News Women-only mosque opens in Los Angeles.
- Thread starter zaman-gm
- Start date
MehmetHilmi
Junior Member
Hmm. A very good idea. I've always wondered if women could lead women in prayer.
zaman-gm
Junior Member
sister herb
Official TTI Chef
Women's mosques have existed in China for several hundred years. They can be found in the Chinese provinces of Henan, Shanxi and Hebei. Some countries beyond China also have women-only mosques, but they are rare.
In China, separate women-only mosques were built by the Muslim communities there. This is in contrast to Muslim communities outside China, where usually men and women will use the same mosque, with gender-segregated washing and prayer rooms. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, Hui Chinese women had begun to form their own mosques.
For religious reasons, the Hui Muslim communities had started to cultivate more theological learning among the women. As a result, a portion of the female Muslims who had experienced a religious education, gradually incorporated Islamic observances into their daily religious activities, and this produced the establishment of women's mosques.
By the 20th century, there were separate places of worship as women-only mosques. They are a special form of the sacred building, either as a separate institution or mosque attached to an existing larger mosque. Their managers are women, wives of the "Imam" of a larger mosque. The commonly used title for it is Shiniang.
List of selected women-only mosques
Beidajie Nusi, Zhengzhou (Henan)
Beixiajie Nusi, Zhengzhou
Minzhulu Nusi, Zhengzhou
Xishilipu Nusi, Zhengzhou
Jiangfanglu Nusi, Xi'an (Shaanxi)
Qian Xinchengdao Nusi (Hohhot Nüsi), Hohhot (Inner Mongolia)
Hexi Nusi, Zhoukou (Henan)
Tiedanjie Nüsi, Kaifeng (Henan)
Botou Qingzhen Nüsi, Botou, Cangzhou City (Hebei)
Peking (Women's mosque, jap.)
Xiaotaoyuan Mosque, Shanghai
Women's mosques outside China
Asia
Buchara, Uzbekistan
Kabul, Afghanistan
Maledives
Byblos, Lebanon
Africa
Khartum, Sudan
Gabiley, Northern Somalia
Europe
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Berlin, Germany
North America
Los Angeles, California. The first women's mosque in the United States opened in 2015, located in a multifaith cultural center in the Pico-Union district.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2012/12/chinas-womens-mosques-claiming-womens-space-in-the-mosque/
In China, separate women-only mosques were built by the Muslim communities there. This is in contrast to Muslim communities outside China, where usually men and women will use the same mosque, with gender-segregated washing and prayer rooms. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, Hui Chinese women had begun to form their own mosques.
For religious reasons, the Hui Muslim communities had started to cultivate more theological learning among the women. As a result, a portion of the female Muslims who had experienced a religious education, gradually incorporated Islamic observances into their daily religious activities, and this produced the establishment of women's mosques.
By the 20th century, there were separate places of worship as women-only mosques. They are a special form of the sacred building, either as a separate institution or mosque attached to an existing larger mosque. Their managers are women, wives of the "Imam" of a larger mosque. The commonly used title for it is Shiniang.
List of selected women-only mosques
Beidajie Nusi, Zhengzhou (Henan)
Beixiajie Nusi, Zhengzhou
Minzhulu Nusi, Zhengzhou
Xishilipu Nusi, Zhengzhou
Jiangfanglu Nusi, Xi'an (Shaanxi)
Qian Xinchengdao Nusi (Hohhot Nüsi), Hohhot (Inner Mongolia)
Hexi Nusi, Zhoukou (Henan)
Tiedanjie Nüsi, Kaifeng (Henan)
Botou Qingzhen Nüsi, Botou, Cangzhou City (Hebei)
Peking (Women's mosque, jap.)
Xiaotaoyuan Mosque, Shanghai
Women's mosques outside China
Asia
Buchara, Uzbekistan
Kabul, Afghanistan
Maledives
Byblos, Lebanon
Africa
Khartum, Sudan
Gabiley, Northern Somalia
Europe
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Berlin, Germany
North America
Los Angeles, California. The first women's mosque in the United States opened in 2015, located in a multifaith cultural center in the Pico-Union district.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2012/12/chinas-womens-mosques-claiming-womens-space-in-the-mosque/
zaman-gm
Junior Member
Salam,
I'm also thinking like this. Is there any Female Sahaba (RA) did play the role of Imam?!!
MehmetHilmi
Junior Member
It's allowed for women to lead prayer of women according to Hanafis, Shafis, and Hanbalis. Hanafis view it as disliked, but it's not haram. So yes there can be female Imams for females. The only problem is Juma. Women cannot lead Juma. But since that prayer is not required for women anyways, they can just pray Dhuhr as a group.
