A Woman Leading the Prayer for the Members of Her Household: The Boys and the Servants
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, does a woman lead the prayer for the members of her household, the boys and the servants, or does she only lead the women?
The Shaykh:
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded her to lead the people of her house. There is no doubt that there may be men in her house, but the scholars say no; a woman does not lead a man. As we have mentioned in the hadith, a woman does not lead a man, an Arab does not lead a non-Arab, and a sinner does not lead a believer. A woman does not lead men; men pray with men. This is the correct view.
The questioner:
If there is a house with more than one woman, is it better for them to pray in congregation or individually?
The Shaykh:
Both are permissible. If they pray in congregation, it is permissible for them. If they pray individually, there is nothing wrong with that.
Honorable Shaykh, does a woman lead the prayer for the members of her household, the boys and the servants, or does she only lead the women?
The Shaykh:
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded her to lead the people of her house. There is no doubt that there may be men in her house, but the scholars say no; a woman does not lead a man. As we have mentioned in the hadith, a woman does not lead a man, an Arab does not lead a non-Arab, and a sinner does not lead a believer. A woman does not lead men; men pray with men. This is the correct view.
The questioner:
If there is a house with more than one woman, is it better for them to pray in congregation or individually?
The Shaykh:
Both are permissible. If they pray in congregation, it is permissible for them. If they pray individually, there is nothing wrong with that.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، تابع باب صلاة الجماعة والإمامة - 3 — islamhouse.com (57:16)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.