Stay in Your Houses. Maryam As-Sulami Hijabi Fakhri

Transcription

1 Stay in Your Houses و قر ن ف ي ب ي وت ک ن Maryam As-Sulami Hijabi Fakhri April

2 In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful Allah Praise be to Him says in the Holy Qurán: Stay in your houses And do not display yourselves like that of the former Times of Ignorance. (33:33) This Quránic verse is primarily addressed to the wives of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him-. However, as many of the important Quranic commentaries (tafâsir) indicate, the same ruling applies to all Muslim women.[1] Women are told to stay at home. The word for stay in this verse is qarna, which is derived from the trilateral root q-r-r. Like most Arabic words, qarna has a cluster of meanings: to settle, to remain motionless, to be firm and steady, also to rest: to reside in peace. Thus, the word qarna contains within itself the notion of peace and stability. The peace that a woman can attain at home, she can find nowhere else. 2

3 How did the women of the first generations of Islam understand this verse of the Holy Quran? When we study the Sunnah, we find out that the wives of the Prophet and the female companions took this injunction very seriously. Qurtubi mentions in his important book of Quranic commentary (tafsïr) that when A isha May Allah be pleased with her recited this verse, she wept with such a weeping that her entire khimâr became wet. Qurtubi adds that when another wife of the Prophet, Sawdah May Allah be pleased with her was asked why she did not perform the Hajj or the Umrah along with her sisters, the virtuous lady replied: قد حججت واعتمرت وا مرني الل ه ان اقر في بيتي I have already performed the Hajj and the Umrah. As for now, Allah has commanded me to stay in my house. She remained in her home till the day of her death, when her lifeless body was buried in Medina.[2] Imam Shawkani mentions another narration: Once a group of women asked the Prophet peace be upon him, as to why women had been deprived of the great merits of jihad. The Blessed Prophet responded 3

4 that for a woman, staying at home and taking care of the needs of her husband and her children was itself a form of jihâd. Ibn Mas ud narrates that the Prophet peace be upon him said: من قعدت م ن ک ن في بيت ها فا ن ها ت درك عمل ال م ج اه دين ف ي سبي ل الله The woman who stays in her house attains the rewards of those warriors who fight in the path of Allah. (14/7) It goes without saying that for a woman, staying at home is also the highest form of concealment; for no hijab is better for her than the four walls of her house. Imam Al-Ghazzali mentions in his Ihyâ that the Prophet upon whom be peace once asked his daughter Fatimah the question: What is best for a woman? The blessed lady Fatimah May Allah be pleased with her responded: ا ن لا تری رج ل ا ولا يرا ها رج ل That she see no [non-mahram] man, and that no man see her. [3] Thirdly, for a Muslim woman, staying in the house is a form of worship. Ibn Mas ud May Allah be pleased with him narrates: 4

5 المرا ة عورة فاذ ا خرجت اس تش رفه ا الشيط ان واق رب م ا تکون م ن رح مة الل ه وهي في قع ر بي ت ها Woman is awrah. When she goes out [of the house], Satan delights in this. A woman is never closer to Allah than when she is in the innermost chambers of her house.[4] This is why, as numerous ahâdith indicate, a woman s prayer in her house is preferable to her praying in the mosque : صل اة المرا ة في بيت ه ا ا فضل م ن صلا ت ه ا ف ي ح ج رت ها وصل ات ها ف ي مخ دع ها اف ضل م ن صل ات ه ا ف ي بي ت ه ا ل ا تم نعوا ام اء ال ل ه م ن المس اج د وبيوت ه ن خي ر له ن A woman s prayer in her house is better than her prayer in the courtyard, and her prayer in her private bedchamber is better than her praying in the house Do not prevent the maidservants of Allah from the mosques; yet their houses are better for them. [Abu Dawüd] Al-Qâdi Abu-Bakr ibn al-arabi May Allah bless his soul relates a personal account of his journey to Nablus. In his Ahkâm-al-Qur an the Quranic Edicts, he writes: 5