Assalamu alaikum
Apparently some members are seeing it as an innovation. As brother Mehmet explained, it is not. But I am thinking, why we never wonder so much, when we hear about a men-only mosque. Afterall, that is an "innovation" too (I know, strictly speaking it is not). In the time of the Prophet, there were no men-only mosques. Now we never feel as disturbed by men-only mosques as we do with women-only mosques. Just wondering.
Wassalamu alaikum.
Apparently some members are seeing it as an innovation. As brother Mehmet explained, it is not. But I am thinking, why we never wonder so much, when we hear about a men-only mosque. Afterall, that is an "innovation" too (I know, strictly speaking it is not). In the time of the Prophet, there were no men-only mosques. Now we never feel as disturbed by men-only mosques as we do with women-only mosques. Just wondering.
Wassalamu alaikum.
Um Ibrahim
Alhamdulilah :)
Is there a men only masjid? That's strange. The Prophet clearly told his followers to not stop women from coming to the masjid. So women have every right to come to the masjid if they please.
I don't think women only or men only masjids are a good idea. There's so much that men and women can benefit from each other. men and women should help each other and balance each other in opinions. Just my opinion...
sister herb
Official TTI Chef
Female-only mosque in NW China
Precious Star
Junior Member
Juma is required for all muslims. Read the sura juma in the Quran, it does not differentiate between men and women.
Precious Star
Junior Member
Everything is permissible unless it is expressly forbidden -- not the other way around.
MehmetHilmi
Junior Member
With all due respect sister, that is only for worldly matters. In religious matters, everything is forbidden unless it is allowed. At least that is what I learned.
But in my opinion opening female mosques (or female facilities) is not an innovation in religion. It is a worldly innovation that makes it easier for women. It isn't like they pray 5 rakats for Fajr instead of 4. Now that would be wrong.
Depends on who you view as Ulema. SO far, I have not heard any condemnation.
Again, they aren't reinventing prayer or anything. They're just making a female only mosque. If anything, this should push us to provide more opportunities in our mixed mosques for women. They only opened up their own mosque because they felt left out at the normal ones.
The mosque is a house of Allah. We should make it so that not only our sisters feel welcome, but also non Muslims feel welcome to it too. The aesthetics, architecture, and even acoustics within a mosque are very important as well.
sister herb
Official TTI Chef
I don´t see the women-only mosques as bad things at all. Like in the video sisters said, it is the great place for women to learn more things, increase their islamic knowledge and give them skills to teach their children in home to become better muslims. These kind of mosques have been exist already hundred of years. Why we just now start to think are them allowed or not?
Because of lack of our own knowledge that here have been kind of mosques.
Because of lack of our own knowledge that here have been kind of mosques.
zaman-gm
Junior Member
Yes it is. I agreed with you Brother.
Only a single Imam select for leading Salah continuously? It could be a question related with shariah!!
Allah Knows best.
queenislam
★★★I LOVE ALLAH★★★
Assalamu'alaikum!
Allah swt mentioned in the holy Qur'an that you can't stop muslim/s from entering mosque/s so it is not advise such for example mosque for women only.
~Wassalam
Allah swt mentioned in the holy Qur'an that you can't stop muslim/s from entering mosque/s so it is not advise such for example mosque for women only.
~Wassalam
Assalamu alaikum dear sister Queenislam,
You have made a very good point. This is also my understanding on this issue. But before I comment any further I have to tell you all a very interesting anekdote from my life.
It was the first half of 1990's. I was studying in one of the bigger universities in Germany. There was a big number of muslim students studying in that university. Although we had a mosque near the university campus in a market, at just about 10 minutes of walk, the muslim students asked the university to reserve a prayer room for the muslim students. Not only could we get a relatively bigger room without any difficulty, the person dealing with us was kind enough and knowledgeable enough to suggest us, that we could also build the taps for washing in one of the corner of that room. And so we did. We spread a carpet on the floor and made it a nice and cosy place for prayer. We would take a few minutes between two lectures, just come to that prayer room, offer salah and go to the next lecture. Technically speaking it was not a masjid but a prayer room (called musalla) but since we also started praying jum'a prayer there, we would usually call it a masjid.
On one fine day, I wanted to offer salah before going to the next lecture. I opened the door...and what do I see...a big circle of sisters, listening carefully to another sister. What an Imaan-nurturing scene, so I thought. Before I could think of anything else, one of the sisters waked me up from my thoughts and called loudly, "Have you not seen, that notice on the door outside?" Since I was standing just at the door, I just needed to flap the door and there I saw that notice she was talking about. The notice was saying something like, "The prayer room will remain reserved for the sisters from time "this" to "that". Okay, I thought. I closed the door and went to my lext lecture.
