A woman asks: I would like to attend the prayer in al-Masjid al-Haram while I am in Makkah during these blessed days, but I have heard that a woman’s prayer in her home is better.

The questioner : This questioner says: I would like to attend the prayer in al-Masjid al-Haram while I am in Makkah during these blessed days, but I have heard that a woman’s prayer in her home is better, even better than in al-Masjid al-Haram. Will she receive the multiplication of reward when she prays in her home as she would if she prayed in the Haram? We fear missing out on the reward, especially since these are limited days?

The Shaykh : Yes, a woman’s prayer in her home is better than her prayer in al-Masjid al-Haram, and a man’s voluntary prayers in his home are better than his voluntary prayers in al-Masjid al-Haram. The evidence for this is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And the wording in Muslim, or in some of its wordings, is: And yet, regarding the woman, he says: “Their homes are better for them,” and regarding the man’s voluntary prayers, he says: “The best prayer of a man is in his home, except for the obligatory prayer.” And he (may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him) used to pray the voluntary prayers in his home, he used to pray the night prayer in his home, he used to pray witr in his home, and the mosque was not far from him; he only had to open the door and enter the mosque. And yet he said: And he used to pray the voluntary prayers in his home. So, if the Fajr adhan is called, for example, and you are in your home and you want to pray in al-Masjid al-Haram, and you ask: “Should I perform the rawatib in my home or in the mosque?” I say: It is better to perform it in your home. And know that the excellence can be in quantity and it can be in quality. If I gave you fifteen qirsh and gave you one riyal, which is better? These are fifteen, my brothers, five and five and five. Okay, and this is one riyal. The riyal is better in quality, and it equals twenty qirsh. This is more in number. A woman’s prayer in her home is better in quality than her prayer in the mosque in quantity. A man’s voluntary prayers in his home are better in quality than his prayer in the mosque in quantity. And it is known that if you gathered a thousand dates, the mountain would be greater and more magnificent than them. So, the prayer in the home, a woman’s prayer in her home and a man’s voluntary prayer in his home, is better in quality than the prayer in al-Masjid al-Haram in quantity. So, this quantity, even if it increases in number, is lacking in quality. The prayer in the home in quality, and note that quality has importance, and therefore we say to the woman: if she prays in her home, it is better than al-Masjid al-Haram, and its reward is greater than the reward of al-Masjid al-Haram, but not in quantity, rather in quality. My voluntary prayer in my home is better than my prayer in al-Masjid al-Haram in quality. The issue is clear now. But regarding his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: Some scholars held that this refers to the obligatory prayer, and others held that it refers to the prayer for which congregation is prescribed, which is the obligatory prayer and the prayer for rain and the like, if they pray for rain in al-Masjid al-Haram, for example. But the correct view is that the hadith is general, encompassing both the obligatory and the voluntary. But this does not mean that the prayer there is better than the prayer in the home. Rather, it means that if a man enters al-Masjid al-Haram and prays two rak'ahs, which are called the greeting of the mosque, and prays two rak'ahs as the greeting of the mosque in another mosque outside Makkah, the greeting of the mosque in al-Masjid al-Haram is better by a hundred thousand times than the greeting of the mosque in the mosques outside the Haram. Is that clear, my brothers? Okay, a man goes to the mosque and arrives before the imam has come, and he starts praying voluntary prayers between his entering the mosque and the iqamah. He prays as much as Allah wills. This is in al-Masjid al-Haram. And another man enters other mosques outside Makkah and prays the same amount. His prayer in al-Masjid al-Haram is a hundred thousand times his prayer in the other mosques. This is the meaning of the hadith: that whenever the prayer is in al-Masjid al-Haram, it is a hundred thousand times the prayer in other places. But this does not mean that we should leave our homes and come to pray in al-Masjid al-Haram in matters where congregation is not prescribed. No, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: