WOMEN AND MOSQUES

Women can go to the mosque but they �should not apply perfume� (893), a privilege not denied to men who can afford it.  They were also told not to precede men in lifting their heads from prostration.  The translator explains that this hadIsrelates to a period when the Companions were very poor and could not afford proper clothing.  The instruction was meant to give them time to adjust their clothing before the women lifted their heads (hadIs 883 and note 665).

Muhammad commanded the believers to �take out unmarried women and purdah-observing ladies for �Id prayers, and he commanded the menstruating women to remain away from the place of worship of the Muslims� (1932).  But in a footnote explaining the standpoint of the Islamic sharI�ah with regard to women joining men in prayer, the translator says: �The fact is that the Holy Prophet deemed it preferable for women to say their prayers within the four walls of their houses or in the nearest mosque� (note 668).

author : ram swarup