#501: Ruling on a Woman Leading a Congregational Prayer
QUESTION
” As salam Alaykum…A lady imam…It is an issue of controversy that a Lady lead a congregation (male & female) prayer . what’s ur opinion when she is the most learned among the congregation?”
ANSWER
Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
Alhamdulillāh.
There is no controversy among the Ulamā on whether or not it is permissible for a woman to lead males in Salāt.
As they are all in agreement on the fact that women should not lead men in Salāt.
Imām Ash-Shāfi’ī – rahimahullāh – said:
“Had a woman led men, women and male children in Salāt, the Salāt of the women is sound but the Salāt of the men and the children is not accepted.”
Ref: ‘Al-Umm’
Rather, what the Ulamā differed on is the ruling of women leading women in Salāt.
The Madh’hab of Imām Mālik is that women cannot lead women in Salāt.
The Mālikī Imām Ibn Rushd said in ‘Bidāyatu Al-Mujtahid’:
“And they differed on the Imamah of women (for women). While Ash-Shāfi’ī permitted that, Mālik forbade it.”
Ibn Qudāmah Al-Maqdisī – rahimahullāh – said in Al-Mughnī:
وقال مالك: لا ينبغي للمرأة أن تؤم أحدا لأنه يكره لها الأذان وهو دعاء إلى الجماعة فكره لها ما يراد الأذان له
“And Mālik said: it is not supposed on a woman to lead anyone because her making of Adhān is disliked, and it is nothing but a call to congregation. This implies that it is disliked for Adhān to be made to (people to congregate around her)”
But the other Imāms differ with Mālik.
Ibn Qudamah mentioned in the Mughnī that its permissibility was the position held by our Mothers Ā’ishah and Umm Salamah radiyallāhu ‘anhumā, ‘Atā, Al-Azwā’ī, Ath-Thawrī, Abū Thawr, Ash-Shāfi’ī, Is’hāq and Ibn Hanbal – rahimahumullāh.
It doesn’t matter whether or not she is the most learned in the congregation.
She may not lead the people in Salāt as long as they contain men.
Allāhu A’alam
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.
📚 IslamNode
