqah in a Bangladeshi mosque. This lasted several weeks until they kicked us out for no good reason (and it wasn't done in a nice way may I add). Then we were able to hold our halaqahs in the Pakistani Mosque, which lasted 1 week! Actually, it was us who left because we got a telling off for bringing our children.

Issues that were raised from both mosques were mostly to do with children. One remark was "children should not be here, it's a mosque" and there was concern if any of the little ones had an accident on the floor. It's no wonder the non-muslim society think that Muslim women are oppressed, it's because of behaviour such as this.

So I want to set the record straight for the non-muslims to know what Islam says about this and for those ignorant men out there who are stopping women and children attending mosque.

Allah does say that it is better for women to pray at home. If a woman choses to do that then thats fine, it's her choice, but Allah says, 'better' not 'must'. It was narrated that Ibn ‘Umar said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “When your womenfolk ask you for permission to go to the mosque, give them permission.”

There's many other narrations to show that women at the time of the Prophet (SAW) attended the mosque. One states that the women found that the men's questions were taking most of the Prophet's (SAW) time so they requested he dedicated a day for the women and he did, he gave them lessons and sermons. (al-Bukhari) Others state the importance of women attending mosque on the day of Eid.

I must mention that women can only attend the mosque so long as they abide by the Islamic etiquettes for this.

Now lets focus on children (this makes my blood boil!). Again, there are many hadith to show that children were in the mosque at the time of the Prophet (SAW), but my favourite example is this:

The Messenger of Allah (SAW) came out to us for one of the evening prayers (Maghrib or ‘Isha’), carrying Hasan or Husayn. The Messenger of Allah (SAW) came forward, put the child down and said Takbeer (“Allaahu akbar”) to start the prayer. Then he prostrated during the prayer and his prostration lasted for a long time. My father said: I raised my head and saw the child on the back of the Messenger of Allah (SAW), so I went back to my prostration. When the Messenger of Allah (SAW) finished praying, the people said to him: ‘O Messenger of Allah, during your prayer you prostrated and it took a long time, until we thought that something had happened, or that you were receiving Revelation.’ He said, ‘Nothing happened, but my son was riding on my back and I did not want to hurry him up until he had had enough'.(Al-Nasa'i)

Now the clarification of women and children attending mosques has been made let's address the brothers concern of children having a little accident. The wonderful thing about Allah's perfect religion is that we have guidance for everything, even how to clean urine from the floor of the mosque! This next hadith not only explains this but also shows the understanding and patience of the Prophet (SAW).

Narrated Anas bin Malik: A Bedouin came and passed urine in one corner of the mosque. The people shouted at him but the Prophet stopped them till he finished urinating. The Prophet ordered them to spill a bucket of water over that place and they did so. The Prophet then said, "You have been sent to make things easy and not to make them difficult." (al-Bukhari)


My goodness! The Prophet (SAW) let the man continue until he finished, these brothers here are complaining about just a possibility of the children urinating. These type of men complain about the youth of today and they dont know how to get young adults into mosque, maybe they should strive to instil the love of the mosque in them at an early age!