KR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kriX4ZR1Qus

This was a very poor video by Asrar Rashid.

I'm not one to relitigate the entire discussion on ikhtilat - the paper and counter by Muntasir Zaman and Zeeshan Chaudry is sufficient in this regard.

What I do want to point it here is a slew of factual errors, lack of knowledge, or expedient omission of other facts by Asrar, whose comments from the video are paraphrased here in italics and underlined:

1. Why don't you mention that the women has a separate entrance into al-Masjid al-Nabawi?

This is a common argument to prevent women coming to the mosque, as no separate door would have been been designated for them. This argument fails and falls apart on several of counts:

a. Many a time, even in new builds, a door isn't designated for them despite the capability of ity being installed.

b. Nowhere does it say that it is a condition for a woman's attendance in the mosque that they must enter from a separate door.

c. Ibn Umar is recorded to have never entered this door for the rest of his life. I mention his name for two reasons. One reason is that there are no records to my knowledge that this door was out of bounds for men when there were no women around. The second reason is to be mentioned later.

d. There are no records of the Prophet ever instructing the Makkans to do the same for al-Masjid al-Haram, or any other mosque. In fact, his precise words for his own mosque were not even a command; rather, he said: لو تركنا هذا الباب للنساء (If we were to leave this door for the women.)

e. Women entering the mosque building and the musalla area are two different things. Most mosque buildings nowadays are not the same as the Prophet's Mosque, where entry into the door would mean you would be standing in the musalla area. Therefore, Asrar's argument for most mosques in the West nowadays only works when in reference to the mosque building and not just the musalla area.

f. Besides, the purported prohibition on "ikhtilat" is a universal one and not restricted to mosque or a mosque complex. If a separate door is a stipulation for the permissibility of a woman entering a building external to her home, it should also apply to Muslim shops, marketplaces, and other establishments. Nobody in the history of Islam has ever made such a stipulation.

g. To the contrary, there are other fatawa that allow women to enter the mosque from the same door is men so long as the conditions of decency are upheld. The separate door for women was an ideal, not an obligation.

2. Why don't you mention that women would come with face veils?

This is not even the default Hanafi position. Had it been such a categorical Sunnah as Asrar is making out, he would be implicitly accusing the Hanafi School of having gone against the Sunnah on this matter, with no Hanafi scholar in the history of the Madhhab having corrected the Imams of the school. That is a grave accusation to make.

YouTube

Muslim Men & Women STOP Free Mixing | Shaykh Asrar Rashid

Drop your comments, questions or queries for Shaykh Asrar Rashid in the comments section below ⬇️

www.tgoop.com/KnowledgeRevival/15995

1.5K viewsIsmail, edited  May 14 at 02:56

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kriX4ZR1Qus

This was a very poor video by Asrar Rashid.

I'm not one to relitigate the entire discussion on ikhtilat - the paper and counter by Muntasir Zaman and Zeeshan Chaudry is sufficient in this regard.

What I do want to point it here is a slew of factual errors, lack of knowledge, or expedient omission of other facts by Asrar, whose comments from the video are paraphrased here in italics and underlined:

1. Why don't you mention that the women has a separate entrance into al-Masjid al-Nabawi?

This is a common argument to prevent women coming to the mosque, as no separate door would have been been designated for them. This argument fails and falls apart on several of counts:

a. Many a time, even in new builds, a door isn't designated for them despite the capability of ity being installed.

b. Nowhere does it say that it is a condition for a woman's attendance in the mosque that they must enter from a separate door.

c. Ibn Umar is recorded to have never entered this door for the rest of his life. I mention his name for two reasons. One reason is that there are no records to my knowledge that this door was out of bounds for men when there were no women around. The second reason is to be mentioned later.

d. There are no records of the Prophet ever instructing the Makkans to do the same for al-Masjid al-Haram, or any other mosque. In fact, his precise words for his own mosque were not even a command; rather, he said: لو تركنا هذا الباب للنساء (If we were to leave this door for the women.)

e. Women entering the mosque building and the musalla area are two different things. Most mosque buildings nowadays are not the same as the Prophet's Mosque, where entry into the door would mean you would be standing in the musalla area. Therefore, Asrar's argument for most mosques in the West nowadays only works when in reference to the mosque building and not just the musalla area.

f. Besides, the purported prohibition on "ikhtilat" is a universal one and not restricted to mosque or a mosque complex. If a separate door is a stipulation for the permissibility of a woman entering a building external to her home, it should also apply to Muslim shops, marketplaces, and other establishments. Nobody in the history of Islam has ever made such a stipulation.

g. To the contrary, there are other fatawa that allow women to enter the mosque from the same door is men so long as the conditions of decency are upheld. The separate door for women was an ideal, not an obligation.

2. Why don't you mention that women would come with face veils?

This is not even the default Hanafi position. Had it been such a categorical Sunnah as Asrar is making out, he would be implicitly accusing the Hanafi School of having gone against the Sunnah on this matter, with no Hanafi scholar in the history of the Madhhab having corrected the Imams of the school. That is a grave accusation to make.

BY KR