Is it permissible for a menstruating woman to give lessons or to listen to a lesson in the mosque?

The questioner : O Shaykh, regarding listening to a lesson or giving one in front of the wall of the mosque, is it permissible?

The Shaykh : As for listening to a lesson from a man, it is permissible. Do not rush. You have fulfilled your duty, and it is my duty to fulfill my duty with you. As for her entering the mosque to listen to a lesson from a male teacher, it is permissible whether she is menstruating or in a state of purity. As for her entering the mosque to listen to a lesson from a woman teaching in the mosque, this is a religious innovation (bid'ah) with no basis in the Sunnah, whether she is in a state of purity or menstruating.

The questioner : This is in the endowments (awqaf).

The Shaykh : Endowments of Allah. We seek help from Allah.

The questioner : If you could expand for us a bit more on... O Shaykh.

Another questioner : Umm Mustafa said that she issued a ruling that it is permissible for her to enter and listen to a lesson from women.

The Shaykh : My brother, the issue has two aspects. One aspect concerns the menstruating woman: is it permissible for her to enter the mosque or not? This one who is called Umm Mustafa is a teacher in the mosques. She is correct when she says that a woman may enter the mosque while menstruating; this is sound speech. But when the question is linked to her entering the mosque to listen to a lesson, the previous detail applies.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, indeed. Without a doubt, she does not consider her entering the mosque—meaning the school now, any school—to be from the innovations that have occurred in the present age, of which most teachers, preachers, and counselors, and perhaps even muftis, are not aware of their innovated nature. Since she teaches in the mosques, she benefits from the opinion that contradicts the four schools of jurisprudence, which is undoubtedly correct: that a menstruating woman may enter the mosque. She exploits this opinion to increase the number of attendees at her lesson. But if it were said to her that your teaching in the mosque is a dangerous initiative and a bad custom that did not exist before, they would say that women need it, and so on. This is what we have heard from many pious Muslim women, some of them Salafi and some of them Khalafi. As we know for certain, no innovation has been introduced except that a Sunnah was extinguished. I saw with my own eyes in the Salah al-Din Mosque, where our brother Muhammad Shuqra gives the sermon, that I went for a prayer—I no longer remember if it was Zuhr or 'Asr—and some men were entering the mosque, meaning what is called today the Haram from the courtyard, and then returning. When I entered and wanted to go in, seeing the men returning, I turned back. I said, "What is the matter?" They said, "The mosque is occupied entirely by women." The teacher there, in the front or on the pulpit, was teaching. They occupied the mosque and prevented the men from entering to pray.

The questioner : During the time of prayer.

The Shaykh : No, it appears to be after, and I was also informed that Abu Malik, with difficulty, was able to get out, because the women who were present were taking up a large portion of the mosque. Then the women increase in number, meaning every period. In any case, I think now, completely, and as came in some hadiths, "You will live long enough to see this with your own eyes." I think now there are mosques specifically for women where an imam leads the women in prayer.
The student : This is a recent occurrence, O our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : This is present.

The Shaykh: How.
The student : Currently, it exists in the Zarqa school. Yes, we have a mosque.
Another student: The girls' school.
The student : We have a school with a mosque where women pray in it as well.
Another student: A regular mosque.
The student : ... meaning it is not opened except for women.

The Shaykh : I mean a mosque, a mosque, not a mosque in a school. That is a prayer place (musalla).
The student : ... .

The Shaykh : Ah, that is a prayer place.
The student : A mosque with a minaret and everything, and it has a regular external door. A regular mosque.
Another student: A regular mosque, but inside the school.

The Shaykh : A regular mosque.
The student : It has an imam.
Another student: No, the adhan is not called in it, my brothers. We live in the neighborhood there. The adhan is not called in it for women to pray in it.
The student : Al-Husayn Mosque, which is on Al-Husayn Street.
Another student: Meaning, if a minaret is raised on it, does that mean it has become an official mosque?

The Shaykh : No, the mosque is that a mosque is endowed.
The student : It is endowed.

The Shaykh : A mosque is endowed.
The student : It is endowed, but for whom? For whom?
Another student: But for the female students.
The student : In the school.
Another student: ...

The Shaykh : My brother, it does not concern us in any case, but I see that in the distant future, there will be mosques specifically for women.
The student : In the neighborhoods, meaning.

The Shaykh : And this is undoubtedly contrary to the Sunnah. Her prayer in her home is better for her than her prayer in her mosque. And the cause of all this is heedlessness regarding the guidance of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And the cause of heedlessness regarding the guidance of the Messenger is ignorance of the Sunnah. Because the one who wants to say that this is an innovation or a Sunnah needs to have a very comprehensive knowledge of the noble Prophetic life that he lived in his time (peace and blessings be upon him) with his noble Companions, both women and men. Then he can say that this is a Sunnah and this is an innovation. And your earlier statement that this has occurred reminds me of something.