April 1994 Religion Not Culture

By Inas Hendawy and Farida EI-Hennawy

We thank our sister who wrote the article "Is It Simply Culture or Religion?" for criticizing what she thought of as bad things. We think that she had good intentions, although we disagree with her on many points we will be as objective and fair as we can.

During times of regular sisters' meetings, the door is always unlocked, but you need to pull it hard enough to open it. In other times, it is locked for security purposes, keeping in mind the serious accidents which happened last year. But you may ask your husband to unlock it from inside. This has nothing to do with your right to enter the mosque.

Sisters who can't pray, yet come with their husbands, may sit and talk in the lecture room, which has a door that can isolate it from the prayer room, preventing any nuisance. Eating in mosque is also allowed. Abdullah Ibn Al Harith (RAA) said that they used to eat bread and meat in the mosque in the era of the Prophet (PBUH)(Ibn Majah 2: 1097). Aggressive efforts are exerted to control cockroaches by regular thorough cleaning after each meeting. We will seek professional help for pest control soon. We need more real help, and less sarcasm from those who like to be just "visitors." Some sisters look through window blinds for their husbands to inform them of something Important. They never have bad intentions in doing so.

Our children are ours, and it is not practical to leave them with baby sitters each time we go to the mosque. In addition, we have to train them r to attend the mosque frequently. Children stay in the toy room, unless one of them needs r something from his/her mother. The Prophet (PBUH) carried his granddaughter on his back during prayers. (Nasa'y 2:45). He also shortened the prayers when he heard a child's cry, to avoid hurting his mother. (Bukhari 2:349) We have to make some sacrifice to raise truly Muslim generation.

During azan, we are urged to repeat what the mua'zzin says (person who says azan is called mua'zzin, while imam is the person who leads the prayers). Talking in addition to that repetition is not forbidden, and the hadeeth mentioned by the writer was about the imam giving Jumma' speech.

Women are allowed to pray behind men. Um Salama narrated that women used to leave when the Prophet (PBUH) finished prayers and be used to stay in his place for awhile to give them a chance to leave before men reach them. (Bukhari 2:352) Due to our mosque structure, when men come from wudu' section in the rear of the mosque, they can - without intention - see the women's backs, especially during ruku' and sujud. This makes women praying in men's section inappropriate at this time. Also some women may not respect hijab regulations (especially being not tight, or short).

Muslims (men or women) may pray separated from the imam by a partition if they can know his actions, either by seeing or hearing him, or seeing or hearing whoever is praying behind him. (Majmooa' by AI-Nawawy 4:201) So, praying in the women's section of our mosque is appropriate as long as they know (through the loud speaker) the imam's or men's actions. In fact the farther women stay away from men the better. Abu Hurayrah (RAA) said that the Prophet (PBUH) said: "The best of men's rows is the first, and the worst is the last; and the best of women's rows is the last and the worst is the first" (Muslim I:326).

At the end, we thank our sister for her criticism, we need constructive criticism. Please be of help in maintaining our mosque.