Where should women offer prayer within a mosque? And where did they pray during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?
In Muslim countries, mosques that designate areas for womenโs prayer rarely allow women to line up directly behind men in the same hall as was the practice in the Prophetโs Mosque during his lifetime.
In many Arab countries, it is common to separate menโs prayer place from womenโs, especially in small mosques. The distance between the two prayer areas varies from one mosque to another.
The majority of mosques in Muslim countries contain special halls or small rooms for women in the basement, in the ground floor, in a closed balcony, or in a small building attached to the mosque. Speakers are used to communicate the Imamโs voice in prayer.
Five disadvantages of separate women areas:
The problem in confining women to such halls is manifold:
First, these halls are much smaller than the main prayer hall, and are usually overcrowded especially during the Friday Prayer and other occasions while menโs prayer areas and mosque halls are far from full. Sometimes women outnumber men in public occasions, especially in countries with Muslim minorities.
Second, these halls are not as properly equipped and furnished as menโs halls are, in terms of carpets, lights and sound devices. Hence, women feel less welcomed and less privileged than men in mosques.
Third, the places assigned for children in these mosques are attached only to women halls, which causes much distraction for them.
Fourth, women are not allowed to enter mosques through their main gates; rather, they have to use narrow side entrances or backdoors.
Last but not least, this common design of mosques gives a manifest impression to non-Muslim visitors and also to new youth generations, males and females alike, that Islam marginalizes or isolates women, especially when they notice the incommodious, poorly furnished and noisy prayer halls of women.
They will have the impression that Islam does not approve of womenโs presence in prayer places or that men in Islam do not share the burden of caring for children, or even that Islam is a religion for males only, as is claimed by some non-Muslims.
These are only examples for the negative messages delivered to Muslims and non-Muslims through the inconvenient design of women prayer halls within mosques
Designing mosques the Prophetโs way
The design of the Prophetโs Mosque during his lifetime was like the drawing below.
The established Sunnah throughout the Prophetโs life was that men formed rows right behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and rows went backward in order. Womenโs rows, on the other hand, started at the rear of the Mosque and went forward. When boys attended the prayer, they would line up in rows separating menโs and womenโs rows.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) built the Mosque in Rabi` Al Awwal of the first Hijri year (622 A.C.) It was nearly 35-meter-long and 30-meter-wide with an approximately 2.5-m-high ceiling made of palm branches. The columns were made of palm trunks, while the walls were built of adobe bricks.
He (peace and blessings be upon him) made it spacious and opened three doors that were used by both men and women:
โ Ar-Rahmah (Mercy) door, which is also called `Atikahโs door (to the west),
โ Othmanโs door, currently known as Jibrilโs door. This is the door through which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would enter the Mosque (to the east),
โ The third door was located at the rear (to the south). At the time, the Qiblah direction was towards Jerusalem. Then, when the Qiblah was shifted to the direction of Ka`bah, in the second Hijri year, the southern door was blocked, while a northern one was opened.[1]
Men and women rows were not separated by buildings, walls or curtains, though this could have been done. Rather, the last of menโs rows was right in front of womenโs front row, and this is stated in many Hadiths.
`Urwah ibn Az-Zubair narrated from Asmaaโ that she said:
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. Thereupon the people clamored in a manner that prevented me from hearing the concluding words of the Messenger of Allah. When they calmed down, I asked a man near to me, โMay Allah bless you, what did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) say concluding his sermon?โ He answered, โIt was revealed to me that you would be tested in your graves in a manner almost similar to that of Ad-Dajjalโs trial.โ[2]
Fatimah bint Qays also narrated,
โIt was announced publicly that people should gather for prayer, and then I was among those heading for the Mosque.โ
She added,
โI was in the front row of women, which was behind the last row of men, when I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say while he was on the pulpit, โIndeed, paternal cousins of Tamim Ad-Dary sailed the seaโฆโ[3]
* The article is from our archive. It was translated from the Arabic original by AboutIslam.net. Sources referenced in the endnotes are the Arabic works, not their English translations.
[1] See Ibn Sa`dโs At-Tabaqat AlKubra, 3/609, and Wafaโ Al-Wafa Bi-Akhbar Dar Al-Mustafa, 1/75-249.
[2] Al-Bukhariโs Sahih, chapter on Funerals, 3/479, till the word โclamoredโ, and then An-Nasaโy narrated the rest, 7/200, through the chain reported by Al-Bukhari.
[3] Muslimโs Sahih, the chapter on ordeals, 8/205.
In This Series
- Too Many Restrictions?
- Access to the Imam
- Women Rows
- Menโs Prayer Disrupted by Women?
- Children Rows and Mosqueโs Doors
