Women Praying in the Mosque Without a Barrier and the Solution for the Disruption of the Loudspeaker’s Sound
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The questioner asks: What prevents women from praying in the mosque without a barrier separating them from the men, as long as the women are wearing hijab, especially when we look at the disruptions that occur in the prayers, such as the loudspeaker’s sound cutting out? What is your guidance, Honorable Shaykh?
The Shaykh : There is no impediment, but there is no doubt that having a barrier is preferable and further from fitnah (trial, discord or temptation), and it is better for the women in that a woman is free to adjust her abaya, uncover her face, and so on. These are very important interests. As for what happens when the loudspeaker’s sound cuts out, if we were to ask how many times the loudspeaker’s sound cuts out in a month, for example, how many times?
It cuts out, meaning when does it cut out? Once a year. And this mafsadah (harm) has an easy solution, praise be to Allah. Have you seen, if the loudspeaker’s sound cuts out for the congregation on a Friday and the others cannot hear it, they can hear it, perhaps it can be solved, everything, praise be to Allah, can be solved. So we say, if the sound cuts out for the women, each one of them prays the remainder of the prayer individually, or they bring forward one of the women to complete the prayer with them.
As for the issue of Friday prayer for the men, if that happens in the second rak'ah, they complete the Jumu'ah (the Friday prayer), because whoever catches a rak'ah of the prayer has caught the prayer. And if it is in the first rak'ah, they must find a solution that allows them to follow their imam, such as one of them moving forward to a place where he can hear the imam’s voice, and then he conveys it to them with his voice. When the imam says takbir (saying Allahu akbar), he says it, and those behind him hear him and follow him. But if that happens in the second rak'ah, the matter is easy in that case, because they have caught a rak'ah, so they complete it as Jumu'ah.
The Shaykh : There is no impediment, but there is no doubt that having a barrier is preferable and further from fitnah (trial, discord or temptation), and it is better for the women in that a woman is free to adjust her abaya, uncover her face, and so on. These are very important interests. As for what happens when the loudspeaker’s sound cuts out, if we were to ask how many times the loudspeaker’s sound cuts out in a month, for example, how many times?
It cuts out, meaning when does it cut out? Once a year. And this mafsadah (harm) has an easy solution, praise be to Allah. Have you seen, if the loudspeaker’s sound cuts out for the congregation on a Friday and the others cannot hear it, they can hear it, perhaps it can be solved, everything, praise be to Allah, can be solved. So we say, if the sound cuts out for the women, each one of them prays the remainder of the prayer individually, or they bring forward one of the women to complete the prayer with them.
As for the issue of Friday prayer for the men, if that happens in the second rak'ah, they complete the Jumu'ah (the Friday prayer), because whoever catches a rak'ah of the prayer has caught the prayer. And if it is in the first rak'ah, they must find a solution that allows them to follow their imam, such as one of them moving forward to a place where he can hear the imam’s voice, and then he conveys it to them with his voice. When the imam says takbir (saying Allahu akbar), he says it, and those behind him hear him and follow him. But if that happens in the second rak'ah, the matter is easy in that case, because they have caught a rak'ah, so they complete it as Jumu'ah.
Source
ابن العثيمين - لقاءات الرياض - اللقاء الأول — archive.org (48:38)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.