A woman staying all the day in Al-Masjid Al-Haraam

6-12-2009 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalam Alaikum, By the grace of Allah i am performing hajj this year Inshallah. Our hotel is in Azizia which is far from Ka'aba. I wanted to know can i spend my whole day in Masjid-e-Haram as it wont be possible to come for every prayers. i know that that for women it is preferred to perform prayers at home and in this case at the hotel but the problem is that 5 women will share a room and in this way it will be difficult to concentrate on Ibadat. I want to spent my time in as much Ibadat as i could. Moreover i wanted to know can i sleep in the masjid at night as well.
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

There is no doubt that it is better for a woman to pray at her home than in the mosque as we clarified in Fatwa 92531. This is because by praying at home she will be more concealed and far from crowding with men especially during Hajj when it becomes very crowded and men and women are nearly mixed everywhere.

However, this does not mean that a woman is prohibited from praying at the mosque. Therefore, it is permissible for you to pray at the mosque and stay therein all day long. You are also permitted to sleep in the mosque if you know that men cannot see you, like if you sleep in an area that is allocated for women to pray and men do not enter it or see it. According to our view which is the preponderant opinion of the scholars may Allaah have mercy upon them it is permissible to sleep in the mosque.

Finally, we advise you not to sleep in the mosque because of the crowdedness as we advise you to perform the prayer at your place of residence as this is more rewarding for you and you will be far from men looking at you.

Allaah Knows best.

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