Why are women not allowed into the main prayer hall in most mosques?

There are problems with the segregation for sure, but here are some essentials:

- It's most mosques in the main branches, whereas there are also some sects of Islam who don't do the segregation thing.

- Muslims bend over a lot when they pray. It's preferred that women don't bend over in front of men when praying. That doesn't mean they can't pray side by side, but it does mean they can't pray in front of men. These rules need not be applied to Mahrams according to Sunni Islam.

- This, in addition to the previous point, is most important. In a mosque, Muslims HAVE TO pray foot to foot and shoulder to shoulder. This is why you'll notice that even if a mosque is not full, the people are all standing RIGHT next to each other because there should not be any significant space between them.

- Mosques, at the time of the Prophet's saying, were not establishments as you think of today. When he says "mosque" in that quote, he is not differentiating between home and some structure called a "mosque". Mosque, in Arabic, is "Masjid" which means place of prostration. In the Quran, the temple on the holy mount is referred to as a "masjid" indicating that a masjid/mosque is not specifically a Muslim place of worship.

- "The best mosques for women are the inner parts of their houses" >> this does not exclude men from being there.

Personally, I'd be happy to give up physically attending mosque and stay home lol. It's not like we get more "points" for it lol. The Islamic "points" system is based on intention (and secondarily on action) therefore if you want to pray in a mosque but pray at home for some reason, you get the "points" for praying in a mosque. This is difficult for humans to understand because humans are incapable of establishing accurate intent for everything whereas, in Islam, God sees what's "in your heart".

I also don't care if men/women pray side by side split by gender. That way you take a step closer to a better situation and you avoid stepping on the toes of people who's culture prefers that young men and women don't interact extremely closely.

Overall, I'm not a big fan of mosques. I love the feeling from praying with lots of people at the same time, but I think the concept of "mosque" has taken a turn for the worst.

Though I don't agree with Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, if we are going to talk about it, it's important that we understand not only any errors, but also the methodology. The methodology, I can tell you for a fact, is VERY VERY VERY VERY dependent on precision. So taking one hadith and using it as a basis is really a poor way to judge, considering it takes from 10's to 100's of Hadiths plus committees plus expert opinions to make a ruling.

For all ATW knows, the Hadith posted could be fabricated or could be from the fabricated book of hadiths or could be from the "Weak" book of hadiths. This is the danger in taking a quote out of something you have little knowledge about. There's no reference here so I don't know (hopefully there's a reference to the source on the wiki page).

Anyways, all in all, I think it could be better but there are some practical things which need to be addressed (bending over + requirement to pray shoulder to shoulder).

It will interest many to know that women and men are NOT segregated during the Hajj.

 

I was curious about this too. There was a group of about 10 young muslims praying in the UoH library basement the other day...one was a girl who was a good 10 feet behind all the guys.

 

In the time of the Prophet (pbuh), the sunnah was that women would pray in the same area behind men with no partition at all. Today, I believe mosques do it to prevent male and female interaction which could lead to fitnah. But I disagree with this and I believe there should be no partitions.

Regarding praying foot by foot, this is only done with Muslims pray in congregation. Muslims believe their prayer is stronger and reward is higher when they pray in congregation.

 

Jackie is morphing into the new Basso.

Did some Muslim woman spurn his affection or what?

What has happened?

 

Why do Germans start so many world wars?

 

Because religion usually boils down to control of your sex organs.

 

To oppress women, KC. To oppress women.

Seriously, they "only" started WWII. WWI wasn't started by Germany, in my opinion, but rather by Serbia, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Serbia by encouraging the killing of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria-Hungary by making impossible demands of Serbia that insured war, and Russia by mobilizing, which was really the kicker. After Russia mobilized, war was almost impossible to stop, going by the standards of the day. Germany didn't want to fight a war. There may have been elements in the government who encouraged it, but they were in a minority. All the monarchs of the period were related and when war broke out, they were appalled.

 

I find these sorts of questions and answers interesting. Nothing wrong with civil curiosity.

 

I agree. The most essential function of religion is sexual discipline--which sounds hot, but really isn't.

 

agreed, but also before their were ways for Kings and Queens, take Spain for example, to enforce laws- scaring the **** out of people through the church became a pretty effective means to keep people in line.

 

That's very odd. I have seen some people try and use religion for this purpose, but I've never seen that as the purpose of religion.

 

The reason why muslims don't let women in the mosques is because all the dudes would be distracted by all the women bending over in front of them.

Awww yeah, nice bootay.

 

I'm an Ismaili Muslim (and not a very good practicing one). In our jamatkhana (mosque) women and men are separated, but women are on left side and men on right. Not front and back.

 

Does this mean Muhammad was the original perpetrator of the concept of "Hoes down G's up"?

 

fixed

 

yea I have been too and seen mosque where they are side by side and separated and not front and back, it goes both ways, perhaps even if the people don't agree with it at times some carry it on as to not change tradition, agree disagree, its what they chose, who knows in time they could decide to evolve the rule with modern times or it could be something they wish to keep to tradition and not change things. Some women might even be in favor just because it was some tradition and keep it at that, obviously there are many who would take troubles with it, like i s aid there are different mosques and you will see different situations in some of them.

Just like the burqua, I know many who don't wear them and that's fine. There are those who don't like them and feel oppressed, and I know some who even prefer to keep it on and like what they symbolize and say it keeps the focus away from materialism and they think its sad that people are actually nowadays in some countries forcing them to take them off as per their own standard of freedom and enforcing it on some of the people. I was really disappointed to see a Muslim country's girls soccer team teenagers I believe not being allowed to play a in a international tournament they qualified for and were replaced because there head scarfs were ruled illegal. Religious freedom down the drain in our modern times, yes yes, of course some people who claim to share the same faith who kill others of their own faith along with others are just evil and terrorist so the rest of the people who have nothing to do with those folks have to be scrutinized greatly.