One of the current problematic
issues in mosques that give access to women is the excessive sensitivity
towards, and sometimes the strict banning of, ordinary interaction between men
and women. Interestingly, those men and women do
interact normally with other men and women in the outer community in all walks
of social and professional life.
Referring back to the Sunnah, we find that such interaction between men and
women in mosques did exist during the Prophet’s lifetime; it was normal interaction that involved various religious and
social affairs.
True, some violations were
reported in the Sunnah, but they were limited and viewed as individual cases
that required no radical change in the original rulings of interaction, nor in
the arrangement of rows in prayer, or even in the architectural design of the
Mosque itself.
The following Hadiths are just
few examples of how men and women interacted in mosque, in the presence of the
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as narrated by male and female
Companions. They show what we may call “normal” interaction between men and
women in mosque, and they are clear enough to require no further elaboration.
What
the Sunnah Says
1. Asma’ (may Allah be pleased
with her) recounted:
The Messenger of Allah (peace
and blessings be upon him) stood up amongst us and preached to us, mentioning
the trial a dead person suffers in the grave, and thereupon the people clamored
in a manner that prevented me from perceiving the concluding words of the
Messenger of Allah. When they calmed down, I asked a man near to me, “May Allah
bless you, what did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) say
concluding his sermon?” and he answered, “It was revealed to me that you
would be tested in your graves in a manner almost similar to that of
Ad-Dajjal’s trial.“
2. `Abdul Rahman reported on
the authority of Malik from Nafi` from Ibn `Umar that he said, “They (male and female Companions) would perform ablution
together”.
`Abdul Rahman said, I asked
Malik, “(You mean) men and women?”
He replied, “Yes”.
I further asked, “(Was it)
during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?”
“Yes,” he affirmed.
3. Jabir (may Allah be pleased
with him) reported the following incident:
The Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) used to stand on a tree trunk when her delivered his
sermons. So, a woman from the Ansar said to him, “O Messenger of Allah! I
have a slave carpenter, shall I get him construct a pulpit for you?”
The Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) responded, “Yes”.
So, the Prophet started using
the pulpit, and one Friday, while he was delivering a sermon standing on it,
the tree trunk issued a groaning sound like that of a child. The Prophet (peace
and blessings be upon him) commented, “Indeed, this (trunk) wept due to what it
missed of Dhikr?”
4. Lady `A’ishah (may Allah be
pleased with her) said, “How good the women of Al-Ansar are! Their
bashfulness did not stop them from inquiring about religion and acquiring
understanding of it”.
5. `Abdullah ibn Mas`ud (may
Allah be pleased with him) reported:
(Once) the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) entered the Mosque accompanied by some women of
Al-Ansar; he admonished and exhorted them, and said, “Anyone of you loses
three children will surely enter Paradise“.
A woman – who was one of the
most venerated among them – stood up and said, “O Messenger of Allah, and (what
about) the woman who loses two (children)?”
The Prophet said, “And the
woman who loses two (children shall enter Paradise too)”.
6. Jabir ibn `Abdullah (may
Allah be please with him) said:
I attended the `Eid Prayer
along with the Messenger of Allah; he started with the prayer, before the
sermon, without an Adhan or an Iqamah. Then, he stood up leaning on Bilal,
commanded (people to) fear Allah and encouraged obedience to Him. He admonished
the men and exhorted them, and then moved towards the women.
When he reached the women
place, he admonished and exhorted them and said, “Give out charities, for
most of you are the fuel of Hellfire“.
Hence, an ordinary,
dark-cheeked woman stood up and asked, “Why is that, O Messenger of Allah?”
He replied, “Because you
complain much and show ingratitude to your spouses“.
So, they started giving out
their jewelry in charity, throwing their earrings and rings in Bilal’s garment.
7. Asma’ bint Yazid (may Allah
be pleased with her) narrated:
One day, the Messenger of Allah
talked to us about Ad-Dhajjal (Anti-Christ), and then a woman said,
“O Messenger of Allah, I knead
flour for my family and (it is so straining that) I feel about to breathe my
last before it turns into a dough [meaning how weak we would be in face of
Ad-Dajjal!]”.
The Prophet said,
“If he comes out while I am
amongst you, I would argue with him, and if he comes out after me, then Allah
will take care of every Muslim on my behalf“.
8. Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be
pleased with him) narrated:
The Messenger of Allah said, “Perhaps
a man of you tells what he did with his wife (i.e. regarding their intimacy)
and a woman tells others what her husband did with her?”
An African woman stood up and
said, “Yes, by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, women do that, and men do that”.
He said, “Do not do that. It
is like a male devil meeting a female devil in the road and having intercourse
with her whilst the people are watching“.
A
Female Doctor in the Prophet’s Mosque
The following Hadith requires
scrutiny as it clearly indicates that we, the Muslims, have deviated much from
the Sunnah regarding women’s status and role in mosque:
9. It was narrated from Mahmoud
ibn Labid that he said: When Sa`d received a wound (of an arrow) in his arm
vein, he could hardly move and then he was referred to a woman called Rufaydah,
who used to treat the wounded (in the Mosque).
Hence, when the Prophet passed
by him (in the evening), he would ask him, “How are you this evening?” and (in
the morning), “How are you this morning?”
And Sa`d would tell the Prophet
how he felt.
A
woman won an argument with `Umar
Things remained as such after
the lifetime of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); the story of `Umar regarding women’s dowries is well known. According to this story, `Umar ascended the Prophet’s pulpit one
day and said to the people,
“Why do you go to excess in
women’s dowries though during the lifetime the Prophet, the Companions used to
pay 400 dirhams or less in dowry?
If increase in the dowries were
a sign of piety or honor in the Sight of Allah, you would have not surpassed
them (the Companions; in this regard).
So, let me not hear that a man
paid a woman a dowry of more than 400 dirhams”.
He got down the pulpit, and
then a woman from Quraysh (described in another narration as flat-nosed, tall
woman) intercepted him and said,
“O Commander of the Believers!
Do you forbid the people to pay more than 400 dirhams as women’s dowries?”
He answered, “Yes”.
She replied, “Did you not
hear what Allah said in the Qur’an (about it)?”
He wondered, “Which verse (you
mean)?”
She answered, “Did you not hear
Allah’s saying,
{… and you have given one of
them a Qintar [great amount; in gifts], do not take [back] from it anything.
Would you take it in injustice and manifest sin?} ? (An-Nisa’ 4: 20)”
He said,
“O Allah, I ask You for pardon!
All people are more knowledgeable than `Umar (referring to himself; another
narration reads that he said, ‘A woman was right while a man (`Umar) erred’).
The practice of pitching tents
in mosques for `Itikaf and for other social purposes continued; Abdullah ibn Az-Zubayr
pitched a tent where some women tended the wounded and fed the hungry, as is
recorded in history books.
沒有留言:
張貼留言