Is it permissible to designate a specific area for women at the back of the mosque, separated from the men? And how do they apply the hadith: “The best rows for women are the last ones, and the worst are the first ones”?

The questioner : May Allah bless you. The hadith in Sahih Muslim, in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, in its meaning: So, regarding the closed rooms prepared for this purpose, is the ruling the same as indicated by the apparent meaning of the hadith? I mean, these closed areas now, where the women are isolated from the men. It is known that when the scholars discussed the explanation of this hadith, they mentioned that the operative cause is that the worst rows for women are the first ones because they are closest to the men, as al-Nawawi and others mentioned. So, is the apparent meaning of the hadith applicable to these closed areas now?

The Shaykh : In my opinion, I cannot answer the question because I think the questioner acknowledges the legitimacy of this closing off. I do not see that as legitimate, because closing off women and confining them in mosques, especially large ones, due to the corruption of society, is a religious innovation. Confining them in a room where the movements of the imam are hidden from them, and where they are sometimes exposed to invalidating their prayer to the extent of its invalidity, is problematic. In my opinion, closing off women in special rooms in mosques is exactly like cutting off the row with a long pulpit. All of this is a later innovation, so we must return to what the earliest generations were upon. This is a discussion of yesterday; what is it like?
Abu Layla : Yes, Shaykh, but my brother Abu Abdullah

The Shaykh : The brother was present, I don’t think he was present. It was said that women today are not like women of yesterday. Of course, this is observed, and the implication of this saying is that we should confine women in these rooms so that men do not see any of their private parts. So my answer was somewhat lengthy, and time was short. I said in a long discussion that it is not among the prescribed public benefits to confine women in these rooms, because the reason for the confinement is the failure of the Muslim society, including women, to fulfill the obligatory religious duties. If women entered the mosques wearing the jilbab in the manner prescribed by the Shari'ah, those who build these rooms would not think to confine women in them. But when they see, unfortunately, that some women enter wearing a jacket or a skirt, or what they call today a jilbab, which is not a jilbab reaching to the mid-calf, and perhaps wearing sheer flesh-colored stockings, and so on, in order to shield the gaze of men from seeing these private parts, we say to them: No, it is upon us to return to the application of Islam and return the Muslim society to what it was in the first era. We do not want it to be divided. We are fighting the society today; we want the Muslims, with their scholars, students, and common people, to return to what the Salaf were upon. Not sectarianism, but as Allah said and as the Messenger of Allah said. There is no objection to disagreement, as was the case in the first era. Not to narrow sectarianism. We also want to return the private and public societies to what the Salaf were upon, such as mosques. We do not want long pulpits in them. We do not want pulpits that represent legal stratagems. Be aware that the old pulpits cut off the rows, so they brought us pulpits where one enters from the mihrab and climbs over the people from above onto a balcony. Why this roundabout and this detour? This is all three steps, and Allah is sufficient for the believers in fighting. The best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. How much does it cost in dollars and dinars for this preacher to climb onto this balcony? They claim we do not want to cut off the row. Good, this claim is obligatory, but it can be done without this expense by adopting a pulpit with three steps, and the matter is settled. Likewise, we do not want these decorations. Finally, we do not want these rooms for women. We want women to be like the men who were before. Women enter veiled, and men advance in the rows. And then the previous hadith applies: So we do not want to reverse the indication of the hadith due to the deviation that has occurred in the construction of these rooms in mosques. Call the adhan, my brother, before we go out of time.