6 I have visited in my life no less than a thousand towns; and I have seen no women more modest and more dignified than the women of Nablus. This Nablus is the very city in which the Friend of God, Abraham peace be upon him was thrown into fire; and by the grace of Allah, he was saved. During my stay in Nablus, I never saw a woman walking in the streets, except on the day of Friday. (Ahkam-al-Qurán 3/ ) Similarly, in Egypt, certain Egyptian scholars took this Quránic recommendation to the extreme. To the extent that some of the Egyptian scholars used to say: Three times a woman may go out, no more; First, to enter this world, she leaves her mother s womb. Second, she leaves her father s house for her husband s. And third, she leaves her husband s house to enter the grave. Extreme interpretations of the verse have nothing to do with the spirit of moderation that has ruled over the Muslim world throughout centuries. Islam is not the religion of hardship and its injunctions are practical. Islam does not prevent women from going out of the house, if there is a legitimate need (hâjah) for going out. 6

7 The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: ا ن الل ه قد ا ذ ن لک ن ا ن تخر ج ن ل حوائ ج ک ن [O women] Allah Himself has permitted you to go out [of your homes] to meet your needs.[6] Interestingly, this hadith was addressed to Sawdah May Allah be pleased with her who was eager to stay at home at all times. Similarly, in the Sunnah, we find countless examples of women going out of their houses to fulfil their legitimate needs. As many Sahih ahâdith indicate, women are permitted to pray in the mosque: Ai sha May Allah be pleased with her used to teach other women in the Prophet s mosque. She sought knowledge from the Blessed Prophet and transmitted it to Muslim men and women. During the time of the Prophet peace be upon him many women used to go to the mosque to ask their religious questions and to hear the Prophet s discourse. Similarly, if a woman wears proper hijab and avoids unnecessary interaction with non-mahram men, Islam does not prevent her from going out to seek knowledge, to purchase necessary items, to work in a halâl and shar i environment, or to visit her parents, relatives and friends. 7

8 When we study the Quran and Sunnah as a whole, we find out that the Quranic injunction Stay in your houses does not mean that women must live under house arrest. What this means is that family and home must be a woman s priority in life. A woman should never leave her motherly duties for the sake of worldly greed and material gain. She should never sacrifice her happiness in the two worlds for the sake of profit. She should pay more attention to the inside than to the outside, more attention to religion than to money, more attention to the family than to the world outside. Her house must be the place wherein she finds qarâr or peace. A woman staying in her house is neither idle nor unemployed. She is a wife, a mother, a trainer, a teacher, a nurse, a physician, a consultant, a keeper of secrets, a judge, and most importantly a worshipper of Allah. The house of a woman is a farm in which she must sow the seeds of godliness. Allah tells us to abide in our homes, but Allah also tells us what we must do at home: 8

9 And abide in your houses and do not display yourselves as was the display of the former times of ignorance. And establish prayer and give zakât and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity of sin. [33:33] There are many Christian and Buddhist nuns who leave their homes to live within the four walls of a monastery. For a Muslim woman, her home is her monastery. She can stay in her home and worship Allah, as if she were a married nun. If the marketplace is the periphery of human existence, the home is a sacred space. The home is the centre and the kernel of human existence. The Prophet s house was the extension of his Mosque. The House of Allah is itself the most sacred place on earth. When Allah tells us to stay in our houses, Allah also means that we must not live in the periphery, as most women do. We must not be attached to the world of colours 9

10 and appearances. We must live on the inside. We must be attached to our Inner Centre, to our Inner Home. We must worship Allah as if we see Him, and if we see Him not, verily He sees us. [1] Tafsir ibn Kathir (17:39), Tafsir Fath-al-Qadir of Ash-Shawkâni (4/278), Tafsir Ruh al Bayân (7/170), Tafsir Firuz Abâdi (18/4), Jami Ahkam al-qurân (14/179), Ad-Durr al-manthur (vol ) [2] Tafsir al-qurtubi (14/179) [3] Ihya Ulum al-din (kitab al-nikah, p 112) [4] Narrated by Ibn Hibbaan and Ibn Khuzaymah; classed as saheeh by al-albaani in al-silsilah al-saheehah, no