Since that happened to many of the brothers many times, we realized we needed to talk to the sisters. We found out, their leader is a german muslima, who was converted in her youth while studying oriental studies. We argued, that this was a prayer room and it should remain accessible to all muslims all the time. But they argued, that they would need a mahram, if any of the brothers was present in that room. We argued back, that the prayer room was not a private but a public place.... So it went on and on. In the mean time, we started respecting their need to have a gathering. After some time, they also realized, that they were creating a hurdle for others to come to the mosque. So they found another place for their gatherings and the matter was resolved with time.
The story might be long and boring but there are important lessons to learn. I will get back to the original topic in my next post.
Wassalamu alaikum.
You have made a very good point. This is also my understanding on this issue. But before I comment any further I have to tell you all a very interesting anekdote from my life.
It was the first half of 1990's. I was studying in one of the bigger universities in Germany. There was a big number of muslim students studying in that university. Although we had a mosque near the university campus in a market, at just about 10 minutes of walk, the muslim students asked the university to reserve a prayer room for the muslim students. Not only could we get a relatively bigger room without any difficulty, the person dealing with us was kind enough and knowledgeable enough to suggest us, that we could also build the taps for washing in one of the corner of that room. And so we did. We spread a carpet on the floor and made it a nice and cosy place for prayer. We would take a few minutes between two lectures, just come to that prayer room, offer salah and go to the next lecture. Technically speaking it was not a masjid but a prayer room (called musalla) but since we also started praying jum'a prayer there, we would usually call it a masjid.
On one fine day, I wanted to offer salah before going to the next lecture. I opened the door...and what do I see...a big circle of sisters, listening carefully to another sister. What an Imaan-nurturing scene, so I thought. Before I could think of anything else, one of the sisters waked me up from my thoughts and called loudly, "Have you not seen, that notice on the door outside?" Since I was standing just at the door, I just needed to flap the door and there I saw that notice she was talking about. The notice was saying something like, "The prayer room will remain reserved for the sisters from time "this" to "that". Okay, I thought. I closed the door and went to my lext lecture.
Since that happened to many of the brothers many times, we realized we needed to talk to the sisters. We found out, their leader is a german muslima, who was converted in her youth while studying oriental studies. We argued, that this was a prayer room and it should remain accessible to all muslims all the time. But they argued, that they would need a mahram, if any of the brothers was present in that room. We argued back, that the prayer room was not a private but a public place.... So it went on and on. In the mean time, we started respecting their need to have a gathering. After some time, they also realized, that they were creating a hurdle for others to come to the mosque. So they found another place for their gatherings and the matter was resolved with time.
The story might be long and boring but there are important lessons to learn. I will get back to the original topic in my next post.
Wassalamu alaikum.
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Assalamu alaikum
Now coming back to the original topic: I think the women-only mosque was born, when the first mosque with a separate room for women was built. It was born exactly on that day, only it was not visible to us at that time.
The presence of mosques with separate rooms for men and women created the impression among muslims, that there was something wrong in it, if muslim men and women were gathered in one room. Guess what happened, when only one room was available? Yes, men-only mosques were visibly born. I am wondering sister Um Ibrahim has never seen a men-only mosque.
Women-only mosques are just a logical consequence of men-only mosques. So I guess, we will have to live with the situation until the muslims have realize, what had gone wrong in the very beginning.
Wassalamu alaikum.
Now coming back to the original topic: I think the women-only mosque was born, when the first mosque with a separate room for women was built. It was born exactly on that day, only it was not visible to us at that time.
The presence of mosques with separate rooms for men and women created the impression among muslims, that there was something wrong in it, if muslim men and women were gathered in one room. Guess what happened, when only one room was available? Yes, men-only mosques were visibly born. I am wondering sister Um Ibrahim has never seen a men-only mosque.
Women-only mosques are just a logical consequence of men-only mosques. So I guess, we will have to live with the situation until the muslims have realize, what had gone wrong in the very beginning.
Wassalamu alaikum.
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queenislam
★★★I LOVE ALLAH★★★
Assalamu'alaikum!
brother,
I would gather from you story that if one know their religion well ,issues would not arise.
In the holy Qur'an Allah swt said;
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim:Allah swt will raise people with knowledge.
~Wassalam
brother,
I would gather from you story that if one know their religion well ,issues would not arise.
In the holy Qur'an Allah swt said;
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim:Allah swt will raise people with knowledge.
~Wassalam