Is it permissible for an elderly woman to travel without a mahram to the sacred places such as Makkah and al-Madinah?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. Is it permissible for an elderly woman to travel without a mahram to the sacred places such as Makkah and al-Madinah?
The Shaykh : What do they do?
The questioner : She travels.
The Shaykh : She travels alone?
The questioner : No, with a group... meaning, or with women, meaning elderly women.
The Shaykh : Meaning without a mahram.
The questioner : Without a mahram, yes.
The Shaykh : With elderly women.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : You know the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): Although some scholars say otherwise than what you have heard, "when the text comes, opinion ceases, and there is no independent legal reasoning in the place of an explicit text."
The questioner : Even if it is her fard?
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : Even if it is her fard?
The Shaykh : Even if it is her fard, meaning, if she wants to perform Hajj without a mahram, it is not her fard. That is, Hajj is not obligatory for a woman except with a mahram, just as it is not obligatory for a man to perform Hajj unless he has money and is physically healthy. If one of those known conditions found in the books of Islamic jurisprudence is lacking, Hajj is not obligatory upon him. One of the conditions for a woman for Hajj to be obligatory upon her is a mahram. Therefore, the Messenger (peace be upon him), as reported in "Sahih al-Bukhari," a woman wanted...
The student: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
"A woman wanted to perform Hajj in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and she asked her husband to travel with her, but he refused, saying: 'I want to go on the expedition with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).' When she brought her matter to him (peace and blessings be upon him), he (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered him to leave the expedition with him and to travel with her to the House of Allah the Sacred."
The Shaykh : What do they do?
The questioner : She travels.
The Shaykh : She travels alone?
The questioner : No, with a group... meaning, or with women, meaning elderly women.
The Shaykh : Meaning without a mahram.
The questioner : Without a mahram, yes.
The Shaykh : With elderly women.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : You know the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him):
A woman should not travel except with a mahram
لا تسافر امرأة سفرًا إلا ومعها محرمThe questioner : Even if it is her fard?
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : Even if it is her fard?
The Shaykh : Even if it is her fard, meaning, if she wants to perform Hajj without a mahram, it is not her fard. That is, Hajj is not obligatory for a woman except with a mahram, just as it is not obligatory for a man to perform Hajj unless he has money and is physically healthy. If one of those known conditions found in the books of Islamic jurisprudence is lacking, Hajj is not obligatory upon him. One of the conditions for a woman for Hajj to be obligatory upon her is a mahram. Therefore, the Messenger (peace be upon him), as reported in "Sahih al-Bukhari," a woman wanted...
The student: Peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
"A woman wanted to perform Hajj in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and she asked her husband to travel with her, but he refused, saying: 'I want to go on the expedition with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).' When she brought her matter to him (peace and blessings be upon him), he (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered him to leave the expedition with him and to travel with her to the House of Allah the Sacred."
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.