Is a barrier to be placed between the men's and women's prayer areas in a mosque built according to the Sunnah, or is it to be left without a barrier as it was in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)?

The questioner : We move on to the second question. May Allah reward you with good. It is: If we wanted to build a mosque according to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and provide a prayer area for women, which is more preferable: that we place a barrier between the men and women, or that we leave it as it was in the time of the Chosen One (peace and blessings be upon him)?

The Shaykh : The answer is in your last phrase.

The questioner : Fine, no problem. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And what is it? And what is it?

The questioner : That there be no barrier.

Another questioner : Meaning it is open, open.

The questioner : Yes, no problem, no problem. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : As you know.

Another questioner : But the people should not be loose, I mean.

The questioner : Yes, this is the follow-up, and you know that we live in a time...

The Shaykh : ...and people are people today.

The questioner : Our Shaykh—may Allah bless you, O Abu 'Abdullah—meaning, all the scholars of Saudi Arabia, without exception, have thrown it from one bow in the matter of uncovering the face, and after that it is not obligatory, hehehe.

The questioner : Fine, and then, our Shaykh.

Another questioner : I didn't understand, I mean, I didn't understand what I mean is that the Shaykh is not going to budge.

The questioner : Fine, our Shaykh, you know that in this time the harms have spread and the free mixing has increased, and so on, to the point that we hear today some of our brothers...

Another questioner : Go back, go back, go back to the book "The Hijab of the Muslim Woman," I tell you.

The questioner : Yes.

Another questioner : When the hadith, the hadith of 'Abdullah, this hadith is of Fudayl ibn 'Abbas.

Another questioner : Al-Fadl ibn 'Abbas.

The questioner, and yet, our Shaykh says: And if fitnah is feared, the face is not 'awrah.

The questioner : Our Shaykh, this is well known.

Another questioner : This is a defense, our Shaykh, we want to mean... we want to establish the first one.

The questioner : That is a well-known matter, leave it folded away.

Another questioner : May Allah bless you, we want to enter a little.

The questioner : The first matter is well known, leave it suppressed, but as for the second matter, as for the second matter, you know that the fitnahs have spread in this time.

Another questioner : There is no benefit.

The questioner : And if we did not place a barrier between the two sexes, and so on, the matters would increase and the harms would multiply, and especially what is the action if we said it is permissible and the matter passed safely in the five daily prayers, what is the action on the day of Jumu'ah if the number of worshippers increases and the men mix with the women, does the woman pray next to the man or what does she do?

The Shaykh : Take the hadith on its best interpretation.

The questioner : By Allah, yes.

The Shaykh : What is the news... like this issue, O professor, if it were treated in this way, the Shari'ah would die. Every time the people innovate a matter, we find a ruling for this innovation and we move away from the Sunnah. Here I see that I should remind you of a very precise scientific rule, I have not seen anyone explain it as clearly as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah explained it. The matter often becomes confused for many people from the students of knowledge and from our brothers the people of hadith or the people of the Salaf. It becomes confused for them regarding something that has occurred: is it prescribed or is it a misguiding innovation? Because if it is prescribed, it is covered by the fact that it is new, it did not exist before, and the characteristic of an innovation is that it is new. So is every new matter possibly a misguiding innovation? Or is it possible that it is a sent interest? The answer is known: it is possible. So the examples of what occurred with the earliest Salaf are known and numerous. The greatest of them is the gathering of the Companions of the Qur'an in the mushafs. So that the matter does not become confused for the student of knowledge between the misguiding innovation and the prescribed sent interest, it is necessary that he be mindful of the rule and the criterion that helps him to distinguish the sent interest from the misguiding innovation. So we are now facing this issue that you asked about. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah mentions that the new matter, for it to be not a misguiding innovation but rather a sent interest, must be looked at: First.